A dispiriting final matchday left Mallorca forty seconds away from qualifying for the Champions League.  Sevilla manager Antonio Álvarez took a huge gamble late in that match by sending Sevilla youth product Rios Lozano Rodri into the match instead of Luís Fabiano, and Rodri broke the hearts of Los Barralets with an acrobatic goal in the fourth and final minute of stoppage time to defeat Almería 2-3 and finish fourth in La Liga, the final Champions League place.  To watch the drama unfold on the jumbo screen at the ONO Estadi was already hard enough, but the news that the club will enter administration will likely wreck an exciting squad that became one of the pleasant surprises in La Liga this season.

For those who do not know what administration means in this context, here is a brief explanation.  When a football team cannot pay off their outstanding debts, the court will assign "administrators," mostly accountants, in charge of nearly every aspect of the club, and the accountants' first order of business includes paying off football-related debts before any other job.  Administration serves as a rescue mechanism so that the club can continue to operate despite their debt owed to players, staff, and creditors.  In America, it is similar to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The dirty little secret behind Mallorca's success this campaign was their massive debt accumulated over the past few seasons.  Whether Champions League money would have eased that burden and prevented them from having to seek voluntary administration will always remain an unanswered question, but their reported €85 million debt grew too large to ignore any further.

According to majority shareholder Mateu Alemany:

"Over the past two years, Mallorca has suffered a very complex economic situation, with serious financial problems and an inability to meet its commitments.  This is a legal instrument that enables Mallorca to see the future in another way: to have a budget structure that has logic and controls debt, to take stringent budgetary measures to bring spending in line with earning capacity.

These are necessary things that open a future of hope that is necessary and has not existed at the club for two years. The bankruptcy law gives us this opportunity and provides a positive expectation for the club. It is a solution, not a problem.

Whatever happens, we start a new stage. It's exciting because it ensures the viability of this club, which has been in serious danger of disappearing.''

With all of the economics explained, how will administration affect the team for next season?

UEFA president Michel Platini has not held back his criticism of clubs who continue to run their clubs on such poor economic standing and has threatened to exclude teams from UEFA competitions who are forced to enter administration or pile up an enormous debt.  There were more than a few whispers that Mallorca would be one of those clubs shut out of Europe, but Alemany ensured that Mallorca would compete in the UEFA Europa League next season after the Spanish football federation (RFEF) granted Mallorca their UEFA license.

Gregorio Manzano, the man who led Mallorca for the past four and a half seasons, will not return next season because the club cannot afford to meet his technical and financial demands.  In his first spell with the club in the 2002-03 season, he led Mallorca to a decent ninth place finish, but his biggest achievement that season was capturing the Copa del Rey with a 3-0 triumph over Recreativo Huelva with all three goals coming from fairly decent strikers: one from Walter Pandiani and the other two from Samuel Eto'o.  The winner of the Don Balón award for coach of the year in 2008, Manzano will likely receive the award for the second time this season after guiding Mallorca to their best finish in La Liga for nine years.

For a manager to keep his players focused on the pitch when economic turmoil behind the scenes made the club unable to pay the players for a few months, Manzano performed miracles, especially at home, where the seemingly unimposing ONO Estadi transformed into a formidable fortress.  Fifteen wins and one draw out of nineteen matches was an incredible feat, and he had to maintain such a stellar record at home because of their woeful play away from the Balearic Islands.

Whether Mallorca entered administration or not, Manzano was heavily linked to the Sevilla job currently held by caretaker Antonio Álvarez, and with Mallorca having no ability to compensate for Manzano €1.5 million per year salary, Manzano will need to seek a new club.  West Ham United noted their interest in Manzano, although Avram Grant looks set to take over the reins at Upton Park for the recently fired Gianfranco Zola.

As for the squad, many of the top-rated players will likely leave in the summer as well.  For the previous season, the wage bill equaled €34.6 million, and Mallorca will cut that budget considerably.  Alemany noted this impending fire sale when he said, "There will be a philosophy of austerity.  The insolvency will affect the first team squad and those who earn the most."

Borja Valero, the influential playmaker in the midfield, will go back to his parent club West Bromwich Albion, who will return to the Premier League next season after spending a season in the Coca-Cola Championship.  Earlier in the season, Mallorca wanted to make his loan move permanent, but with the economic realities rushing upon them, Mallorca cannot afford a €5 million+ transfer fee.

