The country vs club enigmas

When it comes to selection for the national teams in a major tournament, there are usually two criteria. One, the form of the players in the season before the tournament and the other the big name players.

However, there are times whereby the club form cannot be translated into country form and vice-versa.

Let us take a look at 5 players who club form differs vastly when donning the national colours.

* All ratings provided by WhoScored.com

Aaron Ramsey

It will not be far-fetched if we are to say that Ramsey was Wales' most influential player in their march to the semi-finals. With four assists, one goal and a rating of 7.7, the midfielder is in WhoScored.com team of the tournament. In contrast, Ramsey managed only a rating of 7.21 for his club.

Olivier Giroud

Like his Arsenal team-mate, Giroud is one player the Gunners' fans will not be too upset to see leaving the club. The striker's form coincide with Arsenal mid-season slump and not many would have predicted his impact for France. With a club rating of 7.07 versus 7.60 for his country, he certainly made his selection justifiable.

Eden Hazard

Hazard and his Chelsea team had a torrid season which resulted a personal rating of 7.11 for the recently concluded season. But his rating of 7.92 shows that his form picked up during the course of Euro 2016.

Thibaut Courtois

Like team and country mate Hazard, Courtois had a poor season with a rating of 6.66. His improved performance for Belgium culminated in him being named in WhoScored.com team. His rating of 7.1 ranked him as the best performing goalkeeper.

Cristiano Ronaldo

The biggest name in Euro 2016, the Portuguese was expected to take the tournament by storm. After a quiet start, Ronaldo started to chip in some goals. But his tournament rating of 7.37 paled to his club form of 7.99.

Do you think of any players who should be in the list? Let us know by leaving your comments below.

Who should Arsenal go for? Benzema or Llorente?

Having watched the Barclays Asia Trophy and the Emirates Cup, I have to say Arsenal is looking very good.

The defence seems much calmer with Petr Cech in goal and the movement of the midfielders look very promising, especially the inter-play between Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey.

The only area that needs improvement is in the attacker department. While Oliver Giroud and Theo Walcott had scored in both the tournaments, they too missed quite a few good chances, too many in fact.

The Gunners might be able to overcome this against weaker oppositions where they will create tons of chances but against defensive strong outfits like Chelsea, where chances are at a premium, they have to find the back of the net whenever they have a sniff of the goal.

And it seems like Arsenal is keen to address the issue and have been linked with a few strikers, among them, Karim Benzema and Fernando Llorente.

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Benzema is believed to be the number one choice after been linked with Arsenal for a few seasons. Even thou Benitez had stated that Benzema is not for sale, it had not stop rumours of the Frenchman being unsettled at the Bernabeau.

It is believed that the Gunners are prepared to up their initial bid of £31 million to £35 million for the Real Madrid striker and if the deal fails to materialise, Wenger will turn his attention to Fernando Llorente.

Over the weekend, Arsenal were reported to offer Serie A champions, Juventus, £8 million for the 30-year-old.

Llorente had proved invaluable to Juventus' domestic and international success the last two seasons. Despite his age, it is hard to believe that the Old Lady will let him go for that sum of money.

But how does the Benzema and Llorente measured up to Giroud and Walcott?

Fernando Llorente - Played 25(6) / Goals 7 / Assist 1 / WhoScored.com ratings 6.70
Karim Benzema - Played 29 / Goals 15 / Assist 10 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.56
Olivier Giroud - Played 21(6) / Goals 14 / Assist 3 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.23
Theo Walcott - Played 4(10) / Goals 5 / Assist - / WhoScored.com ratings 6.61

Based on statistics, Benzema is an upgrade while Llorente isn't going to improve the squad much.

And to finally end their 10 years wait for the Premier League title, Arsenal have to go for only the best.

Old Lady gatecrashed El Classico

EL Classico reads the headline.

Barcelona vs Real Madrid at Berlin for the most coveted silverware of European club trophies. Majority of the neutral fans wanted it too. But the Old Lady from Turin is having none of it.

Barcelona did their part despite losing 3-2 at the Allianz Arena. Bayern Munich threatened to stage another amazing comeback when Mehdi Benati put the German side 1-0 ahead on the 7th minute.

But two goals in 15 minutes from Neymar kills off any hope the Germans had of overturning the tie.

Lewandowski and Mueller both scored in the second half but it was mere consolation.

Stats provided by WhoScored.com

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Real Madrid went for it from the start and was rewarded when Chellini fell James in the box and Ronaldo buried the resulted penalty. Level on aggregrate but leading on away goal rule, Real Madrid was in the driving seat.

Instead of sitting back, the home side went for it and it took some fine goalkeeping from Buffon to prevented the home side from extending their lead.

Juventus turned the tie back in their favour in the 57th minute when old boy Morata equalised for the Italian side.

Tried as they might, Real Madrid could not find the goal to bring the match into the extra time.

When the final whistle goes, so too did Real Madrid's dream of becoming the first team to retain the Champions League title.

Stats provided by WhoScored.com

Return turns sour

When the draw for this year's Champions League semi final was announced, beside the mouth-watering ties, there was the subplot of old boys returning to their former hunting ground.

Carlos Ancelotti will bring his Real Madrid squad to Turin to face Juventus, which the Italian managed from 1999-2001 while Pep Guardiola will be in the opposite dugout at the ground where he spent almost 30 years as a player and then manager.

They say familiarity gives you a slight advantage, but the game ended with Juventus winning 2-1 against the holders and Barcelona hammering Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich, 3-0.


Juventus vs Real Madrid


Barcelona vs Bayern Munich

With the return leg to come at the Bernabeau and facing only an one goal deficit, Real Madrid has a fighting chance to become the first team to retain the Champions League trophy.

As for Bayern Munich and Guardiola, they will have to wait for another season, unless they can pull off another miracle. Impossible? Just ask Porto.