The Burning Boats...

There's an awe-inspiring story of the famed explorer Hernando Cortez that I can never forget. He reached the shores of Mexico in 1519. Wanted to conquer the land for the Spanish empire. But the hurdles were too big. A  mighty empire of Aztecs as enemies, deadly diseases, and scarce resources in a totally foreign land. As he marched with his army for the battle, he sent one of his captains back to the shore with a single order, "Burn our Boats." I love that attitude.

When Chelsea's famous Old Guard marched on to the Stamford Bridge turf on Wednesday night, they perfectly knew what future awaited them. They knew that, their boats were burning, and that there was no way back. Fight for survival, or die in the war.Simple. And they delivered. Sometimes, it's better to be under pressure, rather than coasting through everything.

John Terry said before the game it could be one of their greatest nights, and spot on he was. This was a performance that defined what Chelsea are all about. Simply refusing to die, refusing to give up on their long cherished dream of conquering Europe. Chelsea's golden generation knew this would be their last chance, a final onslaught in their quest for the Holy Grail, that is the Champions League. And they fought heroically, for the whole of those astonishing 120 minutes. John Terry, Mr Chelsea as he most certainly is, would lead the way majestically, miraculously just 3 weeks after a surgery on what had looked like a serious knee injury. Didier Drogba, who turned 34 days ago, battled like a monster for the whole of two hours, never allowing a moment's peace to all 3 defenders who formed Napoli's rearguard.

Let's give Napoli the credit they are due, though, for making this tie a memorable one. Any Italian team would try to sit on the two-goal lead they brought from Naples. But then, Napoli hardly play like an old-fashioned Italian team. They aren't afraid of the giants, and rightfully so. Their "Holy Trinity" is one of the best forward-lines in Europe, bettered perhaps only by Messi and Co. Napoli are quite an exceptional team, they move at a breakneck speed, they make the game thrilling, without doubt they went down fighting.

Walter Mazzari was right with his philosophy, despite the defeat. They knew they could score in London, leaving Chelsea to score atleast three. What he would not have thought, was that Chelsea would be up for the challenge. This was the Chelsea radically different from the one that fell lamely in Naples. Fired up for the occasion, ever since Terry put them ahead on aggregate, you could sense there would be no stopping them. Gokhan Inler's brilliantly taken goal, even though easily the finest of the night, merely delayed the inevitable. Chelsea would not be beaten on the night. There was far too much determination in them to be knocked out.

These are the nights that make football fans' lives worth living for. These are the nights that make Football the "Beatiful Game" that it is. Every club has their own, and this one perhaps, was Chelsea's greatest. There's far too much work yet to be done, all the hullabaloo will count for nothing if Chelsea can't get their faltering season back on track at the end. But this was a night, that galvanized the club, which days ago, looked a broken unit. Stamford Bridge erupted like never before, and it's likely to keep roaring again. The writing on the wall is there for all to see. Chelsea's Golden Generation are out on their final assault. They might not be around for long now, but they're far from finished. Not by a long way.

Is this the start of a revival for the Men from the Bridge?

Bilbao’s supremacy or United’s frailties?

After a hiatus for more than 2 months, Football Freaks finally returns.. Akash Nair takes a look back at the hugely entertaining clash between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao two days ago, as he praises the project Marcelo Bielsa has undertaken at the Basque club....

I will confess now and here that I am a fan of Marcelo Bielsa. This is not a consequence of Athletic Club de Bilbao’s triumph over my beloved United, but a gradual appreciation from the time I first saw him manage a side – Chile against Spain at the world cup, the only match where Spain was threatened.

Now coming to the original question – was it Bilbao’s supremacy or United’s frailties? The answer in my opinion is a combination of both.  Disagree? Agree? In any case read on !!