Iván Ramis, who was rumored to go to Celtic in the January transfer window, formed a pivotal partnership with Nunes in central defense and held opponents to forty-four goals, the fourth-best defense in La Liga.  Ramis will attract many European teams, and while Mallorca wanted a fee in the neighborhood of €3.5 million when Celtic coveted him in January, Mallorca's desperation to balance the books means that anything more than €3.5 million will be highly unlikely despite Ramis' outstanding season.

Felipe Mattioni, the 21-year-old Brazilian right back starlet, will not return, as Maga Esporte, the sporting agency that owns his rights, expects a hefty fee for this promising defender from the Grêmio youth system.

Others might be on the way out, such as Aritz Aduriz, Gonzalo Castro, and Dudu Aouate, so the Mallorca squad that came within one minute of Champions League recognition will be drastically different from the team that will play their first official match of the season in the Europa League qualifiers in August.  Valencia can commiserate with their Mallorcan neighbors, as their debt has coerced them to sell David Villa to FC Barcelona and likely give David Silva to the highest bidder (Real Madrid).  Valencia, however, has the depth to be relevant in European competition in spite of the losses of Villa and Silva, whereas Mallorca does not.

Unless the club has a billionaire owner or has a glorious history, Mallorca's fate, unfortunately, will become more and more frequent as these smaller clubs try to compete with the Real Madrids and the Barcelonas of the world by overpaying in both transfer fees and wages.  The news that the total debt in La Liga amasses over €3.53 billion with a "b" only furthers the notion that clubs are compelled to overspend in order to stay afloat in the league.  Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Numancia were the only teams to make an operating profit, and Numancia was relegated to the Segunda División last season.

The same seven or eight teams in Europe continue to pursue the most valuable and most talented players in the world, and if the status quo remains, teams like Mallorca, Valencia, and other second-tier teams throughout Europe will eventually become mere breeding grounds for Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc. to pilfer their players when they have matured, much like what Ajax, PSV, and Lyon have become.

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Depending on the results of the final round in La Liga this upcoming weekend, Atlético Madrid can finish as high as ninth and as low as eleventh in Spain.  Fulham completed their 2009-10 in the Barclays Premier League in twelfth position.  All mattered not as they both navigated through massive European obstacles to arrive at the HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg on Wednesday evening to compete for the inaugural UEFA Europa League final, the newly reorganized UEFA Cup.

At the dawn of this season, Atlético Madrid held high aspirations domestically and internationally.  Los colchoneros qualified for the UEFA Champions League the past two seasons on the final matchday, holding off Sevilla in 2008 and Villarreal in 2009 to finish both years fourth in the league.  In addition, Atlético progressed easily through the Champions League group stage the previous campaign and lost on away goals to FC Porto in the first knockout round, so they expected to get at least that far if not farther.

Mediocre in the league and underwhelming in this year's Champions League group stage, and Atlético struggled to achieve a draw against Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia in the final group stage match just to receive the parachute to the Round of 32 in the Europa League.

Sergio Asenjo, their twenty-year-old goalkeeper of the future whom they bought from Real Valladolid for €6 million, struggled mightily and eventually sat on the bench in favor of nineteen-year-old David de Gea.

The team coped with unrest in the coaching ranks as Abel Resino was sacked in late October following Atlético's horrendous start in favor of Quique Sánchez Flores.  Sánchez Flores could relate to Resino's position, as he was also fired after a poor beginning to the 2007-08 season by Valencia after he guided Los Che to consecutive Champions League appearances.  Valencia would regret that decision because they chose Ronald Koeman as Quique's successor, and coupled with Valencia's growing financial problems, the Koeman era turned into an unmitigated disaster.

Realizing that any potential accomplishment in La Liga would be a fruitless endeavor, Atlético Madrid started to focus on cup competitions to salvage any sort of pride in this season.  This change in priority and the new influence of Quique Sánchez Flores heightened the waning confidence and play of the squad members.

Despite this expected rise in form, Atlético president Enrique Cerezo Torres and the Atlético technical staff must have shaken their heads and pulled out their hair numerous times because of their team's schizophrenic personality.  Inexplicably pathetic matches against lower table teams such as Tenerife, Almería, and Real Zaragoza would follow inspirational performances against Sevilla, Barcelona, and Valencia.  Playing to the competition is usually portrayed as a pejorative because it implies that the team takes inferior opposition for granted while gearing up for tougher clubs, but in this particular case, for some strange reason, Atlético Madrid effectively employed this policy.

