April 2012 - All Aboard the Rollercoaster

The month sees us scheduled for 5 fixtures, three of which are league matches, the FA Cup Final against Everton, and the second leg of our Champions Cup quarter final against Spurs. If we managed to overcome Spurs, the schedule will expand to include the two legs of the semi final. We have only one injury right now, that being the broken arm of Balanta, from which he is unlikely to see any further action this season.

Tottenham (H) Champions Cup Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Spurs arrive at Loftus Road with us favourites to win this match. However given the importance of this match, they are sure to fight all they can to come away victorious.

Unsurprisingly the match started as another midfield battle with both sides finding it hard to work a way through the defence of the other team. Spurs had a couple of off target long shots in the first 10 minutes. The first real chance of the match came in the 11th when we managed to work space for Ephraim to get free in the area, but his shot was pushed for a corner by the keeper. The match returned to being a tough midfield battle. The next incident of note was Puygrenier going down in the 21st minute with a head injury, after a clash with Crouch, who I guess must have a concrete head. There then followed a period of Spurs pressure, which we managed to hold off, with Lung jr making a great save in the 31st just getting his hand to the ball when Crouch tried to chip over him. This was getting quite worrying, and when we did get forward, we were either giving the ball away or being fouled in the midfield to stop our charge goalward. Lung jr had to make another good save in the 34th minute, with the pressure mounting on us. I was disappointed with how complacent we were looking. It therefore came as a huge surprise when we took the lead in the 39th minute after Zigoni's shot rebounded off the keeper, dropping to Ephraim who cooly slotted the ball home. After the goal our passing at least started to look better, and in the 44th minute Jimenez went very close from a free kick, some 40 yards out, only just going outside the post. Spurs were really starting to lose their composure, and in the 2nd minute of added time, a huge mistake by Hutton, allowed Fatih Yucel to steal the ball and hammer home our 2nd goal of the match from point blank range. That brought the half to a close with us having a 2-0 lead.

I was quite stunned to find us leading by two goals, because for the majority of the first half we had rarely looked as if we could score, and were having a tough time holding Spurs off. The last few minutes of the half, we looked every bit as good as I know we can be. In a way I'd been looking forward to giving them a hard time for how poor they'd been playing, but now all I could do was tell them I was pleased, and to now go out and complete the job. It was no surprise that Spurs came out really trying everything to find a way back into the match. We were keeping our composure well, and defending with confidence, with Spurs largely firing way of target. In the 62nd minute Palacios managed to get a long shot on target, with an extraordinary shot, which Lung jr pushed over the bar. In spite of their domination, Spurs were looking overly desperate, making some really strange errors when shooting. As the half wore on they started to get nearer and started making Lung jr have to make a lot of good saves. Near the end of the match we started to look a bit more controlled, finally pushing forward a bit, but never quite looking dangerous. Spurs kept fighting to the end but just couldn't find the shot with which to score, and we ran out 2-0 winners.

I'm delighted to get the result, but this was a very strange performance, with us only looking any good at going forward for the few minutes at the end of the first half. How we managed to hold on and not concede is almost a miracle. I think Lung jr was the real key, putting in a man of the match performance. Spurs dominance is illustrated by their 29 shots to our 9, but only 8 of those were on target, with 13 completely off target. That has to be about our worst ever victory, with only a few minutes of top class attacking on show. Admittedly our defending had been very good, with our keeper putting in a top class performance. That really isn't the way I like to win, but I'll always take that over losing. This now means we are through to the Champions Cup semi final, which is quite astonishing. There is some bad news from this match, with Puygrenier's head injury seeing him out for about a week, and he has also reached the yellow card limit for the tournament, so will miss the first leg of the semi final. He is quite understandably upset about this, as he will also the miss playing in the FA Cup semi final as well, due to the injury.

