Edin Dzeko vs John Terry
Big battle of the game, the in form striker against one of the best centre backs in the world, although he is beginning to age, I think that Dzeko in his peak will beat Terry tonight, and they will need to keep him under wraps.
Franco Zuculini vs Michael Essien
Another big battle, this time in midfield where I think that Chelsea will be stronger. Other than Essien, they have Rakitic, Lampard and Mikel all in there and it looks a central base to the team and it will cause problems for Wolfsburg.
Daniel Feliciano's Prediction... Chelsea1-2Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg became the first club ever to win consecutive UEFA Champions League trophies after they beat Chelsea 1-0 tonight in Munich.
An error from Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech let Oscar Cardozo tap in his 31st goal of the season in all competitions and what proved to be the winner with 8 minutes left and left Wolfsburg fans celebrating their achievement after having only 10 men on the pitch for almost all of the second half. Ricardo Costa was the man who saw red, after a second yellow card just 3 minutes into the second half but Chelsea never looked like capitalizing on the situation and looked flat throughout the 90 minutes.
In one of the most dull Champions League finals in recent memory, probably only better than the AC Milan vs Juventus final, Wolfsburg took the spoils and in the process made history.
Portuguese wonder manager Daniel Feliciano had this to say after the match. "It is a fantastic achievement for me, and for the club. We have made all of our fans happier than they could have imagined four years ago before I took over. When I took over they won their first ever Bundesliga title, and now they have won four in a row, 2 German cups in a row and now 2 Champions League titles in a row. It's a fantastic achievement for the club and is easily one of the most proud moments of my career." Speculation has been rife over Portuguese manager Feliciano's future, with reports that he was preparing to resign amid specualtion Real Madrid were interested in hiring him.
European Champions Wolfsburg have announced plans for a new stadium.
Prager Park, named after one of the clubs legends, will cost around £82M and will have a capacity of just under 43,000. The naming of the stadium, is said to have infuriated manager Daniel Feliciano, the clubs most successful ever manager, and could prove to be the final straw in this love affair between the Portuguese manager and German club.
In other news for the club, Daniel Feliciano turned down the offer of the Greek FA to manager the Greece national team, as he feels he is "too young to manage part time." However 4 members of his backroom staff have announced their retirement with immediate effect. Luciano Spinosi, Karl-Heinz Feldkamp, Francis Smerecki and Michal Globisz have all left the club on good terms. Midfielder Rudiger Ziehl has also announced his intention to retire on the 30th June, the end of his current contract.
Wolfsburg manager Daniel Feliciano last night quashed all rumours of a move to Real Madrid. It was reported that he was upset with the treatment given to him by the board despite all he had done for the club.
It is reported that he was upset at the new stadium would not be named after him, and that after everything he had done, they would not fulfil his requests for a feeder club, as he felt he needed a bigger club than Offenbach to send his youngsters to as they were "too little of a team for the job in hand".
Despite all of these quotes, the fans were behind Feliciano, pleading with the board to do whatever they could to keep him, as he was their golden ticket to glory! One fan said "If he goes, we all go back to supporting a mid-table club, who has no luck and no respect from the giants of European football. He's done so much for the club, and the board repay him by telling him no. It's a disgrace!"
Daniel Feliciano said last night, that he would "say no more on the matter, all I want to do now is concentrate on qualifying for the second round of the German Cup." The Wolfsburg board were unavailable for comment yesterday.
Transfers - Summer 2012
Transfers In:
Sergio Canales - Racing - £3.4M Rafael - Manchester United - Loan/£1.6M
Transfers Out:
Daniel Baier - Hannover - Free Daniel Adlung - Free Transfer Michael Schulze - Free Transfer Julian Klamt - Free Transfer Sebastian Polter - Free Transfer Michael Lumpe - Free Transfer Denis Riemer - Free Transfer Zvjezdan Misimovic - Manchester United - £3.5M
With a few more coming and going still, what do you all think of my transfers?
Not a very good month results wise, only 2 wins, 1 in the league although we remain unbeaten in the league I would've expected at least 7 points from the opening 9 points available to us. We aren't scoring like we usually would and we are conceding more than we usually would which is something I hope to have fixed with my new signings in defense, Juan Forlin and Aleksandar Kolarov.
I think this group is one that we should definately win. We are by far the strongest team in the group with Villarreal the only other team that should really cause us any problems. PSV we should beat and I am also expecting to score quite a few goals against minnows Gaziantepspor.
Thanks Al, and well the problem with Rafael is that he wants to join but Man Utd don't want to sell him. I tried to get a loan with a view to buy, but they wanted £18.75M, and I only got £16M budget this season so I expect it to be about the same next season and I don't think he's worth that much. So I just took him on loan again, and I'll try and negotiate throughout the season for him, but at the moment seems unlikely.