UEFA: And then there were 8

[Ziyad]

After todays round there are 8 teams left among them Inter

This is a very good chance for us to win something as Roma,Liverpool,Barca are out. There is still formidable competition though but i believe we can do it....

Next opponent Marseille.Very strong.Drew 1-1 with Liverpool away and beat them 2-1 at home.They have good strong team especially upfront with Drogba.

 

[Ziyad]

INTER TO FACE MARSEILLE IN UEFA CUP QF
Thursday, 25 March 2004 23:25:19
MILAN - Uefa Cup fourth round results (teams qualified for quarter-finals in bold):

Celtic-Barcelona 1-0 0-0
Gençlerbirligi-Valencia 1-0 25/03
Bordeaux-Club Brugge 3-1 1-0
Newcastle-Majorca 4-1 3-0
Auxerre-PSV Eindhoven 1-1 0-3
Benfica-Inter 0-0 3-4
Liverpool-Marseille 1-1 1-2
Villarreal-Roma 2-0 1-2

Quarter-final line-up (1st leg Thurs 8 April, 2nd leg Wed 14 April)

Bordeaux- Gençlerbirligi-Valencia
Marseille-Inter
Celtic-Villarreal
PSV Eindhoven-Newcastle

 

[Hammoudi]

Thank God, today's results favoured us. I think our biggest challenge will come from Newcastle and Valenica. We might have a psychological edge having met these sides before and beat them. Marseille are the inter of France, they have a great team in paper but they are struggling. Their defence is really weak specially after Van Buyten was sold earlier. Their power is in their striking duo of Ahmed Mido and Drogba. We face Mido twice before and Corodoba and Matrix tamed him before. All in all a good day for us.

 

[Ziyad]

Yeah we cant dismiss Marseille they are a strong team that worry me...Overall though its Valencia that the scariest.Eventhough we qualified over them twice with Cuper it really felt like they beat us....Plus they will want revenge on us (should we advance) Plus its not Cuper defensive team...its Zac and we are week in the back and we could be eaten up by them

 

[Ziyad]

EURORIVALS: MARSEILLE FACTFILE
Friday, 26 March 2004 00:10:06
MILAN - Inter face French outfit Marseille in the quarter-finals of the 2003/04 Uefa Cup . Coached by José Anigo, Marseille currently lie sixth in the French top flight with 46 points from 29 matches and trail leaders Lyon by 14 points.

Marseille in Europe this season:
After beating Austria Vienna in the Champions League preliminary round, Marseille were knocked out of the group phase and like Inter qualified for the Uefa Cup .

Champions League preliminary round
Austria Vienna 0-1 Marseille
Marseille 0-0 Austria Vienna
Champions League group phase
Real Madrid 4-2 Marseille
Marseille 3-0 Partizan
Marseille 2-3 Porto
Porto 1-0 Marseille
Marseille 1-2 Real Madrid
Partizan 1-1 Marseille
Uefa Cup third round:
Marseille 1-0 Dnipro
Dnipro 0-0 Marseille
Uefa Cup fourth round:
Liverpool 1-1 Marseille
Marseille 2-1 Liverpool

Marseille squad:
Goalkeepers
1 Vedran Runje CRO
28 Fabien Barthez FRA
30 Jérémy Gavanon FRA
Defenders:
2 Demetrius Ferriera Leite BRA
3 Manuel Dos Santos FRA
5 Philippe Christanval FRA
8 Sébastien Pérez FRA
12 Abdoulyae Méïté FRA
21 Johnny Ecker FRA
23 Habib Beye SEN
25 Fabien Laurenti FRA
32 Matthieu Flamini FRA
Midfielders:
6 Brahim Hemdani FRA
7 Sylvain N'Diaye FRA
14 Stepan Vachousek CZE
15 Pascal Johansen FRA
18 Camel Meriem FRA
26 Laurent Batlles FRA
29 Fabio Celestini SVI
Strikers:
9 Ahmed Hossam EGY
11 Didier Drogba FRA
20 Steve Marlet FRA
24 Karim Dahou FRA
31 Laurent Merlin FRA
33 Nicolas Cicut FRA

Previous meetings:
Inter and Marseille have never met in European cup competitions.

