review-manchester united vs marseille second leg

chichartio scoring his 1st of 2

Manchester united went through to the quarter finals following what was a highly entertaining match at old trafford. All the goals coming from the reds, one at the wrong end though, but it wasn to matter as the red devils fought hard to overcome the french champions and deserved the win!
Okay so team news then and it was good news mostly for sir alex as both carrick and their player of the season so far nani were back from injury. The latter had been ruled out for around 3-4 weeks following a reckless challenge from jamie carragher that gashed his leg but he made a miraculous recovery and got back in time for this 1. There were problems at the back though as both rio ferdinand and vidic were out! A 4-4-2 system was employed with van der sar in goal. John o shea, wes brown, smalling and evra(*captain*) in defence. Nani, carrick, scholes and giggs in midfield and rooney and hernandez up front.
Didier deschamp started the same side that did so well against rennes on friday and it was certainly a boost to have star striker gignac back. The frenchman missed the first leg through injury and they missed his presence up front in that match.The regular 4-3-3 system was employed with steve mandanda(*captain*) in goal. Rod fanni, diawara, heinze and taiwo in defence. Lucho gonzales, m'bia and cheyrou across the midfield and remy, gignac and ayew up front!
The hosts must've been instructed before the game to go all out against the french team and that is exactly what they did with a very good quick start to the game that led to the opening goal in the first 5 min.
Following a united corner, the ball was cleared out but straight to red shirts and it dropped to rooney, and the no.10 volleyed it out to giggs superbly who had space on the left. Rooney then made up a lot of ground to get on to the return pass from the welshman, took it past a defender with 1 touch and put it into the danger area between the goal keeper and the defenders which was basically the typical type of ball you want if your a striker and hernandez was happy to oblige to that and was there for the tap in! It was a brilliant start for the red devils and marseille i must say were for the first few min shocked at the speed at which united were playing!
They did however start to get back into the game and began to create chances. One of those falling to gignac who tried to put it over van der sar into the goal but his effort was well off and he shouldv just blasted his volley into the back of the net! Marseille then took control of the game and had more possession than united although that they were lacking quality in the box and did let a few very good chances go to waste! Cheyrou was having a very good game for the visitors and looked to be the main threat to united along with lucho and remy who surprisingly was getting the better of evra at times!
At the other end rooney was having a brilliant game and this is the 1st time ive seen him this involved in the play since back in april when he was tearing down defences! This time around it was a less of a goal threat from him but the quality of passing and movement in the center of the park was superb from the englishman!
One player who didn seem to be performing at all though was nani. The portugese was having a relatively quiet night and he looked to be very hesitant to take on taiwo due to the left back's pace and was opting to pass the ball more instead. This of couse took out one of united's major goal threats and it was a very disappointing night for the no.17 who was taken off in the second half
John o shea had his hamstring pulled in the 35th min following a good run from him down the right hand flank and young rafael was brought on to replace him.
SECOND HALF
The second half started along the same pattern at which the first had ended with a battle for possession going on though united did look to be better this time around.
Nani was taken off for valencia who was greeted by cheers from the united faithful.It was the first champions league match for Ecuadorian since that horrific injury to his ankle!
United had looked shaky at the back  for most of the match and the absence of vidic was highlited when a cross from taiwo came in and brown completely mis-timed his kick and it couldv really gone anywhere from hitting his leg but he was lucky. The ball took a slight deflection off of his shin and went behind for a corner.
Remy continued to trouble united down their left hand side and evra was having to stick very close to him to deal with the wingers pace. Regular crosses though were coming in from that side but again not enough quality in the box to seriously trouble van der sar!
United did have more problems at the back from there after rafael, who had come on to replace john o shea in the first half, also managed to pull his hamstring. Fabio was brought on to replace his twin brother and at that point the marseille players must have said to themselves, 'we need to go for this now more than ever'
However it was United who began to trouble marseille a bit more and giggs shifted to centre of the park combining with valencia to deadly effect in the 75th min
Giggs bursted down the right hand side but had to cut back and pass it to valencia. The latter then did well to find a bit of space for himself and layed of a beautiful through ball for giggs who squared it into the box with his right foot and hernandez finished it off into the bottom left corner. A good finish following what was a very good move down the right hand side for the red devils.
Wes brown put a header in into his own net following a velbuena corner which made the game very interesting for the last 10 minutes but united managed to hang on and although marseille dominated large periods of the match, it was that ruthlessness in front of goal that won united the match which they did deserve on the night!

