Sports
Atletico Madrid, Bilbao In All Spainish Europa Cup Final
Fernando Llorente will hold the key for Spanish side Athletic Bilbao when they meet Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final on Wednesday.
While much of the focus this season has been on Barcelona and Real Madrid’s utter dominance of La Liga, both Marcelo Bielsa’s Bilbao (10th in La Liga) and Diego Simeone’s Atletico (fifth) have the chance to savour their own taste of European glory at the National Arena in Bucharest.
Athletic, who only field players from the Basque region, have impressed under eccentric Argentine Bielsa this season with their fluid possession-based style likened to that of Barcelona’s.
Key to their set-up is Llorente, who has netted 17 goals in La Liga, 10 of which have come from headers, and he has a further seven in the Europa League.
That could be the key given Atletico have struggled to deal with set pieces at times this season, most recently against Valencia in their semi-final where two goals came from corners.
Simeone knows of Bilbao’s threat at breaking forward and said that would be an area of focus for his side.
“Bilbao are a team who like to go forward, who play very well and they have proved throughout the season they are a very competitive side,” Simeone said.
“Their strength lies in how quickly they look to move the ball once they have regained possession, and their focal point is Llorente.
“We will have to be very careful to deny them spaces.”
Simeone knows Bielsa well having played the latter stages of his international career with Argentina under him from 1998-2004.
“The sides are very evenly matched. I haven’t spoken to Bielsa but I have a great admiration for him,” Simeone admitted during the week.
Atletico’s Colombian striker Radamel Falcao will pose a similar threat as Llorente and has had no trouble adjusting to La Liga after his off-season switch from Porto, for whom he scored the winner in last year’s Europe League final.
After being bought for a club record 40 million euros to replace the departing Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan, Falcao has not disappointed bagging 23 goals in La Liga to trail only Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo, as well 10 in the Europa League.
Simeone is likely to make one enforced change with Gabi set to replace the suspended Tiago, who was sent off in the second leg against Valencia, alongside Mario Suarez in central midfield.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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