On their path to the Copa del Rey final, they encountered only one La Liga team, Racing Santander, and only in this tie did Atlético perform up to their capabilities in the first leg, dismissing the Cantabrians 4-0 to render the second leg virtually meaningless.

With the quality of teams they opposed in the Europa League, however, they could not help but play at a high level since their adversaries were such accomplished teams.

Galatasaray, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Valencia, and Liverpool.  Winners of fourteen different European trophies.  In recent years, facing these types of teams in succession would occur in the Champions League knockout stages. not the UEFA Cup/Europa League, but they did not faze the men from the capital.  As many have pointed out, Atlético Madrid did not win a single match in the Champions League group stage, and they only won two matches out of eight in the Europa League knockout stage on their way to the final.  Cup competitions, however, comprise of a completely different mentality and strategy than league play, and in all four knockout ties, it would be hard to argue that Atlético Madrid was not the better team over two legs in each tie.

Rarely does any team convincingly win every round, and Atlético was no exception.  They advance on three separate occasions on the away goals rule, and in the semifinal, it took extra time to settle the tie.  In the final against Fulham, in a match destined for penalties, Atlético scored what proved to be the cup-winning goal in the 116th minute, the 26th minute of extra time.  Three different times during their run to the Europa League crown, Atlético needed a late goal in the 90th minute and beyond.  There was only one man that scored all three: the indomitable Diego Forlán.

Notoriously nicknamed "Diego Forlorn" for his goal-scoring inadequacies at Manchester United, Diego Forlán worked tirelessly to shake this reputation when he made his move from Manchester United to Villarreal in 2004.  Three successful seasons at Villarreal substantiated the talent that United saw in him when they signed him from Independiente in 2003, including the Pichichi trophy (top goal-scorer in La Liga) in 2005 and a semifinal run in the 2005-06 Champions League where they topped their group while Manchester United finished last in that same group.

Forlán, always the humble and consummate professional, never said a venomous word about his former employers, especially when Villarreal and Manchester United played twice in the group stage.  He actually praised Sir Alex Ferguson and the Manchester United fans for their support during his two season stay despite his difficulties, but deep in his heart, he must have felt a little glee about preventing United from proceeding to the knockout stage.

When Fernando Torres moved to Liverpool for a club record £26.5 million in the summer of 2007, Atlético Madrid used some of that money to buy Forlán for €21 million from Villarreal.  86 goals in 153 appearances in all competitions for Atlético demonstrated further his status as a world-class striker, but his match-winning exploits in this season's Europa League enhances his standing as not just a goal-scorer but also as a forward who scores the most important goals.

In the 90th minute of the second leg against Galatasaray at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul, appropriately nicknamed "Hell" because of its intimidating atmosphere, Forlán clinched the tie that was a couple of minutes away from extra time.  Quique Sánchez Flores did not include him in the starting eleven against Galatasaray, and he only came in after Sergio Agüero suffered a facial injury near the end of the first half.  No complaints or attitude came from Forlán, and he scored the ticket into the Round of 16.

Against Liverpool in the second leg of the semifinal at Anfield, Forlán stuck the lance in Liverpool's side again with an extra-time winner in the 102nd minute that scrapped any semblance of a successful season for Liverpool.  One of Forlán's few positive achievements at Manchester United was a two-goal effort at Anfield to defeat Liverpool 1-2, and the Manchester United faithful still laud that accomplishment, and as the chant goes, "He came from Uruguay, he made the Scousers cry."  If Manchester United were not to win a European trophy, it was imperative for United fans that Liverpool did not win either, and the former United man was more than willing to haunt Liverpool yet again.

In the final against Fulham, the pre-game ceremonies contained more action than the first thirty minutes of the match because both teams showed their fraying nerves about competing in a European final.  Only three players from both teams' starting elevens had competed in a showcase final of European club football, José Antonio Reyes with Arsenal, Mark Schwarzer for Middlesbrough, and Danny Murphy with Liverpool.  Elementary errors from both sides littered the opening stages of the match, and an errant pass by Paul Konchesky ultimately led to Atlético's first goal that was scored by none other than Diego Forlán in the 32nd minute.

The goal came from a quick counter-attack, and it started with Reyes rampaging down the right flank and passing it into the center for Simão Sabrosa who purposefully made a lung-bursting run down the center of the pitch.  Simão then passed it first-time in the air to Agüero at the D; Agüero headed it down and took the shot off the volley, but he completely mishit it.  Luckily, it went into Forlán’s direction, and Forlán directed it to the left far post past a helpless Schwarzer.  It was debatable whether Forlán was offside, but Forlán's positioning saved Agüero's shot from rolling harmlessly wide and ascended Atlético in the lead.

