CL Semi-Finals 1st legs round-up
Last night John O’Shea scored the only goal for the 2nd match of the 1st leg semi-finals against Arsenal to give Man Utd a slender lead to take with them to the Emirates Stadium for the return leg.
United started the match brightly, with the crowd roaring them on. Rooney had a header tipped away by Almunia, while Tevez and Ronaldo as well found the inspired Almunia on their way. It could have easily been 3-0 in United’s favor at half-time. The second half was less interesting however, except with some counter-attacks led by Ronaldo (who found the bar with a superb strike) and Rooney, but to no consequences whatsoever in the end. Special mentions to Gibbs, Arsenal’s young wing back, who gave Ronaldo a pretty tough time in the game, and Almunia for saving so many clear chances, while for United Rooney and Tevez were their usual self, running after every ball/pass and giving Arsenal defenders a bad time, while Ronaldo as well had a good game. Next week, United will have to try defend this lead or even try to win to get through.
The other semi-final match, played on Tuesday night, saw a very defensive Chelsea draw 0-0 at the Nou Camp against Barcelona. To be fair to Barcelona, despite having the magician Messi, Eto’o and Henry upfront, it is really difficult to score when you have 9 Chelsea players ‘parked’ at the back defending, with only Drogba upfront. Cech made several saves to keep his team in the match for the 90minutes, as Henry proved to be more dangerous on that occassion rather than Messi, who had a subdued night. Barcelona’s players and staff are still very angry about the way the match was played, mostly due to that defensive approach by Chelsea, and also for some of the ref’s decisions.
So all still to play for in both semi-final matches, as next week will see these 4 teams battle again for only 2 to reach the finals. Arsenal can still beat United and qualify, while the Red Devils only need a draw to get through (easier said than done thou). Chelsea will have to score if they want to reach the finals, as a draw greater than 0-0 will mean qualification for Barcelona, or even if the Catalans manage a win.
i thought chelsea did pretty well in containing barcelone, there were some hairy moments for the london club but the defence dealt with it. some say the way chelsea set themselves to disrupt barcelona’s attacking play was disgraceful but it is a tried and tested approach against an attacking side, eg when man utd defeated arsenal’s invisibles side. its ugly but it works.
saying that, i thought the ref was abit lenient. ballack was lucky to have stayed on the pitch, in fact he was lucky not to even receive a yellow card.