 

[Hammoudi]

Valencia are the most complete side left. From GK to defence to midfield and finally to offence they have a great balanced squad. In the past they used to lack a goal scorer but now Mista is having a good season and already has 17 goals in La Liga.

 

[SB9Dragon]

Bordeaux - Valencia 08/04 14/04
Marseille - Internazionale 08/04 14/04
Celtic - Villarreal 08/04 14/04
PSV - Newcastle 08/04 14/04

I think that we will meet Valencia in the Semi's and Celtic will play Newcastle and then the final will be Inter-Celtic and we will beat them :star:

Or so I hope

 

[Ziyad]

Valencia scare me the most and all is easier said then done.

 

[cool_cuchu]

I read in some papers, that inter-valencia final is the most expected..

I didn't think too much about it since roma is still in the competition...

and I agree valencia is very strong, so strong that they should be la liga champion

with cuper, I am very confident that we can beat them..
with zac, we need to improve many things before we can kick their ass

 

[Handoyo]

After last night's result, I believe that we have a good chance and should go all out in this competition!!! I never predicted that Barcelona and Roma will be out in the same night. I thought the 2 had the most chances of winning this competition. Now, with all due respect, Valencia is the only giant left in this competition.


Handyo

 

[kev32]

the match against Marseille will be verry hard.
We must not underrestimate them.

But i think we will win this match.
We won the last few matches and i hope we will continue with that

 

[Ziyad]

Having Emre and Matrix will help us in the two departments that have suffered most because of injuries or suspensions especially in UEFA because we have some players that are ineligible in that tournament..So i hope they are prepared and help the rotation in defence and midifeld.

 

[SB9Dragon]

Hopefully Materazzi and Emre can boost the squad and help lead us to victory in the UEFA Cup, especially Emre.... and Materazzi

 

[Baggio]

I hope for Inter-Valencia final!!
And I hope we play some attacking football and team football!!!
Valencia are playing like a team not like a bunch of individuals and they will be very hard to beat.

 

[Handoyo]

From what I see in Valencia this season, they have a superb left winger in Vicente. I dare say that he's better than Reyes (In his Arsenal days). Pacy, good dribbling skill, confident and good from set-pieces too. And I think another good point from them is that most of the team has been the same for the last few years and they're used to playing with each other.


Handyo

 

[Ziyad]

Maybe we should try that,i mean playing the same bunch together...It worked for them and it can only do good for us. The thing is we have to know what players are the bunch to keep and make them the untouchables and rotate them and then determine that the rest are only fill ins(ex.Helveg)

 

[Handoyo]

That's what I've been saying all this while. Continuity & consistency. 2 of the greatest weapon in football IMO.


Handyo

 

[Baggio]

I have noticed that Vincente is not as usual as other left wingers.
This guy scores a tons of goals and he is team player.
If I was Benitez I would try and field him in playmaker position and IMO he would be superb there.

 

[Hammoudi]

Vicente is in the form of his young career. He was always good but inconsistent at times. He is good where he is and he is benefiting from the fact the Benitez plays 4-2-3-1 and not a straight forward 4-4-2. The left back Carboni is old and slow but good defensively so Vicente doesn't have to worry about defence and kily isn't there anymore so he doesn't have to watch behind his back!!

Inter--Valencia final will be good for us only if Valencia is still in the title hunt come May. So if Real advance to the CL final they will be distracted and Valenica will be gunning for LaLiga.

 

[Pravesh]

If both Inter and Valencia keep on progressing, then Inter - Valencia will be the final match and not semi-final....

SEMI-FINAL :

PSV / Newcastle - Marseille / Internazionale
Celtic / Villarreal - Bordeaux / Valencia

First of all, Marseille won't be easy. But if we play to our best, then we should be able to get past them. Stankovic and Adriano won't be there, but thankfully it's almost sure that Emre will start that game. Recoba's not available for the Juve match. That could mean that he might as well start along with Vieri, Emre, Karagounis (?) and co. It's very good that finally our injured players are getting back, which is very crucial for us.

Lets suppose, we win against Marseille, then it will be PSV or NewCastle. I hope we will have to play against NewCastle and not PSV. PSV won't be easy, if I am not wrong. Robben and co. won't be easy and I would hope that NewCastle to be our next opponent after Marseille.

In the other hand, I want Valencia to be knocked out by Bordeaux, or CELTIC / Villarreal