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UEFA Champions League: Your Running Commentary

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With Barcelona and Inter Milan already set for what should be a memorable semifinal, the final two places in the UEFA Champions League semis will be sealed today as Manchester United takes on Bayern Munich (2:45pm, FSC/FSE) and Bordeaux faces Lyon (2:45pm, Fox Soccer Plus) in two quality quarterfinal second legs.

Manchester United must overcome a 2-1 loss to Bayern without the services of star striker Wayne Rooney (assuming he doesn't talk Alex Ferguson into playing him), but the Red Devils will be at Old Trafford today, which should help in what should be a tightly-contested match. Bayern Munich is expected to have Arjen Robben for the match.

In today's other quarterfinal, Bordeaux plays host to French rival Lyon needing to reverse a 3-1 first-leg scoreline. Sidney Govou and Lisandro Lopez are both suspended while Jean Makoun and Mathieu Bodmer are injured for Lyon, while Bordeaux is without injured Fernando.

If you will be watching today's quarterfinal matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

Comments

  1. Sorry, lads, I did not mean to step on anyone’s toes and I think you overreacted a bit. I am not suggesting that EPL is a bad league. EPL was the best league last year, despite Barcelona’s win of the Champion’s league. Last time around, EPL had 3 teams in semifinals of champions league, but the reality is that in the latest edition of the champions league, four top EPL teams competed and none of them reached semi-finals. It is not a fluke. Upsets can and do happen, but if all four teams fail to advance to semifinals it is a trend. Barcelona just obliterated one of the three contenders for the title in the EPL and it was not even close. I know that Arsenal tied the game at home, but Barcelona completely outplayed them and could have easily won 15-2, if it were not for Arsenal’s keeper having the game of his life. Losses of the ManUtd and Chelsey to German and Italian teams do not support your argument that EPL is the best league. And have you considered in evaluating the strength of the EPL, Liverpool’s failure to even advance from the group stage that was won by Fiorentina, which currently occupies the eighth place in Serie A? I don’t understand why you are so quick to dismiss the quality of La Liga, because the world’s best team (Barca) and the worlds best player (Messi) play in that league. I understand your point about drama in EPL with three top teams within a game of each other, but in La Liga Barca and Real are tied and are playing each other in El Classico this week-end. Can you point me to a more compelling match up in the upcoming weeks in the EPL than Real vs. Barca. Messi vs Ronaldo. Xavi v. Kaka. Regarding your criteria, in terms of the pace of play, Barcelona did not look slow against Arsenal, nor did Bayern against ManUtd, nor Inter against Chelsey. And both Barcelona and Bayern won the possession battle against Arsenal and ManUtd, arguably to best possession teams in the EPL. As for the ability of bottom teams to upset top teams, upsets happen in every league (Almeira beat Barcelona, Catania beat Inter, the same team that just swept Chelsey). As for the quality of international players in the league, I don’t understand how you can suggest that EPL is more attractive to international players when La Liga, when Christiano Ronaldo (the best EPL player that year) and Xabi Alonso forced their way from EPL to La Liga. And the last three winners of Ballon D’or, Argentinian Messi, Portuguese Ronaldo and Brazilian Kaka play in La Liga. In contrast, the only Ballon D’or winner that plays in EPL is Michael Owen, who won it in 2001. Hiquian, Ibrahimovich, Alves, Louis Fabiano, Benzema, Forlan, Aguero, Henry, Keita, YaYa Toure are all internationals, all quality players and all play in La Liga. I am not here to bash EPL, but EPL clearly is not as strong at the top as it used to be, and in my book a league cannot be the top league unless the very top teams play there. The EPL’s strength are the mid-table teams, which are not contenders, but are very sold, e.g. Fulham, Everton, Villa, Tottenham, Manchester City, etc. The bottom of the league, however, has some pretty bad teams like Burnley, Portsmouth, Hull, Wigan, etc. that struggle to string together a sequence of accurate passes. Yes, they are capable of an occassional upset, and they play with great effort and have very loyal and passionate fans, but they lack talent and the quality of their play, particulary in the build up leaves much to be desired. Your criticism of the lack of parity in La Liga and its domination by two teams is true, but if you look carefully at the last five years in EPL, you will also see that only two teams, Chelsey and ManUtd, won the title. And unless you are a die hard Arsenal supporter, you have every right to expect that this trend will continue this year and either Chelsey or ManUtd will win the title.