After Simon Davies' clinical volley five minutes late equalized the score at 1-1, balance reigned the rest of regulation, and extra time loomed in Hamburg.

Five minutes away from penalty kicks, Fulham looked tired and played for penalties.  Fulham's journey to the Europa League final began on July 30 in the third qualifying round in Lithuania against FK Vètra, and sixty-three matches later and 115 minutes into the final where they left every last part of their energy on the pitch, no one would question them if they wanted to go into penalties.  Diego Forlán, however, prevented the lottery of penalty kicks with the cup-winning goal in the 116th minute.

Kun Agüero did most of the work on the left flank, making one last oxygen-inducing run to keep Antonio López lead pass from crossing the end line for a goal kick.  One-on-one with Fulham central defender Aaron Hughes, Agüero's cross at the six-yard box was back flicked by Forlán, and it took a slight deflection off Brede Hangeland and into the back of the net.

A last flurry from Fulham in the second minute of stoppage time went for naught, and Atlético Madrid won its first European trophy in forty-eight years when they won the 1961-62 European Cup Winners' Cup.

Amidst the immediate joy once referee Nicola Rizzoli whistled for fulltime, Diego Forlán merely raised his arms in the air and instantly went to hug and shake the hands of his opponents, specifically Chris Baird and Aaron Hughes.  He could have ran to the center circle and celebrated with his teammates, and no one would have blamed him, but the class that he carries at all times signals the kind of man and player that young player should strive to emulate.

This column would be remiss not to laud Fulham FC for its fairy-tale run from near relegation from the Football League in 1996 to seventh in the Premier League last season to a European final this season.  Roy Hodgson deservedly received the LMA Manager of the Year, voted on by his fellow managers in the Football League, and no one will ever forget their run to the final, toppling European powers Shakhtar Donetsk, Hamburg, and Juventus.

The night, however, belongs to Atlético Madrid.  If one said that a Spanish and an English team would meet in a European final, and the team from Madrid won, probably the last answer purported would be Atlético Madrid defeating Fulham in the Europa League final.  For a few days and months, Atlético own the city of Madrid over their eternal rivals Real, and if Atlético complete the cup double with a win over Sevilla in the Copa del Rey next Wednesday, they will have accomplished one of the unique coups in Spanish football history.  What other team than Atlético Madrid to complete such a bipolar season: average in league, perfect in cup.

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Most of the headlines focus around Group G, the consensus "Group of Death" with Brazil, Portugal, Côte d'Ivoire, and North Korea, and the pairing of England and the United States in Group C.  For Spain and manager Vicente del Bosque, privately they will be happy with their draw in Group H, the match schedule in terms of time, and the general lack of travel for their opening three games.

There are another six months until the World Cup to discuss Spain's three national team opponents and their tactics and players, but a cursory assessment is appropriate at this junction.  Switzerland won their group in UEFA qualifying, but many considered their group one of the weakest, if not the weakest, group in Europe.  They held off Greece on the last qualifying round to win the group when they drew 0-0 at St. Jakob-Park in Basel against Israel. They have some quality players, including their scoring stalwarts Alexander Frei and Hakan Yakin, but they would not be considered to have one of the more talented squads in the World Cup Finals.

Honduras should send the United States national team some of their savory coffee beans for which they are known because Jonathan Bornstein's 94th minute header to earn a draw against Costa Rica gave the invitation to Honduras to qualify automatically as the third place team in CONCACAF.  Los Catrachos have a formidable strike force with the old warhorse Carlos Pavón and arguably the most talented player in the CONCACAF region in David Suazo, currently on loan at Benfica from his parent club Inter Milan.

Their strength lies within the central midfield with the brawn and brass of Wigan Athletic's Hendry Thomas and Tottenham Hotspur's Wilson Palacios.  They continually impress in the Premier League within the engine rooms of their respective teams, and that form has carried into their play with the national team.  Whether they can stifle Spain for a full ninety minutes is doubtful, but La Furia Roja should expect a bruising match with little to no space on the ball.

The Chilean national team is the mystery team of this group and possibly of the whole thirty-two team contingent heading to South Africa.  They qualified with one match to spare and eventually finished second in CONMEBOL, no small achievement.  These cumulative results in this session of qualifiers are not typical of recent Chilean sides, who have missed the last two World Cups and have not reached the semifinals of the Copa América since 1999.