Athletic club de Bilbao and ‘Vertical Football’:

Believe it or not, Athletic club de Bilbao under Marcelo Bielsa is not your typical Spanish team, it’s an English team with technically good players. How many times do you see a muscular tall centre forward in a Spanish team? They don’t strut around with their tiki-taka and don’t obsess over possession of the ball. They follow a philosophy called "Vertical Football". Many of you may be familiar with it. There is tremendous importance attached to winning the ball high up the pitch (a tactic employed by Pep Guardiola and  AVB) and then launching quick attacks, either through the middle or with the help of galloping fullbacks who occupy the space left by the inverted wingers.

Bielsa’s start at Bilbao wasn’t a great one, but whose is? He has created a team which suits his tactical methodologies to the hilt. Nimble-footed young players with great stamina who never stop running. His training routines are arduous and revolutionary with a maddening attention to detail. Enough drooling over Bielsa and Bilbao! So what did they do when they played at old Trafford? Simple, they pressed hard....Really hard. Fernando Llorente closed down both Smalling and Evans with effective ease. At times, you could see Evans or Smalling high up the pitch. The reason was a single striker left one free defender who could move ahead with the ball. The same happened at the other end. But the problem for United was Hernandez and Rooney aren't habituated to the pressing game Bilbao play. Rooney drops deep and hence his marker is usually the CDM of the opposing team, whereas Hernandez sometimes just can't keep himself outside the offside zone, let alone pressurizing defenders (oh Tevez .. I remember thou!). Welbeck would have been a better choice since he had done the closing down job well at Anfield and in many other games this season.

This left a Centre-back free and on top of that, Rooney’s tracking back was pathetic in the first half, which left their deep-lying midfielder free to roam ahead into the United half. Bilbao kept it simple, played at high tempo, didn’t give United centre-backs and midfielders any time on the ball and United quite evidently struggled. Bilbao’s system though, has certain chinks in the armor. All it needs to exploit Bilbao is a midfielder who is adept at dribbling (Modric), leave one or two of their players in the lurch and find vast amounts of space behind their defenders and a pacey striker to latch onto them.  Unfortunately in Giggs and Jones, we didn't have a specialist midfield pairing and their positional naivety was exposed very badly.

Do United miss a certain Portuguese?

Okay. Most of you know Manchester United’s midfield conundrum like multiplication tables. What I would like to focus is the change affected by the introduction of Carrick and Anderson in midfield. Anderson's energy helped us launch 3 counter attacks while Carrick's passing range nullified Bilbao’s pressing threat. Those counters were expertly bottled by Chicharito who should have scored at least one.

SAF favors the 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 . the problem with a midfield two is that when you play against a midfield 3,  you are outnumbered. Add to that, 3 young ones hunting you down like a pack of wolves .. you are in for a nightmare. United’s midfield 2 consists of a runner and a passer. At present united have 2 passers (Carrick, Scholes) while our runners are absent ( Cleverly, Anderson, Fletcher ). One of the best examples  of a perfect 2 is Modric(passer) and Parker(runner). So now you know the present predicament at Manchester United.

Coming to title of this section. The Portuguese we are missing badly as most have guessed is not Cristiano Ronaldo, but the mercurial Carlos Queiroz. SAF, I will have to concede was never tactically brilliant in Europe. We have many occasions that this has come to the fore .. most notably the 2 finals against Barcelona ,  semifinal against Milan and matches against Real Madrid. Ferguson, combined with the tactical acumen of Queiroz then adopted a shape which loosely resembled that of Juventus of Marcelo Lippi. With Scholes playing as the regista(deep lying playmaker .. like Pirlo) with a midfield destroyer along with him (Hargreaves). Sadly we don’t have such players around and nor do we have Carlos Queiroz around.

What United need to do is play a 3 in Europe till we get the perfect combination, but again we rarely adopt such a shape in the league. We did play a midfield 3 against Bayern in quarters, but that is the only match which lingers in recent memory.

Concluding my piece, it would be interesting to see what Ferguson does at St. James' next week. With an away trip to Wolves looming, I don’t see him playing a strong side. I wouldn't want us to compromise the league in any case. Manchester United are in a transitional period. The sooner we come out of it, the better for us. As for Athletic club de Bilbao, I hope Biesla holds onto his stars. The legendary club’s rise will do a world of good to the Spanish league and Europe in general.