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  2. SAF does not care about Englands Nat Team,he is scottish and could care less if Rooney is healthy for world cup.There has already been rumors that SAF has been giving advice to Bradley about how to beat England at WC after Bradley spoke with him.

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  3. Just saying that I don’t think SAF would really care what Capello thinks. He feels Rooney belongs to United more than he does England (his mind of thinking that is).

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  4. Well put and supported.

    Stop injecting reason, logic, and analysis in an emotional, unsupported arguement.

    You’ll make their heads hurt.

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  5. Ahem I’m going to quote myself from a few articles down

    “Rooney is the kind of guy, and Man United the kind of team, to rush back and risk further injury.”

    Wow United. Not good

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  6. I know that United pays Wayne’s salary. But like you say, SAF is always critical when his players get injured during NAT duty. I do want to see SAF’s reaction if Capello lashes out. đŸ™‚

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  7. When you make statements like this, it’s pretty faulty not to put forth some sort of argument as to why you think that the Premiership is not the greatest league in the world.
    It’s certainly not the Spanish league, where two teams battle it out for the title, and the rest just crumble under financial pressure just to keep up w/ the top 2.
    Inter is hardly representative of a typical Italian side and their dominance in Serie A has led to a bare minimum expectation to get to the final of UEFA.
    I personally believe the Bundesliga is pretty underrated as a league, it’s always an exciting and tight contest, but I do not think that it’s the best league in the world.
    Looking at the Premiership you have the a team that finished w/ 86 points going to be knocked down to 6th. The first 3 are within a game of each other. The relegation battle is always the best of any league I’ve watched, and a mid-table side in 12th place is in the quarters of Europa. As a league, I believe they showed better than the others in UEFA, and have all gotten knocked out by teams that advanced to the quarters.

    Just because they don’t have a team in the quarters of UEFA doesn’t mean that’s representative of all 20 teams participating. Some people get too caught up in the glitz and glamour to analyze leagues top to bottom.

    Personally I don’t know what you look for in a league, but for me it’s the pace of play, quality international players from the bottom to top, goalkeeping, and the ability for bottom table teams to cause an upset.

    IMO it is the best league in the world. Has been for sometime, and will remain so until other leagues have the financial power to compete (ie Seria A in the 90s)

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  8. They must be referring to Pele, the Hawaiian goddess. Rooney does not resemble the football player PelĂ© in any way, shape or – particularly – form.

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  9. It’s all over for ManUTD and Arsenal. With no English teams in the final four of the Champions league, the argument that EPL is the best league in the world no longer appears to be convincing.

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  10. It has started. Sir Alex complains again!!!

    “Young boy, inexperience, but they got him sent off. They all rushed towards the referee. Typical Germans…”

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  11. Ribery was very smart not to play through Rafael’s grab. By stopping play himself he forced the official to whistle a foul. If Ribery plays through and advantage is allowed there’s a great chance the official will not card Rafael later.

    SAF has a new official to attack and demote.

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  12. Well, good news for Capello in one sense.. Rooney plays 3 fewer games. Away goals rule is unfair sometimes, but Bayern did what they had to do. Terrible mistakes by Rafael left Utd with 10 men. But that was a wonderful goal by Robben!

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  13. Haha, can’t wait to see United lose the league to Chelsea! They’ll have to be demoralized after their last two losses. Hopefully City beats them to put the icing on the cake.

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  14. The away goal rule has to be one of the dumbest in all of sports. Losing 3-2 is no more impressive than losing 2-1. That said I’m excited that we as fans are guaranteed at least one new team in the final.

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  15. France, Spain, Italy, and Germany are represented in the last 4. No England!!!! If not Chelsea, then not anyone from the Premier League, I say!

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