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Final Score (1st Leg) : Barca 5 – 1 Shakhtar
First leg ended with an inspiring result for the Catalan Giants as they will go in the 2nd legnext week with important goals in hand! Although it was a difficult match for the Ukrainian side, but they put up a solid performance against Barca, but unfortunately they lost and were not able to gain anything big from the match!
Barca broke the deadlock earlier in the match at the 3rd minute through Ineasta and then Dani Alves near half-hour mark took the score to 2-0 with his goal! Barca enjoyed most of the possession as usual and put a great pressure on their opponent’s half.
In second half, Barca completely destroyed their opponent and Pique topped the 2nd half scoring list and scored the second half opener. Although a little consolation goal came from the Shakhtar at 59th minute but it was immediately over-shadowed by Keita’s goal at the hour mark and this goal destroyed their hopes for advancing to the next round! But it was not over yet, as at the ending stages of the match, Xavi felt a need for another goal, and BAM! He scored his first goal of the match but it was the fifth one for the Catalonia!
Barca are playing an incredible season and it looks that they are already looking forward to win this competition and there in no doubt as they are the ‘hot-favorites’ to win this years Champions League!
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Final Score (1st leg): Man Utd 1 – 0 Chelsea
Man Utd scored through in-form Rooney’s goal. Giggs came to the end of the box and gave Rooney a low cross and Rooney along with the help of cross-bar guided the ball to the back of the net! Every Chelsea fan around the world hoped that Torres might score his opener for the club but he was denied twice by the Red Devils’ legend keeper. Man Utd showed up a good performance and there was no doubt about their victory as they consistently kept attacking the Blues. Although sometimes it was the Blues who got the chance but they were unable to convert those chances into the goals! Last 10-15 minutes was mostly controlled by Chelsea leading to constant series of attacks, but they all went in vain.
Man Utd will go to 2nd leg with an important away goal which will be very helpful for them to get them to the next round. Secondly 2nd leg will be at Old Trafford, so Chelsea will be in a lot of pressure there .
Chelsea’s season becomes worse as this competition in their only hope, so they need to tie the knots and get back to the game for their own good!
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Current European Champions, Inter will face Schalke 04 in the Quarter final phase of Champios League! Inter had a miserable week as they lost to their fierce rivals, AC Milan by 3-0. This defeat not only shattered their confidence but also took they a step backwards for the title! They are now 5-points behind the leaders AC Milan. They will definately want to forget this defeat before their Champions League match! But Inter still have plenty of reason to feel confident in Europe, after their spirited come-from-behind 3-2 win at Bayern Munich that sealed their progression to the quarter-finals.
Whereas, German side Schalke, who have performed poorly in the Bundesliga this season but still bundled out Spanish club Valencia 4-2 on aggregate in the round-of-16.Mixed form at league level has seen Schalke fall to 11th on the German table, one year after finishing runners-up behind Bayern Munich, prompting the unexpected sacking of manager Felix Magath last month.Tuesday’s trip to the San Siro will be a stern test for new boss Ralf Rangnick, who has never before coached in the Champions League knockout stages.
Schalke 04 may have to make a trip without a number of players on Tuesday, notably defender Christoph Metzelder, who broke his nose against St Pauli on Friday. Mario Gavranovic (ankle) and Peer Kluge (abdomen) also picked up injuries in Friday’s league match, which was abandoned with Schalke leading 2-0 after the assistant referee was hit by a cup of beer thrown from the stands. Inter’s biggest absence looks to be Brazilian defender Lucio, who will sit out the match due to suspension and is expected to be replaced by Colombian Ivan Cordoba.
1st leg will be playe at San Siro so Inter have a real chance of gaining earlier lead, so that they could make the trip to Germany for the return leg with some handy goals in hand! But off course they have to defend giving away goals as well to Schalke or their European trip might also be over!
Spurs have proved to be a great team this season as by surviving the last 16 of the tournament against AC Milan! Their existence in the Champions League can be proved very fatal for many clubs! In this round, they have Spanish gianst to defeat, but it will be a very heavy task for the Londoners and it will be a big test for them!