This renaissance of Chilean football starts with manager Marcelo Bielsa and his willingness to employ the burgeoning young talent in Chile.  Players such as Mark González, Fabián Orellana of Xerez, and Udinese's wunderkind Alexis Sánchez have invigorated this perpetually underachieving squad.  While Bielsa focuses on an attacking philosophy, he will need to shore up the defense, which was only sixth out of the ten teams in CONMEBOL with twenty-two goals allowed in eighteen matches.  Out of the three teams Spain will face in Group H, Chile looks the most likely to achieve a result against Spain.

The schedule also favors Spain in their quest to add a World Cup trophy to their European Championships triumph.  They have the late kickoff for all three match days, and after their opening match against Switzerland in Durban, their next two matches are within miles of each other in Johannesburg and Pretoria respectively.  Vicente del Bosque, while never completely satisfied with himself or his team, will be somewhat content that the draw, on paper, seems to favor Spain to win their group and do that comfortably, both on and off the pitch.  Should they reach the knockout stage, they could face the second-place team from Group G, the Group of Death, but the first step includes qualifying to that stage, and del Bosque and the team will not take that for granted.

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Pictures of famous Athletic Bilbao players at San Mamés. Photo courtesy of Nicholas McGowan.

Athletic Bilbao would have no problems with the proposed UEFA plan of mandating eight homegrown players in the squad of eighteen for every match or the theoretical 6 + 5 rule, where six players of the starting eleven would have to be eligible for the national team of their club's country.  Athletic Bilbao refuses to sign anyone not of Basque heritage.  This policy seems out of touch with modern times, as top European teams and minnows of UEFA try to sign the best players within their means, regardless of country or province of origin.  As their record of accomplishment indicates of always staying in the top flight of Spanish football, Bilbao is doing something right.  In the past four years, however, Bilbao finished in the bottom half of the table, including a last gasp win in the final round of the 2006-2007 season to stave off relegation.

Forsaking the cantera plan never entered the minds of the Bilbao boardroom.  These local players from the Basque gelled together in the past few years, taking the best shots from La Liga and many times plummeting onto the canvas.  Under the leadership of manager Joaquín Caparrós, Athletic Bilbao is now in a position to finish in the top half of the table and compete for European places.

Because of their amazing Copa del Rey cup run to the finals, Bilbao earned a spot in the Europa League.  After narrow escapes against Swiss team Young Boys in the third qualifying round and Norwegian outfit Tromsø in the playoff round, they commenced their voyage in the Europa League group stage with a 3-0 thrashing of Austria Wien.  In La Liga, Athletic won their first two matches, narrowly defeating Espanyol at San Mamés 1-0 and dispatching newcomers Xerez 0-1 at Chapín.  Bilbao's first real test came Sunday against a Villarreal team who was searching for their first win in La Liga after two 1-1 draws with Osasuna and Mallorca.

Both Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal played in the Europa League on Thursday, so they were on equal footing when it came to a quick turnaround.  Villarreal was used to coping with midweek European matches along with their Spanish league responsibilities since they played in European competitions for the past six seasons.  It was Athletic, though, who looked like the fresher of the two teams from the outset.  Villarreal's intricate passing and possession football were overmatched by Bilbao's more physical and direct style of play.  Being that Bilbao's roots derived from immigrant English steel and shipyard workers, Bilbao's physical style and use of whipping deep crosses and a strong, tough target man should be of no surprise.

Bilbao created most of the first half chances, and they converted on two of these opportunities, giving them a 2-0 lead at halftime.  Villarreal did not have an attempted shot until the 36th minute, and by the end of the half, the Yellow Submarine had two shots total with none of them on goal.  Central defenders Diego Godín and Iván Marcano could not handle the brute strength and the technical skill of Bilbao talisman Fernando Llorente; Gaizka Toquero and David López ran rampant on the wings in support of Llorente; and Igor Gabilondo's wicked crosses and free kicks created opportunities for his teammates and kept the Villarreal fullbacks in defense rather than making overlapping runs in the attack.

