Barcelona FC dominates UEFA Champions League
Tristan Lipe
Issue date: 5/29/09 Section: Sports
This afternoon, soccer players, international students and the occasional American who enjoys the sport gathered in Hiett's fourth-floor lounge for the pinnacle in club soccer competition around the world - the United European Football Association Champions League final.
Since many countries in Europe have their own premier leagues, the most dominant residing in England, Spain and Italy, UEFA, created this marathon tournament to pit the best clubs from all of Europe against each other.
The tournament starts every year in the summer, when teams from the less dominant leagues, usually Eastern European, battle for qualification in the tournament. Around the time when each team starts league play in the fall, the group rounds of the competition begin.
There are eight groups of four teams, and after each team plays each other twice, the top two teams from each group move on to the single elimination rounds.
For each of the first three single elimination rounds, two games are played between the teams, and the team with the better aggregate score moves on. Then the final, is just a single game at a neutral venue.
This year's venue was Rome, Italy, and the perennial Italian power Inter Milan looked to advance. However, in the first elimination round, they hit a road block - last year's champion from England, Manchester United. Manchester United won the trophy in Moscow last year, defeating fellow English club Chelsea in a penalty kick shootout. They were looking to be the first club to repeat the feat since Inter Milan won in 1989 and 1990. They made it back to the final this year after defeating Inter, Portuguese club FC Porto, and English club Arsenal.
On the other side of the bracket lay the previous year's opponent, Chelsea, another dangerous English club in Liverpool, and a young Spanish team sporting a first year coach and several young players, Barcelona.
Liverpool and Chelsea met in the quarterfinals, with Chelsea ultimately prevailing in one of the most exciting games ever seen, a 4-4 draw (they went through 7-5 on aggregate). They then met Barcelona, who had been steamrolling opponents up to that point, and had been running away with the Spanish league.
Since many countries in Europe have their own premier leagues, the most dominant residing in England, Spain and Italy, UEFA, created this marathon tournament to pit the best clubs from all of Europe against each other.
The tournament starts every year in the summer, when teams from the less dominant leagues, usually Eastern European, battle for qualification in the tournament. Around the time when each team starts league play in the fall, the group rounds of the competition begin.
There are eight groups of four teams, and after each team plays each other twice, the top two teams from each group move on to the single elimination rounds.
For each of the first three single elimination rounds, two games are played between the teams, and the team with the better aggregate score moves on. Then the final, is just a single game at a neutral venue.
This year's venue was Rome, Italy, and the perennial Italian power Inter Milan looked to advance. However, in the first elimination round, they hit a road block - last year's champion from England, Manchester United. Manchester United won the trophy in Moscow last year, defeating fellow English club Chelsea in a penalty kick shootout. They were looking to be the first club to repeat the feat since Inter Milan won in 1989 and 1990. They made it back to the final this year after defeating Inter, Portuguese club FC Porto, and English club Arsenal.
On the other side of the bracket lay the previous year's opponent, Chelsea, another dangerous English club in Liverpool, and a young Spanish team sporting a first year coach and several young players, Barcelona.
Liverpool and Chelsea met in the quarterfinals, with Chelsea ultimately prevailing in one of the most exciting games ever seen, a 4-4 draw (they went through 7-5 on aggregate). They then met Barcelona, who had been steamrolling opponents up to that point, and had been running away with the Spanish league.
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