UEFA Champions League – Roma vs. Bayern Munich – Half Time Report (Part1)
Louis Van Gaal, the coach of the German side Bayern Munich had to prove a point as he was lagging behind in the Bundesliga. It has been assessed that basically his side were under performing because of his squad was very tired. The German
side looked to be lethargic because most of their players were a part of the FIFA World Cup 2010 and because the German team managed to reach the semi final stages of the tournament that gave the players very little time to rest.
The Italian team Roma looked to be “in trouble” while playing for their local league title in the Italian Serie A. They suffered a few shocking defeats as the season started but last year when they managed to qualify for the UEFA Champions
League, the Italian side celebrated after the game as they were happy that they would finally compete in an European competition. However, till now they have not managed to impress even though they are expected to do wonders while at home.
The coach of the home side, Claudio Ranieri was playing a line-up that was quite unexpected. The best striker on their side, Francesco Totti was rested and the newly signed Adriano was also not played in the starting 11. Julio Sergio was
the one guarding between the two poles as a goal stopper as John Arne Riise was the one who featured on the left flank as a full back. Philippe Mexes was seen on the opposite right flank as the Argentinean centre back Nicolas Andres Burdisso was accompanied
by Marco Cassetti in his favourite centre back position.
Claudio Ranieri decided to play 4-5-1 with two holding midfielders assisting the defensive lines of the Italian side as two wingers and an attacking midfielder was introduced as his side took their positions on the field. Matteo Brighi
and Daniele De Rossi featured as the holding midfielders while Leandro Greco and Jeremy Menez featured on the flanks. Mirko Vucinic played as an attacking midfielder even though he is often seen as a striker in the Italian side but he was doing the “play making”
as he fell back to help his side in the midfield. Marco Borriello was the one who featured as the sole striker for the Italian side.
On the other hand, Louis Van Gaal featured his favourite side as the injured Arjen Robben was still nowhere to be seen because the Dutch international was still going through the recovery of his hamstring. However, the good news was that
Frank Ribery was back in action despite the fact that the French winger was not at his best. Thomas Kraft was the one who featured as the goalkeeper and he was assisted by Danijel Pranjic, Martin Demichelis, Daniel Van Buyten and Philipp Lahm at the back.
Thomas Muller and Frank Ribery featured on both the wings while Andreas Ottl and Toni Kroos were seen in the centre of the pitch as the play makers. Anatoliy Tymoshhuk was the one who featured as a holding midfielder as Bastian Shweinsteiger was not even on
the bench.
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