Villarreal manager Ernesto Valverde made a conscious decision to become more direct in the second half to counter Bilbao's dominance.  This strategy paid off in the 49th minute when Cani scored to cut the deficit in half.  Joan Capdevila's cross traveled deep into the penalty area, where Joseba Llorente headed the ball into Cani's path, and Cani smashed it home from twelve yards out.  Despite this development, Bilbao was unfazed and eventually regained their two-goal advantage when Javi Martínez headed in the third goal from a Gabilondo corner in the 59th minute.  Athletic eventually won the match 3-2 and kept their 100% record.

Only La Liga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid share a perfect three for three record with Bilbao, and while no one claims that Bilbao will keep pace with them for the remainder of the season, the swagger is back with this Bilbao team.  Iker Muniain and Isaac Aketxe, both 16 years old, made substitute appearances, 21 year old Javi Martínez scored a goal, 24 year old central defender Fernando Amorebieta effectively phased out Giuseppe Rossi and Joseba Llorente for the most part, and 24 year old Fernando Llorente showed the form that made him a strong candidate for inclusion into the Spanish national team for the 2010 World Cup.

Joaquín Caparrós constructed a team that stayed true to their origins with their direct play while incorporating the highly technical football necessary to compete successfully in La Liga.  Even if Athletic were relegated for the first time in their history, their supporters would not want Athletic to renounce its cantera policy and sell out for some extra wins.  The Basques want their club to be represented by their own, and the young talent that Caparrós brought into the fold promises a budding future for Los Leones.  While the economic inequities between Real Madrid and Barcelona and the rest of La Liga may prevent Athletic Bilbao from consistently challenging for titles as they did in the 1980's, the Euskaldunak have a team of which they can be proud not just for their heritage but also for their football.

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Goal.com and SI.com's South American guy Greg Sica will chat with the guys about the upcoming CONMEBOL qualifiers as we as the most recent developments in Copa Libertadores play.

Juan also interviewed former ESPN International play-by-play man Randall Álvarez to talk about the upcoming CONCACAF quallies as well as his latest project back in his native Costa Rica.

If you want to leave any comments, please send us an email to madaboutfutbol@me.com.

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It didn't send boots aquaking in Catalunya, but it is a team to respect based on their precedent. If there is one demon they will have to overcome in order to get to that historic treble, they will have to do so against a side that they have never beaten.

Never Beaten Bayern

In four matches against the Bavarian giants, the Blaugrana do not know what victory feels like. Bayern defeated Barcelona in the semis of the UEFA Cup, and the Germans would come out on top with a 4-3 aggregate en route to becoming the first German team to raise all three European trophies back in 1996. They would meet again in the group stages of the Champions League two years later and it would be Bayern that would get the best of them winning both games of the group stages as they would be a minute away from the Champions League title if it weren't for an epic comeback by Manchester United.

Two Old Friends Meet Again

Earlier this decade, Josep Guardiola left a Barca side to head and have a fresh start over in Brescia. He became yet one more example of the relationship between the Blaugrana and their idols. When he got there as one of the big acquisitions of the summer. It was a team that had the potential to do some damage, but in the end it was Guardiola that suffered the most. The club ended up in 14th place, and the highlight of the season was they ended up as Intertoto Cup runners-up. That team was one full of studs. Andrea Pirlo, a rarely available Guardiola, Antonio Filippini, Daniele Bonera, Igli Tare, and the man that put Brescia in the epicenter of Italian football- Roberto Baggio. He was the talk in 2002 as to whether he was going to be part of Giovanni Trappatoni's side. But there was a young player that played two seasons on this Brescia side. In 44 matches, he scored 15 goals and he started to grab the attention of the Italian football scene.

Luca Toni would then move to Palermo where he would become capo cannoniere on a side that he would help bring back to Serie A. He once again proved his goalscoring prowess with the rosanero scoring 50 goals in 80 matches and leading them to a spot in the UEFA Cup in only their first season in the Italian top flight.

MvB Returns To The Nou Camp

Mark Van Bommel will make his return to Barcelona after his departure three seasons ago. The fiery Dutch midfielder. "It is very exciting to be able to play again in Barcelona. It will be the first time that I have been back. The fact that I will be returning to what was my home for a year is very special," he added.

It is obvious that there is a huge mountain to climb, but to be honest it gets steeper the closer Rome gets. The winner of this matchup will end up playing the winner of Liverpool-Chelsea. There is no two ways about it, there is no doubt that Barcelona are in the toughest part of their schedule and the margin for error has reduced exponentially. Despite all of this, the subplots as well as the potential play on the pitch will make this probably one of the most exciting ties of the quarterfinals. It could be even more exciting than Chelsea-Liverpool from a tactical perspective.

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