Elsewhere Man United were surprisingly beaten by Fulham, 1-0 at Old Trafford, and Arsenal were held to a draw at home by Liverpool. When these results are announced over the tannoy the ground is nearly blown apart with the roar of delight from the crowd. This now means that only Arsenal have a mathematical chance of beating us, sitting 9 points behind with 3 games to play. I'm quite astonished because I felt both would win those matches. The Man United result in particular is shock..

Result: 2-0 (3-1 aggregate)

The draw for the semi final stages will see us play against Inter, which will be another huge test for us. The other semi final sees Ajax take on Juventus, with those two teams respectively putting Barcelona and Real Madrid out of the competition.

Blackburn (H) Premier League

Blackburn arrive at Loftus Road, with us clear favourites to win this match. Rovers have struggled at time this season, finding themselves now sitting in 13th place and feeling confident of avoiding relegation after beating Bolton, the bottom team in their last match. That was however their first win for over a month. This is definitely a fixture I need to try and get my players fired up for to make sure they're not complacent, as this is our opportunity to seal the Premiership title. When I arrive at the ground I see the trophy waiting to be awarded to us, should we manage to achieve the result required to seal the title today. It's quite a scary moment to see it sitting there, with our name all but written on it. The ground is absolutely packed out, as it has been all season. When the players go out onto the pitch for the warm up they receive a huge welcome from the fans. The atmosphere inside the ground is amazing, it's bubbling like a cauldron, with the sound welling up inside the compact stadium.

The match started with going immediately forward, with Zigoni seeing his shot from inside the area, go just over the crossbar, with 20 seconds on the clock. At least none of our players were looking complacent, but some of our passing was not looking overly confident, which gave Blackburn a chance in the 7th minute, with the shot pulled just wide of the post. In the 14th minute we were completely undone allowing Kalinic in to place the ball in the net to put Blackburn ahead. Our defending had been shocking, allowing him to move into space at will. Our players finally started to show a lot more purpose, with Blackburn having to defend doggedly, but this didn't seem to last long, with Blackburn holding firm and making us look fairly average for a while. The players seemed to going from nervousness to being motivated depending on who had the ball and where on the pitch it was. You could also feel the tension within the crowd, because they would be so disappointed if we lost and failed to life the trophy this evening. In the 41st minute though, we finally put a really good move together with Rafa putting a great ball over the top for Ephraim on the left side. As he reached the left edge of the area, he passed to Scocco now running forward into the area, and he slotted it home from 6 yards out. You could feel the mood in the crowd change, as they started to get behind the team urging them on. Oddly we had more players looking nervous after this, with Blackburn immediately going on the attack from the restart, and winning a corner. From the cleared corner, Zigoni received the ball on the right, and ran forward, putting a speculative cross into the box, which a Blackburn defender neatly headed into his own goal to suddenly give us the lead in the 44th minute. The noise in the stadium was astonishing, and there's a small part of you, that can't help feel sorry for the player putting the ball in his own net. That slice of luck settled the nerves within the team, and so the half finished with us leading 2-1.

This had been another very strange performance from the team, having shown the odd good bits of skill, but seemed to be finding it hard to break Blackburn down. Our lead owed quite a bit to luck, with the own goal being scored just before the end of the half. I sent the players back out giving them encouragement, hoping they would make a bit of a better showing of things this half. I was immediately disappointed to see Nasuti looking complacent when they went back out. In the 52nd minute we nearly paid the price for some more poor defending with Steele pushing the ball over the bar from a Kalinic shot from within the area. In the 56th minute Fatih Yucel had a chance from just outside the area, but oddly thumped the ball straight at the keeper. In the 57th he had another chance, but his first touch let him down, and I realised he was looking complacent, which was very disappointing. We were now much more in control of the match, but really failing to take advantage of this. Not long after the match turned into a really dismal foul fest, making the rest of the time pretty awful to watch. I was somewhat mythed that Rafa was booked after committing 3 fouls, and yet a couple of Blackburn players were able to happilly commit several more without even as much as word. I begin to feel my DMC's are being picked on. In the last few minutes, with the crowd starting to sing "We Are The Champions," Blackburn really pushed hard, but could not find a way through, allowing us to run out 2-1 winners.

