donny1013
Well-Known Member
- Nov 4, 2005
- 5,646
- 946
The draw could scarcely have been tougher. Chelsea and Arsenal were both group runners-up, so either could have landed a tie against Barcelona. But the Premier League has taken close to the best the rest of Europe has to offer and, with varying degrees of ease, dispatched all-comers at this stage for the second season in a row.
All are beatable. Arsenal escaped a penalty shout at the end of the first half that would have forced them to commit to the hunt for a goal. In the end they needed to keep their nerve from 12 yards at the end of 120 minutes and had Mirko Vucinic not been caught bluffing so soon in the shoot-out then the pressure would have mounted rapidly after Eduardo's opening error.
Sir Alex Ferguson was understandably unhappy at his side's gifting Inter a sustained spell of control at Old Trafford, while Jose Mourinho was left to rue how far short of the best player in the world Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked in front of goal.
Chelsea, like Arsenal, were pegged back to 1-1 on aggregate early in their second leg and needed Didier Drogba to come up with their second equaliser on the night to close out their tie against Juventus.
Liverpool achieved the margin of victory their domination deserved against Real Madrid, but - not for the first time - had a helping hand from the officials. Had Iker Casillas not been beaten twice as a result in the first half then Real might not have been there for the taking when Steven Gerrard scored his sumptuous second goal.
Barcelona and Bayern were notably impressive and either of these past winners this decade could land a second success in Rome in May. Villarreal were a penalty away from extra time in the 2006 semi-finals and we all remember Porto two years earlier.
Still, when the draw is made a week on Friday, most on the continent, well beyond the participating clubs hoping for an easier draw and Anglophobes, will be hoping there is at least one all-Premier League pairing.
The commercial success of the Champions League depends in part on it being a pan-European event: if only audiences in a couple of countries have a serious investment in the semi-finals, as has been the case two seasons in a row, then the return to sponsors will diminish there, and in time there may be a ripple effect back to earlier rounds.
Michel Platini has damaged his credibility by making up statistics to bolster some of his arguments. Last autumn he said that "hardly any English players are in the final stages of the Champions League", when there were 10 starters in Moscow and more in the semi-finals, a stronger representation than from any other country. At the same time he does have a responsibility to the game across the continent and needs UEFA's premier competition to maintain its attractiveness to sponsors and audiences in straitened times.
There has been no domination approaching this in the history of the Champions League or European Cup; you cannot compare the run of wins when countries had usually one and at most two entrants. Last season's feat, of Premier League clubs only being eliminated by Premier League clubs when there were four of them, was extraordinary.
Platini's proposed solutions to Premier League domination are flawed. But just because some of the rhetoric on the subject is misleading and the proposed answers are impractical, that doesn't mean there isn't a problem.
Still, if there are matches as dramatic or enjoyable as this week's, at least it's not all bad...
It is something i am getting bored of. The 'Sky 4' now seemingly becoming the 'CL 4'. I hope at least two of them (not Man Utd) get knocked out in the quarter finals and i also hope for the sake of football that Liverpool don't get drawn against Chelski again as that is possibly the worst match in football
All are beatable. Arsenal escaped a penalty shout at the end of the first half that would have forced them to commit to the hunt for a goal. In the end they needed to keep their nerve from 12 yards at the end of 120 minutes and had Mirko Vucinic not been caught bluffing so soon in the shoot-out then the pressure would have mounted rapidly after Eduardo's opening error.
Sir Alex Ferguson was understandably unhappy at his side's gifting Inter a sustained spell of control at Old Trafford, while Jose Mourinho was left to rue how far short of the best player in the world Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked in front of goal.
Chelsea, like Arsenal, were pegged back to 1-1 on aggregate early in their second leg and needed Didier Drogba to come up with their second equaliser on the night to close out their tie against Juventus.
Liverpool achieved the margin of victory their domination deserved against Real Madrid, but - not for the first time - had a helping hand from the officials. Had Iker Casillas not been beaten twice as a result in the first half then Real might not have been there for the taking when Steven Gerrard scored his sumptuous second goal.
Barcelona and Bayern were notably impressive and either of these past winners this decade could land a second success in Rome in May. Villarreal were a penalty away from extra time in the 2006 semi-finals and we all remember Porto two years earlier.
Still, when the draw is made a week on Friday, most on the continent, well beyond the participating clubs hoping for an easier draw and Anglophobes, will be hoping there is at least one all-Premier League pairing.
The commercial success of the Champions League depends in part on it being a pan-European event: if only audiences in a couple of countries have a serious investment in the semi-finals, as has been the case two seasons in a row, then the return to sponsors will diminish there, and in time there may be a ripple effect back to earlier rounds.
Michel Platini has damaged his credibility by making up statistics to bolster some of his arguments. Last autumn he said that "hardly any English players are in the final stages of the Champions League", when there were 10 starters in Moscow and more in the semi-finals, a stronger representation than from any other country. At the same time he does have a responsibility to the game across the continent and needs UEFA's premier competition to maintain its attractiveness to sponsors and audiences in straitened times.
There has been no domination approaching this in the history of the Champions League or European Cup; you cannot compare the run of wins when countries had usually one and at most two entrants. Last season's feat, of Premier League clubs only being eliminated by Premier League clubs when there were four of them, was extraordinary.
Platini's proposed solutions to Premier League domination are flawed. But just because some of the rhetoric on the subject is misleading and the proposed answers are impractical, that doesn't mean there isn't a problem.
Still, if there are matches as dramatic or enjoyable as this week's, at least it's not all bad...
It is something i am getting bored of. The 'Sky 4' now seemingly becoming the 'CL 4'. I hope at least two of them (not Man Utd) get knocked out in the quarter finals and i also hope for the sake of football that Liverpool don't get drawn against Chelski again as that is possibly the worst match in football
