Goal! Weekly Article 6: European Champions League

RULE BRITANNIA

All English Final on Horizon?

By Julius Ross

The semi-finals of the European Champions League will see three of the four remaining sides in the competition representing England, and the prospect of the first ever all-English final is firmly on the cards.

England has already secured one representative in the final in Moscow, with the winner of the semi-final showdown between Chelsea and Liverpool advancing to face either Manchester United or Barcelona in the Luzhniki Stadium.

It will be the fourth consecutive season an English team has reached the final, with appearances from Liverpool in 2005 and 2007 and Arsenal in 2006.

In addition, if Manchester United overcomes Barcelona, we may see the first ever European Cup final fought out by two English sides.

2008 may also be first final since 2000 – when Real Madrid defeated Spanish counterparts Valencia – to feature teams from the same country.

Liverpool and Chelsea will face each other at the semi-final stage of the competition for the third time in four years, with Liverpool maintaining a psychological advantage over the Blues from their previous semi-final appearances.

In both ’05 and ’07, Liverpool defeated Chelsea over the two-legged semi-final ties to set up final confrontations against AC Milan in Istanbul and Athens, respectively.

The Reds will want to make it three in a row against the Blues, and after knocking out Arsenal 5-3 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, they will be warm favourites to reach a third Champions League final under Rafa Benitez’ reign.

In a frenetic second-leg clash at Anfield, Liverpool sealed a dramatic 4-2 victory to advance to the semi-final stage at the expense of the Gunners.

First-half goals from Arsenal’s Abou Diaby and Liverpool’s Sami Hyypia put the game on track for a third consecutive 1-1 draw between the sides in the space of a week, but a spectacular second half would change all that.

Fernando Torres’ superb turn and strike into the top corner of the Arsenal net in the 69th minute saw Liverpool on course to qualify, but in the 83rd minute the tables turned in Arsenal’s favour when Emmanuel Adebayor equalised for the Londoners, following a scintillating assist from Theo Walcott.

After a Liverpool attacking move broke down, Walcott quickly pounced on the loose ball, sprinted over 60-yards from box-to-box, riding four challenges on the way to placing a cool cross to Adebayor, who duly slotted home.

It was an outstanding display of skill, speed and maturity from the 19-year-old, and it had given his side one foot in the semi-finals on away goals with the scoreline at 2-2.

Arsenal needed to hold on for seven minutes to progress, but they could only manage a mere 30 seconds.

Straight from the kick-off, Ryan Babel surged forward to the Kop end only to be controversially brought down by Kolo Toure in the penalty area, whilst Arsenal were still contemplating their important equaliser.

The Kop roared in ecstasy as referee Peter Frojdfeldt pointed at the spot, then in a hushed silence of anticipation, they watched Steven Gerrard emphatically bury the spot-kick high into the net.

For Liverpool, hope for the semis was restored in magnificent, albeit contentious, fashion.

For Arsenal, heads were in hands, players and fans alike, still attempting to reconcile just what had occurred over the previous two minutes.

For the neutral, it was an Epic.

As Arsenal pushed for an equaliser in the dying moments, a cleared ball left substitute Babel and Cesc Fabregras one-on-one in the Arsenal half.

It was fresh versus fatigued and Babel won the tussle and poked the ball past Manuel Almunia to make it 4-2, securing yet another glorious European victory for the Reds.

In slightly less dramatic terms, Chelsea progressed to its fourth semi-final appearance in five years with a mechanic 2-0 victory over Turkish side Fenerbahce at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea has failed to progress to the final in all its previous semi-final appearances, and after their unimpressive and dour display against Fenerbahce, they will have to improve considerably if they are to rupture Liverpool’s current European form and reach the final.

After losing the first leg 2-1 in Istanbul, Chelsea was determined to reverse the result, and Michael Ballack gave the home side a dream start when he scored in the fourth minute to give his side the advantage on the away goal rule with the aggregate score locked at 2-2.

Although valiant during the majority of the game, the Turkish underdogs were unable to severely threaten Chelsea’s increasing hold on the tie, despite the Blues having to field their third-string ‘keeper after an injury to Carlo Cudicini, and with Petr Cech absent.

Frank Lampard finally ended Fenerbahce’s dream run in the competition, when he scored Chelsea’s second, three minutes from time.

Manchester United and Barcelona both comfortably won their quarter-final home ties 1-0 to advance to an intriguing semi-final clash.

United suffered an early scare when they conceded a penalty after 30 minutes, but Italian midfielder Daniele De Rossi embarrassingly fired over the cross-bar.

Alex Ferguson’s side never looked troubled after that, with Carlos Tevez rounding off a 3-0 aggregate victory by heading home Owen Hargreaves’ cross in the 70th minute, to send them into their second consecutive semi-final appearance.

With dangerous duo Christiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney rested by Ferguson for their crucial Premier League clash with Arsenal on Sunday, United’s ‘second-string’ side completed victory with an industrious display which inflicted Roma’s third defeat at Old Trafford in the space of 12 months.

Whilst the form of English giants Manchester United sees it as the competition’s hot favourite, Barcelona has been struggling both on and off the pitch with stars such as Ronaldinho rumoured to be looking for a transfer out.

The Catalan club churned out a hard-fought 1-0 win and a 2-0 aggregate victory, courtesy of a ‘lucky’ Yaya Toure at the Nou Camp against German outfit Schalke 04.

Schalke, in their first ever Champions League quarter-final in the club’s history, were unintimidated by the atmosphere provided by the 88,000 strong Nou Camp crowd and took the game to the home side.

But an upset was not to be, and a sequence of defensive calamities in the 43rd minute allowed Barca to score, finishing the German side’s fairytale run.

With four more teams eliminated, and only four remaining, the semi-finals of the Champions League will hopefully provide as much entertainment, action and intrigue as the quarter finals produced.