I was deliriously happy, not particularly caring for the moment whether we'd been good bad or indifferent. This result meant we had secured the premiership title for the first time in the club's history. The fans were chanting so loud I thought we'd all go deaf. I thought lifting the FA Cup had been amazing, but to parade around our home ground showing off the premier league trophy was something else. I was delighted that the hard work put in by all the players had paid off. I was quite taken aback by the praise given to me by our most consistent performer during the season, Simon Kjær. I can't praise the players enough, but there's still silverware to play for, so our full celebrations will have to wait a while. From the first team squad the only player whose morale is not showing as superb is Zigoni, probably due to being substituted during this match. I have never seen the morale of the team so high. I now need to bring them back to earth quickly and prepare for our FA Cup semi final clash with Everton in 4 days times.

Result: 2-1

In the cold light of day, we had played better in this match than we had against Spurs in the preceding match. Whether we deserved to get the win, I don't know, but it goes a long way to forgetting about our loss to Arsenal in the League Cup.

Everton (N) FA Cup Semi Final

We travel again to Wembley for the 3rd time this season, to take on The Toffees, finding ourselves as clear favourites. The bookies give Everton little chance of coming away victorious. I know however that we can't take them for granted, and if we show any complacency they have the firepower to make us pay for that. Everton arrive off the back of 3 straight losses, but this doesn't seem to have dented their morale too much, so they will surely be up for this match. In the warmup for the match my assistant sees no signs of any player being complacent, so I tell the players to do this for the fans.

The match started as a pretty turgid affair with both teams struggling to work an opening, with Everton giving Steele an easy catch from a long shot early on. Both teams were passing really well, but it seemed to be heading nowhere, until the 17th minute when Ephraim picked out Scocco at the edge of the area. He moved across the face of the area to get some space and hammered the ball into the top corner of the net to give us the lead, with our first shot of the game. Everton became a little more attacking, which started to open the game up a bit more, but it was still a struggle. In the 26th minute I was upset when Everton suddenly produced a goal out of nowhere, after a lucky bounce off one of our defenders, to level the scores. In the 36th minute I couldn't believe we didn't take the lead, when first Scocco hit the keeper who managed to recover quickly enough to make an outstanding diving save to stop Jimenez's follow up shot. In the 42nd minute Everton scored a really silly goal, with Steele beaten at the near post from a very tight angle from 20 yards out. I can't believe he's allowed that to go in, as it seemed impossible for anyone to score from there. We pushed forward but failed to really create anything before the half finish with us trailing 2-1.

I was furious that we were trailing, especially as the 2nd goal was such a silly one to concede. I told the players I expected to see more from them before sending them back out. We were just looking awful, missing our passes, and doing some really strange things. At one point Jimenez got in behind the defence, and instead of shooting, he inexplicably tried to pass to someone else, rather than shoot. Things got worse in the 63rd minute when Rodwell curled in a shot from 30 yards out to give Everton a 2 goal lead. I was shocked by how poor we were for the rest of the match, not really showing the urgency we needed. We were quite simply awful, with the match finishing with us losing 3-1.

I was very disappointed with both the result and the performance from the team. I can't remember the last time we'd been this poor. The scoreline flattered Everton, as they weren't that much better than us on the day. I'm left rather shocked after that very dismal display. From our side there was only one good thing, that being Scocco's goal. It was like we'd sent poor imitations of the real players out onto the field. For the first time since the early games of the season, Kjær had a poor game. It seems that after clinching the title the players have already gone on holiday.

Result: 1-3

Inter (A) Champions Cup Semi Final 1st Leg

We travel to the Giuseppe Meazza in Milan as clear underdogs for this match. Inter are packed full of talent, but hopefully we can put in the same kind of performance that we did against Valencia in the first leg, grabbing a couple of vital away goals. On the whole their side is not based around pace, although their full backs are very quick. I'm sure the team will not be complacent about this match.

