Platini unflustered by one-sided games
Reuters - Thursday 08 December 2011, 19:48
Michel Platini sees no need to
change the Champions League format after this year's group stage
produced a flurry of one-sided games, painfully illustrating the
gap in standards between some of the domestic leagues.
"Football is never totally rational," said the UEFA
president, rejecting the idea that there were 'big' teams and
'small' teams.
"Trying to give a rational explanation for results is never
easy.
"We have to respect what happens on the pitch. There are
always people who are happy and people who are unhappy.
"We talk about the small teams, but I don't think there are
big teams and small teams in the Champions League, I don't like
the term small teams."
The group stage ended on Wednesday with Dinamo Zagreb losing
7-1 at home to Olympique Lyon, a result which meant the French
side pipped Ajax Amsterdam to qualify for the last sixteen.
UEFA issued a statement denying there had been irregular
betting patterns on the game following media speculation of foul
play, which drew an angry reaction from the Croatian champions.
Zagreb were also beaten 6-2 by Real Madrid on their way to
losing all six games and conceding 22 goals.
They were the second team to concede seven goals in a group
game this season following Belgian champions Genk, who were
beaten 7-0 by Valencia and also lost 5-0 at Chelsea.
Spain's Villarreal and Romanian champions Otelul Galati were
also out of their depth, losing all their games.
Group H, meanwhile, was settled with two rounds of matches
left as AC Milan and Barcelona qualified at the expense of
Viktoria Plzen and BATE Borisov.
Barcelona knocked nine goals past BATE in two games and also
won 4-0 at Plzen.
"There are games where the goalkeeper has a bad day, where
the defence has been reshuffled, or perhaps a team has already
been eliminated by the last match and are totally unmotivated,"
said Platini.
"You can see it in a positive way or a negative way."
Platini was equally philosophical on the few shocks, which
included APOEL Nicosia qualifying and Manchester United knocked
out by FC Basel.
"You don't win a match in the Champions League because you
are a big name. Nobody is entitled to win all the time, I always
respect the clubs from Cyprus and Switzerland," said Platini.
"There are always newcomers and I'm not saying its a bad
thing, nor a good thing."