Gunners Rule!!!

I had come up with a few predictions in my previous entry and to my disbelief just 1 of them turned out to be the actual scoreline... Anyways we are now into the semis of the Champions League... We have already seen Barca win against a strong Milan side in Milan... Which effectively means that Barca have one foot in the final... Arsenal too came up with a decent performance but they wouldnt be too comfortable going to Villareal with just a single goal cushion... They will be looking to kill the leg off by scoring an away goal... Arsenal havent conceded a single goal in the Champions League for the past 9 matches now... But football is what it is meant to be... Unpredictable... Villareal are always in with a chance... But they will be looking for a more influential performance from their talisman Juan Roman Riquelme who had an inconsequential night against the Gunners...

But thinking of the quarterfinals now... The predictions i made... Where did i go wrong??? Juventus and Arsenal drew 0-0 as i forecasted.... In my mind the real tragedy was the Milan- Lyon leg... The result i anticipated was so close... Hardly 2 or 3 mins left and Inzaghi pops up with a goal which had never been on the cards... Lyon had not been dominating exactly but they were without doubt playing at a notch higher than the Rossoneri... 1-1 till the 87th min as i predicted... 3-1 at the end of full time... Unbelievable.... Deja Vu for Lyon as they make their exit in the quarters yet again... They fully deserved to be in the semis at least... But credit shouldnt be taken away from Milan as well... They played a good game and progressed with a bit of luck... But sadly it looks like the luck has run out for Milan as they missed a plethora of great chances against Barca with the likes of Gilardino, Kaka and Ambrosini all missing good chances...


And the other surprise was the Inter- Villareal result... I thought Inter played a very good game in the 1st leg despite going down in the very 1st min... They recovered to win the match 2-1... They showed that they could deal with pressure... I thought that aspect would take them through to the semis... But unfortunately that did not prove to be the case as they let Villareal run away with a 1-0 win... Inter's strike force was inept at its best that night... They let themselves down with such a performance... Inter's trophy drought continues.......

Benfica's resilience in the 1st leg against Barca showed that they are not to be taken lightly... Barca dominated the 2nd leg... Even Ronaldinho's penalty miss couldnt stop them... But things could have changed if Simao had equalised... He had a wonderful opportunity... Commentators thought he had in fact scored... But the ball was found behind the net.... Pity!!!

Anyways Gunners rule and will continue to rule!! Let us pray for them.. Hope they can make the finals this year!!!! Barca we are waiting!!!!!

The Impending Clash!!

When Barca take on Benfica this Wednesday they might already be thinking of their opponents in the semis... It could be either Milan or Lyon... Lyon have been underdogs throughout this season's Champions League... But their 4-0 demolition of PSV have made them a team to watchout for... Barca too will not have a walkthrough... Their Portuguese opponent Benfica made short work of defending champs Liverpool in the previous round progressing 3-0 on aggregate... I think that's no fluke...

Both the matches are intriguingly poised... But Milan and Barca will be ruing their inability to score an away goal which might have put the results beyond doubt.. Anyway with both matches finishing 0-0 all that they need is a win in their home stadiums... Which will not be very easy but achieveable nonetheless... But intuition here tells me that Milan might be ousted by Lyon... You know people call it gut feeling... Thats exactly what i feel...

The other 2 quarters are also ones to look out for... Arsenal travel to Italian giants Juventus with a handy 2-0 lead... They will be looking forward to progress to the semis.. If they do this will be their 1st time beyond the quarters for the Gunners... Juventus will be missing some important players in the shape of former Gunner Patrick Vieira, Johnathan Zebina and Mauro Camoranesi... Though they will be boosted by the return of influential midfielder Pavel Nedved who missed the 1st leg and also skipper Alessandro Del Piero who will mostly be benched... Arsenal will be looking for some inspirational performances from much-wanted captain Thierry Henry and youth prodigy Cesc Fabregas who put in a tremendous performance in the 1st leg...

The other match will see Inter Milan taking on Villareal.. Inter won the 1st leg 2-1 despite going down 1-0 in the very 1st minute of the match... Villareal though need just a 1-0 win if they are to progress... Inter will be looking to Adriano to provide the goods after he overcame his goal drought with the 1st goal in the match against Villareal last week... Villareal on the other hand will be looking to Diego Forlan to score their goals... Juan Roman Riquelme will also be a key element in this fixture... Lets see...

Anyway my personal predictions for this week's quarters are as follows:

Barca 2- 1 Benfica
Milan 1-1 Lyon
Juventus 0-0 Arsenal
Villareal 1-1 Inter

Remember to catch the action this tuesday and wednesday nights on ESPN and Star... C ya then...