The UEFA Champions League semifinals kick off today with upstart Schalke hosting favored Manchester United in the first leg of their tie (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel).
Schalke might be the underdog in this series, but that didn't get in the way of its overwhelming upset of cup holder Inter Milan in the quarterfinals. The hosts will be without injured star defender Benedikt Howedes, though, which will put even more stress on goalkeeper Manuel Neuer — a long-rumored Manchester United transfer target — to come up big against the likes of Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez.
If you will be watching the Schalke-Manchester United match, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action.
Schalke needs one goal here to at least give them hope for the return match. It isn’t Schalke’s day, but it has shown in this year’s Champions League that it can play better than this – especially in the 5-2 win over Inter in Milan, when they were awesome.
Schalke sucked. And I don’t think they were “disrespecting Schalke” so much as addressing the obvious gulf in overall quality. In fact, the commentators were very complimentary of the community model behind Schalke.
I hate Man Utd. too, but this just homerism.
Inter was a shell of the team that won it all last year. First off Mourinho left. Second, they went through a mid season coaching change with BenÃtez.
I always thought that in Cup competitions, the home and away legs – as well as the match ups are drawn by lots and luck, not a seeding process.
I imagine that Monterry came out of the pot first and therefore had the first home leg.