The match started with us taking the attack to Inter, with Grenier putting a header just over the bar with a minute on the clock. In the 4th minute the keeper had to save a free kick from Fatih Yucel, taken from just outside the area. In the 8th minute the keeper had to make a full length diving save to keep a shot from Jimenez out. Inter were looking totally devoid of ideas when going forward. However in the 15th minute they suddenly produced a goal out of nowhere to take the lead, with the ball somehow managing to go right through Nasuti. Suddenly Inter were all over us, forcing a couple of good saves from Lung jr. In the 21st minute we were back on level terms with Ephraim putting a diagonal ball into the area for Jimenez to run onto keeping his composure to slot the ball home. In the 25th minute Zigoni was put through clear of the defence, but saw his shot saved by the keeper. In the 36th minute I thought we'd taken the lead with Sunny smashing a shot from 25 yards into the net. However the assistant erroneously disallowed the goal as offide, even though I'm sure the player in question did not touch the ball, which really annoyed me. Just to rub the insult in, Inter took the lead again in the 43rd minute with a 30 yard shot into the top corner. In the last moments of the half, Kjær put a header from a corner just over the bar, bringing the half to a close with us 2-1 behind.

I was pleased with the performance the players had put in, but felt very cheated with the goal being disallowed. I told the players they could win this, and sent them back out, hoping they would take this to heart. When Sunny was hacked down from behind, causing a potential knee injury in the 49th minute, with no yellow card being shown, I began to feel things were not going our way at all tonight. Later that minute Fatih Yucel had the ball in the 6 yard box, but somehow the keeper managed to deflect his shot for a corner. In the 58th minute Jimenez got through one on one with the keeper, but shot straight at him. Inter where all over us again for the next few minutes, but there was incredible magic about to happen. In the 66th minute Grenier managed to dribble by a couple of players down the right to the byeline and fired in a cross, which Zigoni met with his head at the near post to direct it in, giving us an equaliser.

I have found a really weird bug at this point. When Zigoni scored he was fouled, taking a slight knock requiring the physio to tend to him. When Inter kicked off he just stood on the half way line until the ball finally went out of play. Definitely one to post up for SI to check out. Fortunately it didn't make any difference as we didn't go on an attack.

After that we had a period of possession, knocking the ball about with ease, searching for gaps, before Inter tried to push forward again. In the 80th minute Cambiasso made a clumsy tackle on Jimenez, receiving a very dubious looking straight red card. Maybe things were looking up for us in this match after all. In the 83rd minute Grenier wasted a great opportunity to score, but put the ball wide of the target. With the clock ticking down it was now clear that Inter were now more intent on trying to hold onto the draw. In the remaining time it was us pushing forward, wondering quite how we didn't find a goal, with Grenier heading over, Fatih Yucel having a close range shot saved, right at the end. The match came to an end with the scores level at 2-2.

I should be delighted that we managed to claim a 2-2 draw here, but I feel we could have won this. I'm still pleased with the players, for the effort they'd shown in pulling the scores back level twice in the match. The result gives an advantage in the tie at this point, having scored two away goals. After our dismal effort in the match against Everton, this was a delight to watch, in a very entertaining match, in which we could feel unlucky not to have come away with a win. The fans are still pleased with this result, as they were very pessimistic before the match. I'm also pleased to find that the knock Sunny took, has not caused an injury, so he remains fit and ready for our next match. According to the match report Cambiasso hacked Jimenez down with two feet, confirming what I'd suspected, that the 3D display is not always showing everything correctly. Also the disallowed goal apparently came off an offside player, but that's not what was shown in the 3D view.

Result: 2-2

Aston Villa (A) Premier League

We arrive at Villa Park as marginal favourites for this match. As we have now confirmed the league title as ours, I have made quite a few changes to the squad to rest some key players, but I still feel we ought to have enough quality in the side to fight for the win.

