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Champions League Quarterfinals: Your Running Commentary

Championsleaguelogo

Good afternoon folks. Today is the day. Arsenal vs. Liverpool and Chelsea vs. Fenerbahce.

Arsenal travels to Anfield needing a win or tie of 2-2 or greater to advance and a 1-1 tie to force overtime against Liverpool. Chelsea plays host to the Turkish club down 2-1 from the first leg, but holding a valuable away goal.

ESPN2 is showing Arsenal-Liverpool while you can follow Chelsea-Fenerbahce on ESPN360.com. If you plan on following the matches and will be online, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and some play by play in the comments section below.

My picks are Liverpool to win 2-1 and Fenerbahce to tie 1-1 and advance. I called Fenerbahce as an upset pick a while back and am sticking with it.

Enjoy the matches.

Comments

  1. inkedAG,

    I wouldn’t be crying – they should have had a penalty called against them last week. To be honest, how many people think that call was made last night BECAUSE of what happened the week before with all of the whining and crying?

    That being said, I am NOT looking forward to Chelsea-Liverpool… AGAIN.

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  2. Erik, if that penalty was called against Liverpool, you know you’d be crying!!

    I’m not gonna cry about it, but it was SOFT. World Cup 2006 worthy…

    However, Arsenal has been running on fumes for a bit now and Liverpool took it to them. Congrats. Another Chelsea-Liverpool snoozefest. Lovely.

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  3. All of the Aresenal fans will whine and cry about the penalty as they do EVERY time something goes against them. Wenger is notorious for being a cry baby and it rubs off on his players and the fans.

    While it was a borderline penalty call, it looked to me that Babel was run over BEFORE Toure got near him and he tried to stay on his feet. We all know what a “dive” looks like and I can guarantee Babel didn’t dive.

    As for the Hleb penalty the week before, I am glad they didn’t call it. Players are always going down soft in the box or anywhere else on the pitch these days. For once it SHOULD go against them.

    As for Aresenal… great style, no substance. Liverpool is a class team in the UCL these days and know how to win. They didn’t hang their head, they went straight forward like they should have to win.

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  4. As an Arsenal fan, it is tough to swallow after the non-call last week on Helb. I understand why the ref gave it, whenever a defender makes any contact from behind in the box, it’s playing with fire. I thought Toure was trying to avoid contact after they entered the box, but intent doesn’t always matter to the referee. But that’s football. Sometimes the calls go for you, sometimes they go against you.

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  5. from a neutral perspective (don’t care for either team really) the penalty was a bit soft. To me, contact was outside the box and Toure attempted to avoid further contact after that contact.

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  6. for all those level headed fans, you have to remember that these liverpool fans do have their red tinted glasses on. These are the same people who last week claimed it was not a penalty at the Emirates, when Kuyt actually made contact with Hleb. So let them bask in their glory, with their YNWA’s, and their champions of Europe, and how they are going to win it all, because THEY HAVE THE HISTORY.

    Arsenal went to “Fortress” Anfield today, and got the job done. (What an amazing run by Walcott). Too bad the ref decided otherwise.

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  7. Are you kidding me??? Diver??? Toure basically tackled him, American football style, it was a desperate play from Toure, who was obviously beaten by Babel and caught out still celebrating the goal…and for those who call it soft or shout bias, you so quickly forget Kuyt being taken out in the penalty box early in the game…all the gooner whinging isn’t going to change anything…YNWA!!!!

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  8. Babel in no way dived. There was contact, and thats what put him down.

    I don’t think it was soft at all. I think it was borderline, but not soft. Toure rampaged into Babel’s back, so no, I don’t think it was soft. Borderline, but not soft.

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  9. That was no penalty. This is particularly hard to swallow considering the foul on Hleb wasn’t called in the first game.

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  10. Wow, that was something, with goals in the 84th, 85th, and 90th mins. Walcott was about to be the biggest story in England with his run, but Liverpool finish it off.

    Great show, I’m turning the channel before I catch the Chelsea score, but I’ll be curious to see the penalty again.

    For some reason, I like the Liverpool midfield and attackers as soon as I saw it, with Gerrard and Kuyt on the wings. Strangely with a Liverpool team, it was the defensive line that was a mess early, and it’s not clear they ever figured it out, Liverpool only stopped Arsenal when they attacked.

    Mascherano was probably the Man o’ Match, he was imperial playing the tough midfielder who shuts you down (yes you, Fabregas) and makes the perfect pass out to the wings and forwards running out.

    The scary thing about the game was how bad Torres was most of the time. He had the same kind of day as Chad Barrett, screwed up most of his attacks, but got it right a couple of times and produced a few goals.

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  11. I don’t think the penalty was that soft. Situations like that go either way.

    Thinks to take away from the game:

    -Tommy Smyth hates Liverpool (but we all knew that anyway)

    -Crouch and Torres can play together. Every time they do, Crouch creates a goal for Torres. Happened today.

    -Senderos is a duck. He’s been shite all year , and today, he was responsible for two of Liverpool’s goals. And he drew a card.

    -Again, something we knew going into this match: Arsenal will not win a trophy this season.

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  12. i cant believe the ref gave that penalty….. if there was any contact(and thats a big if) it was outside of the box, and at best a free kick….. i usually don’t complain about penalties, but after the ref looked the other way last week at the emirates, there is no way that penalty should have been given.

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  13. Lost in all this is Walcott’s great run and assist. Now we’ll have to witness another Liverpool-Chelsea snooze-fest.

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  14. It would’ve been nice if all 3 of their games this past week had been this exciting, rather than making us watch 180 minutes of crap to get to one good game.

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  15. Lost in it all was the amazing run by Walcott. He picked up the ball, outran the whole Liverpool side, and correctly picked out Adebuyor instead of an offside teammate.

    BTW, it was all so fast that when the penalty is analyzed it might be not so clear…

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  16. There was no way Gerrard was going to miss. Arsenal could have put shackles on his legs and he would have found a way to convert.

    But that was some serious crap…

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