One of the most exciting fixture of the tournament will be Real Madrid vs Tottenham! There is no doubt about that but this 1st leg might not fit in to the category of being labelled as 'most exciting'! The reason is that this fixture will miss many big names, including, Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale and Lennon are struggling to appear but it is hopeful that they will play
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Football is one of the renowned and most popular game in the whole wide world! And it is the only game which is played on every part of every continent! Every year, especially in Europe, millions of euros are transfered from one country to another due to this game which involves transfers, sponsorships, etc!
Not only that, players and managers who take part in this game take millions of Euros home every year
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Michel Platini admitted earlier that the UEFA ticket price for the final at Wembly this season was too expensive and he suggested UEFA Board to reconsider that. The cheapest ticket on public sale for the final on May 28 will be £150 plus a £26 booking fee and UEFA president Platini has said family tickets should be half the price they are on sale for. But UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told at the news conference that the ticket prices are final and they will not change it! This will cause troubles for the English fans as Platini wanted more families to attend the match and enjoy it, but UEFA are reluctant to do anything like that!
UEFA also revealed their qualification format for the 2014 World Cup and that they will have no power over whether the play-offs are seeded or not. UEFA monitor 29,000 matches a season in the first and second divisions of all 53 national associations to see whether there are irregular betting patterns
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UEFA announced the draws for the Champions League quarter-finals today and most debatable match of these fixtures will be off course of Chelsea vs Man Utd! It will be the rematch of Champions League final in Moscow three years ago where Man Utd defeated Chelsea in penalties! Chelsea have never had the European glory and the closest they came was that final where Man Utd clinched the win due to the very last penalty where Terry slipped and was unsuccessful to convert it into goal and it cost Chelsea their first ever UEFA Cup! So this time around they will definitely look to avenge Man Utd for that! But given the current run of the both clubs in this season, Chelsea will have to increase their form and really need to turn the tables cuz Man Utd is in terrific form right now!
Meanwhile, spurs are handed over the nine-time UEFA winners, Madrid, for the quarter-final! It will be a very hard job for them through them and given the current level of Madrid, Redknapp really need to apply his tactic correct and wise and beat Mourinho's Lads! Real Madrid have passed to quarter-final after around six years and this time they want to go all the way to the final
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INTER VS BAYERN agg 3-3 (INTER win on away goals)
1st Leg defeated Inter stunned German strugglers as they won the game by 3-2! Their precious two away goals gave them the pass to go to next round! It was expected as Bayern were struggling in their domestic league as well due to their poor form. Late goal from Goran Pandev turned the game around burned any expectations left for the German former champions for any silverware this season! Goals from Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller, following mistakes by goalkeeper Julio Cesar and Lucio, had the hosts in control after Samuel Eto'o had grabbed an early opener - and they should have been far out of sight
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In the days preceding the big Champions League final opposing English champions Manchester United to Spanish champions Barcelona, much ink was spread on the two teams' strengths and weaknesses, mainly on how Barcelona would cope with a weakened defense. But after Barcelona's impressive display on Wednesday, you have wonder how everyone had seemingly forgotten about Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, the two main components of Barca's engine.
I never thought I'd see the day I'd say this but United deeply missed Darren Fletcher in midfield. As it was, their midfielders were unable to cope with Barca's passing game. After a strong showing against Arsenal, Anderson seemed to be disoriented by all the one-twos and tight ball control shown by Barcelona. Ryan Giggs never seemed comfortable at his position throughout the game and you have to wonder why Sir Alex Ferguson didn't start Paul Scholes instead and use Giggs as a substitute. Scholes was the one who eliminated Barcelona last year with his wonder strike and with the introduction of the new ball at Rome, he probably could have tried to take a whack at it. Furthermore, his presence could have brought more stability in central midfield especially to Michael Carrick who seemed to feel terribly alone against his opponents. The English midfielder probably had one of his worst games on Wednesday, reacting late defensively and being unusually off-the-mark when it came to distribute the ball to his wingers/strikers. On Barcelona's first goal, he was late to get back in the box in order to cover Nemanja Vidic. You could say that it isn't his job and that Rio Ferdinand was supposed to be there but Ferdinand was already covering Messi so his hands were pretty tied at the moment. And as all my various coaches liked to say, it's always better to outnumber your opponent when you're playing defensively, otherwise you're practically toast. After beating Evra on the left flank, all Eto'o had to do was skip past Vidic and had Van der Sar at his mercy. Had Carrick been there two seconds earlier, the play could have gone differently
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The semifinals of this year's Champions League ended yesterday (make that the day before yesterday) on two very different notes. On the one hand, Manchester United finished the work started last week by easily beating Arsenal 3-1. On the other hand, Chelsea and Barcelona delivered a thrilling game - made even more dramatic by questionable refereeing and last gasp efforts - which ended on the score of 1-1 thus sending Barcelona to the May 27th finale.