The match started fairly even in terms of possession, but Villa were finding it far too easy for my liking to create shots, with Steele having to make a a number of saves to keep them out. As the half went on we began to make it a little harder for them to get through out defence, but it was still tough for us to work a way through them. In the 33rd minute, shortly after telling the players to pass into space, Laure passed the ball to Buzsaky, and he advanced to just outside the area, striking a beautiful shot into the top corner of the net to open the scoring, although it took a slight deflection off Scocco who gets the credit for the goal. Villa unsurprisingly started to pile the pressure on, with Steele having to make a great save in the 39th minute, and in the 41st they hit the crossbar with a header from a free kick. Steele had to make another couple of good saves in the remainder of the half to deny Villa again, bringing the half to an end with us leading 1-0.

I was pleased that we'd managed to grab the lead, but it was worrying that Villa had taken 15 shots to our 3 in that half. I decided to try and encourage the players to go back out and see the result out, hopefully with a more convincing display defensively. It was clear very early on that the situation was not any different, with Villa pushing us hard again, and we finally succumbed in the 57th minute with them scoring an equaliser. I was really annoyed when we conceded from a corner in the 63rd minute to go behind, after allowing a Villa player the easiest of headers. It was totally pathetic defending. After that we managed to get forward a bit more, but we never truly looked like finding the equaliser, and Villa were still looking far more likely to score again than us. The match finished with us losing 2-1.

This result was very disappointing, largely because we'd been so poor at dealing with the pace of Villa. It's hard to pin-point exactly why in this match we were so poor. We also struggled very badly to create chances ourselves. This was a pretty poor performance, but it was very annoying to concede the winner from a corner. I can only think that after winning the league, a lot of the players have pretty much switched off. This was only our 2nd defeat in the league, and our first away from home.

Result: 1-2

Inter (H) Champions Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg

Inter arrive at Loftus Road as marginal favourites, although after the first leg, we currently hold a marginal advantage. I have picked exactly the same squad for this match, as we played in the first leg. I fully expect the team to be up for this match, and like the fans feel fairly optimistic about our chances of progressing to the final.

The match started with even possession, but Inter were the team creating chances. I was worried that our defending had looked very scrappy at a couple of corners. In the 15th minute Lung jr had to make the first save of the match. We'd not even managed to fire off a single shot. The match opened up a bit more after that, although Inter were still looking more dangerous. We did at least start to create shots, though not really looking very dangerous. In the 37th minute Inter struck the post from a long shot. In the 38th Lung jr made an outstanding save, as Inter started stepping up the pace. In the 40th minute Curri fired a ball over the top for Jimenez to run onto clear of the defence, and hammered the ball home as he entered the area, to give us the lead against the run of play. In the 42nd minute Lung jr made another stunning save, this time from a close header. We managed to hold out till half time still leading 1-0.

I was pleased that we'd managed to grab the lead, which means Inter need 2 goals to win the tie. I am however a bit concerned about how much defending we'd had to do, and how panicked things had seemed at times. I sent the team back out telling them not to get careless. We started the half under pressure which started to increase as it went on. Somehow though we were managing to keep them at bay. Things became very anxious in the 85th minute when Inter finally managed to break us down and score an equaliser. After this Inter started throwing everything at us, trying to find the winner they required. We really struggled to hold on, but somehow we did. There was 4 minutes of added time, which worryingly extended into a 7th minute for no apparent reason, with Inter having several corners during this Fergie time. Fortunately we held on to get the 1-1 draw.

I was pleased with the result, as it was enough to see us through to the final on away goals. Our performance though was pretty poor, being nowhere near as good as we'd been in the first leg of the tie. We were very lucky to get away with a draw as our defence had looked very ordinary, and our passing had been very poor. For some reason this month, apart from the first leg of this tie, we've not performed particularly well. I think the only reason we got away with this was Inter's poor finishing, having 29 shots to our 7. Their is some bad news, because Kjær was booked in this match, which was sadly justified for the foul in question, but very out of character for him, bringing him to 3 yellow cards in the tournament, meaning he will miss the final, which is a tradegy for him and a big blow to us. The referee had a very average game, declining to send off one of the Inter players in the 2nd half, who committed a 2nd bookable offence on a par with Kjær's foul. We also had a few players who were lucky not to also be booked.

