What We're Reading
UCL Spots Up for Grabs This Weekend
- Football Italia, Friday, May 17, 2013 1:45 PM
Arsenal and Tottenham aren’t the only two teams fighting for the final UEFA Champions League berth in their league this weekend. In Serie A, which concludes this weekend, third-place AC Milan
needs to win away to Siena to secure its UCL spot for next season. A draw would also put the Rossoneri through as long as fourth-place Fiorentina doesn’t beat last-place Pescara by four goals or
more. In the German Bundesliga, which also concludes this weekend, fourth-place Schalke 04 heads to fifth-place Freiburg needing a win or draw to secure UCL qualification. Finally, in Spain, Real
Sociedad and Valencia are neck-in-neck in fourth and fifth place, respectively, with three games to play.
Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella has promised to
“learn the Siena club anthem off by heart if they stop Milan” on Sunday. “I believed when we were six points behind, so now we believe more than ever," he said after accepting the
Briglia d’Oro award for Serie A’s best coach of the season. “We are very relaxed going into the last round.”
The mood is decidedly different in Gelsenkirchen, where Schalke CEO Clemens Tonnies railed against his players for
failing to secure UCL qualification last weekend, losing 2-1 at home to Stuttgart. "Once again the players have shown they have not been 100 percent aware of their responsibilities as a Schalke
player," Tonnies told SportBild. "They have one more chance against Freiburg. I expect nothing but complete dedication, commitment and the sheer will to take that chance. Then we will
get even. It is about time the players meet their responsibilities for the club and fans. We have been noticing those problems for a while now."