review- tottenham vs milan second leg

sandro competing for the ball with pato

Spurs defended excellently in a game  in which they surprisingly failed to score but deserved to go through after a well fought battle!
The fact that they failed to score is such a surprise because before this fixture they had scored 3 goals in all of their previous home games in europe.Still it was a fairly interesting game with Milan having the better of the chances but failing to put away any of them due to some excellent defending from the english side which included a dramatic goal line clearance from william gallas!
There was only 1 change from the tottenham team that played in the first leg with modric coming back in for palacios. A 4-4-1-1 formation was employed with gomes in goal. Corluka, gallas, dawson(*captain*) and essou-ekotto in defence. The pacey lennon, sandro, modric and pienaar made up the midfield and rafa v.der.vaart played in the hole behind peter crouch. Gareth bale had recovered from his back injury in time for this fixture but could only find a place on the bench with redknapp taking no chances on his star player!
Allegri played a pretty attacking side employing his favored 4-1-2-1-2 with abbiati in goal. Abate, nesta, thiago silva and jankulosvki in defence. Seedorf(*captain*) played deep with boateng and flamini playing ahead of him and robinho played directly behind ibra and pato!
Milan dominated the game with 63% overall possession which, considering the match was at white heart lane and how excellent tottenham have been there this season, was probably the biggest shock of the match. It basically meant that spurs came here to defend and only rarely created a chance or two. V.der.vaart had a few cracks at goal from long range and came close with a well struck free kick but his effort was just over the bar. Abbiati did look to have it covered though if it had dipped at the last instant!
The absence of a holding mid in the shape of palacios in the spurs midfield meant they werent strong enough in that part of the pitch and were regularly being overcrowded. Boateng in particular was finding lots of space and regular passes were being fed to ibra and pato through him. Ibra came the close with a very well struck freekick that was heading for the top corner but gomes pulled off a good save to keep it out.
It was robinho who had the best chance of the first half to open the scoring when pato, after rounding an on-rushing gomes, squared the ball to him but he just mistimed his kick a little and it hit assou-ekotto. The ball rebounded off the left back and wouldv ended up in the back of the net if not for a goal-line clearance from william gallas!
Milan created a few more chances and bossed the midfield area but failed to score in what was an eventful first half
SECOND HALF
Tottenham played much deeper in the second half with at times all their players back defending! This of course meant that milan were having even more possession in midfield though it wasn leading to much. One bright point from tottenhams p.o.v was that aaron lennon was much better in the second 45 and constantly used his pace to good use against jankulovski!
They did of course have a big target man in the box in the form of peter crouch to aim the crosses towards but the former liverpool wasn good enough with most of his headers and at times got caught up in b/w putting in to the goal or squaring it to van der vaart.
A lift was given to the home supporters though when gareth bale came on in th 66th min for v.d.vaart who had had had a disappoint game. Bale however wasn used in the role many expected and slotted back in as an extra lb clearly signalling spurs' intent to just see the game out without conceding!
Pato and Robinho both came very close to scoring for the away side but in the end it just wasnt to be and the final whistle was accompanied by a frenzy of cheering from the spurs' fans! An amazing overall win over one the european giants and an amazing achievement to have gotten to the semis on the first time of asking!

review- barcelona vs arsenal second leg

So the wait was finally over! The match everyone had been waiting for, the second leg of the battle of the sides famed for their passing abilities.A highly interesting match followed that had a lot of contentious decisions from the match officials and certainly lived upto all expectations with the spanish giants walking away with all the spoils in a match, which they controlled right from the off and deserved to go through to the final 8!

okay so into the team news then and Pep Guardiola had to make do with a very makeshift central defence due to both puyol(*injury*) and pique(*suspended*) not being available for selection. Victor Valdes started out b/w the sticks with alves, busquets, abidal and adriano in defence. Mascherano took up the holding mids position with xavi(*captain*) and iniesta in front of him. Messi, Villa and Pedro made up the front 3. It was an almost regular starting XI for barcelona who just had the issues in defence to deal with before the match and i must say the back 4 did a very good job against arsenal's attack!