Result: 1-1 (3-3 aggregrate - QPR win on away goals)

The following day our opponents are confirmed as Dutch Champions Ajax.

Tottenham (H) Premier League

Spurs arrive at Loftus Road with us marginal favourites for the match. After our recent performances I have little idea what will happen. Since confirming the title we've rarely put in a good performance.

The first 15 minutes of the match were were characterised by our passing letting us down, Spurs committing a lot of fouls, and our defence doing a superb job of stopping them break through us. The only shots in that time were a couple of free kicks we had from distance. In the 19th minute Scocco received the ball at the edge of the area, and cracked a shot, which the keeper only just managed to tip over the bar, actually deflecting over off it. The match then became a pretty horrible midfield battle with few chances created. At about 40 minutes Spurs then seemed to be able to do no wrong, with every pass being pin-point, even delicate little lobs to players on the wing, which I found odd, given it's supposed to be gusty. However we managed to hold out, even from a couple of corners which we seemed to defend none too convincingly. In the 2nd minute of added time, we managed to clear the ball from a corner, with Curri setting Jimenez free with a great ball over the top just inside the Spurs half. He then advanced forward on goal, beating the keeper to give us the lead. The half came to end shortly after the restart with us leading 1-0.

I was quite pleased with what I'd seen, with this being one of our better recent performances. I sent the players back out giving them encouragement to go on and see the match out properly. Despite us starting the half looking good, we got done against the run of play, with Lung jr making a great save, only for the ball to drop for Defoe to have an easy shot to level the scores. It was disappointing, because Spurs had not deserved to get a goal. In the 62nd minute Crouch managed to get his head to a ball that looped just over the keeper, but I'm really angry, as I feel he should have been able to save that. In the 64th minute I was perplexed when the Spurs keeper, with lower pace, was somehow able to run a further distance than Fatih Yucel to beat him to kick the ball clear. After this we really pushed forward, creating chances, but we just couldn't get the ball beyond the Spurs keeper. The match came to an end with us losing 2-1.

I was really disappointed that we'd lost this match, as this had been one of our better performances recently. Spurs really didn't deserve to win this match. For no reason I can understand, we suddenly can't win a match to save our lives, and now started losing. I can only think the players have lost their focus a bit.

Result: 1-2

Monthly Roundup

A rollercoaster of a month, with some huge highs and some lows too. Winning the league and managing to scrape through to the Champions Cup final are the highs, for which I should be absolutely delighted. However the disappointing loss to go out of the FA Cup and the losses in the league after it was won, have caused some concern. After securing the league title, we seem to have switched off apart from our tremendous performance in the first leg of the Champions Cup semi final, where we should have taken even better advantage of the situation. I believe that we became complacent and it was very hard to get the team to perform, apart from that one match, where we were firm underdogs.

The league table shows that there are 3 teams with a chance of taking 2nd place. I'm pleased that we managed to secure the title when we did, even though that seems to have had the effect of us turning in some poor performances.

In our poorest month form wise, the best two players were Jimenez and Scocco, both scoring 3 goals each from 5 matches. It's just about impossible to seperate them, as they were about our only players to show good consistency during the month.

Given how we played in the 2nd leg of the Champions Cup tie against Inter, I'm quite amazed that we managed to hold on and get through to the final. In the final we will take on Ajax, who were crowned as Dutch champions, a match for which we are slight favourites, taking place at the Allianz-Arena in Munchen.

Besides the Champions Cup final we have one other fixture to play, the last league fixture of the season against Man United. I'm hoping we can put in a good performance, to keep our morale up for facing Ajax.