Madsear's Guide to the Champions League
The second-leg matches of the UEFA Champions League will take place today and tomorrow.
Manchester United v. AS Roma
Even though the Italian side outclassed a diminished British squad in every single compartment of the game, Manchester managed to keep the hope alive with Wayne Rooney scoring his first goal in three years in this competition. Spaletti’s men only need a draw to stay alive whereas the Red Devils would go through if they manage one goal and keep Edwin Van der Sar’s nets from being violated. The main interrogation lays in the fact that two key players won’t be on the pitch tomorrow (Louis Saha and Paul Scholes). Add that to Man-U’s loss to Portsmouth Saturday and the fact that they have NEVER been able to overcome a first-leg loss in this competition’s history and we could be witnessing another upset in this year’s Champions League.
Valencia CF v. Chelsea
Chelsea has been looking monstrous lately and could even have the opportunity to play on three different competitions come April 20th. Everything seems to be going for the Blues these days with Joe Cole coming back from injury and Lampard looking just as good as he did before the World Cup. The best news for Chelsea and our friend Unsilent is the return of Michael Essien in the roster. The first-leg in Stamford Bridge was a poor spectacle aside from another stellar performance on Drogba’s part. They will play better because they need to play better. All they need is a goal and it’s a wrap. But dismissing the Spaniards would be a mistake even Inter Milan could not recover from. Valencia has mastered the art of being dominated on their own pitch without taking since Rafael Benitez was their coach and they managed to obtain two back-to-back Champions League finals. The Blues are warned.
Manchester United v. AS Roma
Even though the Italian side outclassed a diminished British squad in every single compartment of the game, Manchester managed to keep the hope alive with Wayne Rooney scoring his first goal in three years in this competition. Spaletti’s men only need a draw to stay alive whereas the Red Devils would go through if they manage one goal and keep Edwin Van der Sar’s nets from being violated. The main interrogation lays in the fact that two key players won’t be on the pitch tomorrow (Louis Saha and Paul Scholes). Add that to Man-U’s loss to Portsmouth Saturday and the fact that they have NEVER been able to overcome a first-leg loss in this competition’s history and we could be witnessing another upset in this year’s Champions League.Valencia CF v. Chelsea
Chelsea has been looking monstrous lately and could even have the opportunity to play on three different competitions come April 20th. Everything seems to be going for the Blues these days with Joe Cole coming back from injury and Lampard looking just as good as he did before the World Cup. The best news for Chelsea and our friend Unsilent is the return of Michael Essien in the roster. The first-leg in Stamford Bridge was a poor spectacle aside from another stellar performance on Drogba’s part. They will play better because they need to play better. All they need is a goal and it’s a wrap. But dismissing the Spaniards would be a mistake even Inter Milan could not recover from. Valencia has mastered the art of being dominated on their own pitch without taking since Rafael Benitez was their coach and they managed to obtain two back-to-back Champions League finals. The Blues are warned.
4 Comments:
I'm getting my celery ready...
Good God man.
That was big an ass-whipping as I've ever seen in the ManU-Roma match. I know that the Ginger Ninja has been great for the Red Devils; on the evidence of tonight, Sir Alex should think about going with the Carrick-Fletcher combination more often -- Fletcher's industry frees up Carrick to be more of an offensive force.
As for Valencia-Chelsea, well, you could always feel it coming. Valencia needed to take their chances and when they couldn't, Chelsea just out-muscled them. They may be the most physically dominating team I've ever seen, you can't get the ball off of them and they play like the pitch is slanted downhill.
Man U v Roma: I'm no fan of either squad (Gunners fan) but I watched hoping for a good match. I switched off at half when it was 4-0. I had no idea that I would miss four more goals.
ESSIENNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
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