Arsene wenger had to do without the pacey Walcott and Alex song for this one and was very happy to atleast have captain Cesc fabregas and Van persie back into the squad. Both were a doubt before the match but managed to recover from their respective injuries and made it back into the squad just in time. Szczesny started out as goal keeper and Sagna, Koscielny, Djorou and Clichy were the defence. Diaby was charged with having to hold the mid together and Wilshire and Fabregas were in midfield....Rosicky, V.persie and Nasri were up front!.

The home side, as expected of them, started off very well with pedro going through on goal in the 3rd min and it took a very good challenge from koscielny to deny him an early goal. Barca kept possession very very well during the whole of the match but were wasteful in front of goal. The stats did however still show their dominance, maintaining around 70% of the possession throughout the entire game. The fullbacks were continuously looking forward and seemed to be more like genuine wingers rather than defenders. Adriano in particular was a constant threat to the arsenal defence and sagna just didn know how to deal with him at times!

Arsenal played a different game as to what they did in the first leg. 2 weeks ago at the emirates they chased down every barca pass like crazy and did not let the catalans get a proper grip on their passing game which we all know they execute so wonderfully. A high back line was also avoided due to the danger of over-the-top through passes and at times, due to barcas full-backs pressing so hard, nasri and rosicky were slotting back in defence creating a sort of back 6. 

messi celebrates scoring his penalty with his team mates

Barcelona were quite good at keeping the ball and pressed relentlessly whenever arsenal had the ball. In fact the londeners were not even being able to put together a move of around 5 passes! Everytime they got the ball, their was always pressure on the man in possession and no-one really looked calm enough to keep the moves going. The defending though i must say was pretty good from them for around the first 40 min and they managed to keep barca out of their penalty box by not allowing any space for passes into the box. This was forcing xavi and iniesta, the two pivots around which all their attacks rotate, to play more passes square rather than into the path of the strikers for a run on goal!.

Arsenal had another problem to deal with around the quarter hour mark when following a smashed freekick from alves, szcsesny collected the ball and rolled it out of play instantly signalling that something was troubling his finger. As the replay suggested, the ball had hit the polish keeper's finger head on and it bent back which is certainly very painful! Manuel almunia was brought on who last year was just a spectator as messi scored 4 past him and single-handedly won barca that fixture. Arsenal have revealed that szczesny dislocated his finger which means out for the rest of the season!

And it was that man messi again who turned out to be the tormentor of arsenal in the 47th min. Up till that point arsenal had defended very well and had kept out barcelonas attack but a mistake from the 1 person in that team you would never expect to make it, cesc fabregas, changed the whole scene of the game!

Arsenal managed to barely clear their lines following a barca attack and the ball dropped to fab who, on th outside of his own box, tried a back-heeled pass to wilshire! An amazing mistake from the spaniard and the ball dropped to iniesta who after going past 3 players, produced a SPECTACULAR chipped through ball for messi. The argentine took it in his stride with 1 touch, over the advancing almunia with the next touch and volleyed it in for a goal. Brilliant skill from the world's best player though fabregas has to take the blame for it!

SECOND HALF

The second 45 started pretty much the same with barca dominating! That however seemed to go against what took place in the 53rd min

Nasri did brilliantly down the left hand flank to get a corner. The frenchman took it himself and his delivery looked delicious and produced an unlikely goal! Sergio busquets headed the ball into his own net! They clearly missed the presence of the poyul and pique in the box and that corned showed exactly why!

At the other end messi produced a good through ball to put villa through on goal put the spaniard was wasteful and almunia came out and claimed the ball. It was certainly an off night for villa who just couldn get his finishing going!

Van persie was sent off on a second yellow in one of the most bizarre decisions you will ever get to see. He was flagged offside and ref blew the whistle but the dutchman had already thought about the shot and after taking it was sent off for lashing at the ball! A very very poor decision that you do not expect off of a champions league ref!..

Barca marched on from their on in and got their second goal following an absolutely exquisite passing move involving iniesta, villa and xavi with the latter finishing if off with a calm finish past almunia that looked to have taken a little touch off of sagna!

They got their third shortly after when koscielny tripped pedro in the box and the ref pointed to the penalty spot. Lionel messi stepped up to take it and calmly slotted it past almunia into the bottom right corner.

On the night barca definitely definitely deserved that win! The arsenal players just didn show up at all and were punished for playing so defensively. Their was not a single shot on goal from the londoners and that stat just basically sums up the whole game!