Huge clash in Germany; Chance to forget Milner has 44 caps

So watching Ronaldo was fantastic (by far the best player in the world right now), seeing France come back was inspiring (although many people wanted them to miss out), and some of the African qualifiers were great - but now we have the 32, it's all set. International friendlies are awful, as anyone who watched England v Germany will testify. So let's get back to some club football, see some quality, and not wonder how James Milner has 44 caps for England.

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So Everton v Liverpool eh? Martinez v Rodgers. Personally I think Roberto is a better manager and seems to be able to get teams to actually play. He sticks to his principals and has inherited a very good Everton team - the face they have Romelu Lukaku too seems a little unfair, but so be it. Liverpool are very strong going forward, but as we saw against Arsenal, Rodgers doesn't seem to have a Plan B. If Sturridge and Suarez are not firing, Coutinho and Gerrard need to boss the game - because Jordan Henderson, Victor Moses and Joe Allen have all been poor. To say Liverpool need another striking option seems excessive at this point, but they do if they want to really contend.

Arsenal need someone other than Giroud too. A huge game at home against Southampton. It may not sound right, but they need Walcott and others to take the burden off the Frenchman (because he's not that good).

Some early relegation games loom too. Hull v Palace, Stoke v Sunderland and Cardiff v Manchester United! We're coming into a key period where teams need to win games rather than draw, and not let themselves get detached from the pack. West Ham need a win, as do Fulham, but so does everyone I suppose!

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A repeat of last year's Champions League final in Germany this weekend. Dortmund against Bayern. First against second, with the reigning champs unbeaten, conceding just 7 goals in 12 games.  Bayern haven't lost away in the Bundesliga for 24 games, which is just unreal, but they will be without Frank Ribery who was injured for France. Everyone is injured for Dortmund, with their defense really suffering - and as no one can stop Bayern scoring, don't be surprised if Mario Gotze notches against his old team. He's bound to get a lot of abuse from the fans, and should probably avoid Jurgen Klopp screaming at him too!

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I'm bored of La Liga. It's so early to say that, but there isn't a game that really interests me this weekend. Barca without Messi, Real without Khedira and Alonso - yeah, big losses, but those two giants have so many other players. Just means we get to see more of Neymar and Isco.

The top 5 in Serie A are breaking away too, but perhaps it's more interesting to see how bad AC Milan are. 10th after 12 games, no away wins, 19 points behind Roma already and nothing too bright on the horizon. They still have Mario tho, and he's worth admittance on his own.

Was Kagawa scared to let go when Klopp hugged him?

And we all thought Jurgen Klopp was such a nice guy. He talked about how him and Shinji Kagawa cried in each other's arms when Kagawa was sold to Manchester United, he likened Bayern Munich to a James Bond villain, and turned down loads of big clubs as he was interested in the 'special project' at Dortmund.

But he's an angry man (although issued a very genuine apology accepting all the fault).

The fourth official did well to not react, although various reports suggest he changed his shorts at half-time.

 

Hard to look past Bayern in the Bundesliga

If it's possible, Bayern look even stronger this year

European champs set to dominate their domestic league again.

It’s impossible to look past Bayern Munich. Pep has taken over as manager, they signed their only domestic challenger’s star player, and they won it all last season. 

By adding Mario Gotze (from Borussia Dortmund) and Thiago Alcantara (from Barcelona), they added two quality young midfielders to strengthen a team that really didn’t have many areas to improve. By binning off Mario Gomez to Fiorentina, they are going to miss someone to grab 20+ tap-ins a season – pretty sure that Robert Lewandowski will get that task next summer (once Bayern again buy Dortmund’s best player).

At the risk of being controversial (!), German football is looking quite weak. Yes, the Champions League final was between two Bundesliga teams last season, Bayern were amazing (especially when they schooled Barcelona) and Dortmund have some fantastic young players and also made a couple of good signings. But who else is there?

Bayer Leverkeusen and Dortmund both finished over 25 points behind Bayern last season. Schalke 04 got the 4^th Champions League place, yet they only had just over half the points that Bayern did. It’s hard to see how anyone below that could even figure in title contention. 

The German and European champions only lost 1 game last season, and even though they will probably not be as good this year, get your money on them to win it again (not that I suggest/endorse any type of gambling – I don’t waste drinking money).