After a lackluster performance at Old Trafford last week, Arsène Wenger promised to fans that they would see a very different team on the second leg. Unfortunately for him, his squad didn't really have time to dictate the tone as they found themselves down 2-0 by the tenth minute of play. First, Park capitalized on Gibbs' accidental fall in the box to make it 1-0. Three minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo, fouled by Van Persie who was trying to repair a giveaway by Gibson, scored on the free-kick and practically ensured Manchester United's place in the finale with a 3-0 aggregate score
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After a high-scoring Round of 8, the competition tightened up a bit for the first leg of the semi-finals. Only one goal was scored as Manchester United defeated Arsenal at Old Trafford while Chelsea held Barcelona to a scoreless draw at the Nou Camp.
The semis kicked off with the Spanish giants meeting last year's finalists on Tuesday. The game was basically an exercise of attack versus defense with Barcelona attacking and Chelsea doing their best to hold the fort. This kind of game is the reason why I stopped watching Barca in La Liga so I was very disappointed of the outcome. Chelsea had one scoring chance in the entire game and that was after a sloppy back pass by Rafael Marquez late in the first half. Didier Drogba pounced on the loose ball but Victor Valdes stood tall against the striker's two attempts. Other than that, it was all Barcelona particularly in midfield where Iniesta's skill and Toure's determination were too much to handle for Lampard and Ballack. Lampard was completely invisible in this game, and his substitution at the 70th only helped the Blues to retreat into a even more defensive shell for the final third of the game
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After draws by Manchester United (2-2 against Porto) and Arsenal (1-1 against Villareal), fans were treated to more goals on Wednesday as Barcelona easily took care of Bayern at the Camp Nou while Chelsea silenced the Anfield crowd with a 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
After Bayern's impressive performance in the round of 16, everyone expected an entertaining game against the blaugrana. Sadly, the Germans' porous defense were no match for Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi as Barcelona found themselves up 3-0 (Messi at the 8th minute and 37th, and Eto'o in the 12th) before Bayern had even registered a shot on Victor Valdes. The reason for that total dominance was pretty simple. From the opening whistle, Barcelona put pressure on the German defense who had no support from their midfielder, leading to several giveaways and panicky clearances which resulted in the home side having the ball most of the time. Bayern's defense also couldn't deal with their opponents' movements. All four Barcelona goals came from great passing around the edge of the box as the ball was perfectly distributed from side to side
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Knowing that the opposition were currently weak in defense, Jesualdo Ferreira had the good idea to field an ambitious, all-attack team on the sacred grounds of Old Trafford. In an attempt to erase his defense's shortcomings, Sir Alex Ferguson deployed a strangely defensive midfield with Park, Carrick, Scholes and Fletcher all getting the nod for the start. The new formation did more harm than good as United found themselves held to a draw in the first leg of the Champions League's Round of 8.
The match wasn't even five minutes old when Cristian Rodriguez scored Porto's first goal after a foolish giveaway by Jonny Evans. However, similarly to Aston Villa's second goal on Sunday, the goal wasn't entirely the defense's fault. Here again, one had to look at Cristiano Ronaldo's arrogant play a couple of seconds earlier to find the origin of the action. As a matter of fact, after his brilliant performance against Villa (save for that mistake that led to the second goal), Ronaldo had a pretty terrible game against Porto marked by arrogance with the ball and selfishness when it came to passes. It felt like he wanted to dribble his way past every opponent instead of looking towards his teammates for possibilities. Thankfully, Manchester's other 'R' had came to play as Wayne Rooney equalized the mark in the 14th minute by beautifully anticipating and intercepting Bruno Alves' pass to his keeper before putting the ball in the back of the deserted net
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