LIVERPOOL MAKE IT FOUR

 

 

Last season, four English teams reached the 1st knockout round of the Champions League. United faced Lille and won 2-0 on aggregate. Chelsea faced Porto, and won 3-2 on aggregate. Liverpool faced Barcelona. That tie finished 2-2 on aggregate and the Scousers won the tie on away goals in one of that season's bigger upsets. Arsenal were the only Premiership side to fall, facing PSV Eindhoven and losing 2-1 on aggregate to a seemingly minor side.

This time round, well United, Arsenal and Chelsea had already made it through to the quarter finals, beating Lyon 2-1, Arsenal 2-0 and Olympiakos 3-0 respectively. That just left Liverpool who themselves were in a strong position having beaten Inter 2-0 in the first leg at Anfield. However with their opponents sharing a stadium with fellow CL competitors AC Milan, the second leg at the San Siro had to be postponed a week. Now though the Scousers stood on the brink of making history for English football. Four teams from the same country have never reached the Champions League final before.

Well Inter were the team that needed the goals and they certainly gave the Reds a hot welcome early on, doing all the early attacking but the Scouse defence held firm and then their attackers started to make a game of it. Inter were certainly still in the mixer though but their fans were starting to get nervy, letting the players know that the clock was ticking and though Julio Cruz should have hit the net, the game remained goalless at half time.

Things took a turn for the better for the Scousers early in the second half with Inter going down to ten men. Inter still had their chances though but then the Scousers took over and in the 63rd minute Fabio Aurelio fed Fernando Torres on the edge of the box and the Spanish assasin made the net bulge. That shot a hole in Inter's fuel tank and really all the Premiership side needed to do from there was cruise. Their opponents had no energy and so a perfect performance from Premiership sides in the Champions League was completed.

So next up is the quarter finals and here United face Roma with the first leg at the Stadio Olimpico. Well talk about freaky, before the start of the 06/07 season we had never faced Roma in a competitive game and when this tie is over we'll have faced them six times in two seasons! The Serie A side are certainly known for giving us a match, particularly on their turf but while there will never be another 7-1 we certainly should be able to take care of business here.

Elsewhere, well with four Premiership sides in the pot, an all-English tie was almost garunteed and so we have Arsenal vs Liverpool with the first leg at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal have the domestic form, the Scousers have the European record and I'd pick Arsenal to edge this one. Chelsea then face Fenerbache with the first leg in the Suklu Saracoglu Stadium. The Blues have got the best case scenario and should make it three English sides in the semis for the third year in a row.

Going down a level, the UEFA Cup 2nd round 2nd leg matches were taking place Spurs faced PSV Eindhoven at the Phillipsstadion. The early stages of the match were fairly flat and the game was still goalless at half time. Both sides continued to exchange chances in the second half but PSV looked to have the last laugh...untill Dimitar Berbatov gave them the lead on the night. That was only enough to cancel out PSV's lead from the first leg though. It was 1-1 on aggregate and Spurs had bought themselves extra time.

Spurs had the first attack in extra time but came up empty and PSV got no change at the other end either. It was the Dutch defence that looked more leaky but Spurs could do much about it. Both sides were looking knackered in the latter stages of extra time, the atmosphere had never been exactly electric and sure enough the match went to penalties. At this point it was PSV goalie Gomes that had the last laugh, the Dutch side winning 6-5 in the shootout.

Elsewhere, Everton faced Fiorentina at Goodison Park. Andrew Johnson opened the scoring with Everton having the much stronger game in the first half as they needed to get back into the tie. Fiorentina started to get their act together early on in the second half but Mikel Arteta still made it 2-0 Everton with the Toffees pushing hard for a third goal before the final whistle. The didn't get that third goal though so that left the score 2-2 on aggregate, extra time here we come.

Everton had the first real attack in extra time but this part of the match proved to be a zzzz fest. Neither side were that interested in attacking and were probably settling for penalties already. The second half of extra time was slightly more lively particularly in the last few minutes with both sides having decent attacks but there were still no goals. Cue penalties. Fiorentina won the shootout 4-2 with Mario Santa being the one to seal Everton's fate.

Bolton faced Sporting Lisbon at the Stadio Jose Alvalade. Wanderers didn't field their best XI, Gary Megson has bigger fish to fry, namely Premiership survival but the players that were selected did a solid enough job, helped by some dodgy moments from Sporting. However the fairytale was almost certainly garunteed to end here and Marques Alexandre Bruno Pereirinha hit the winner for the homeside, thus ending the Premiership's participation in the UEFA Cup.

Rangers faced Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion. The SPL side were battered by the visitors right from the start with the Gers having hardly any chances whatsoever and after half time it didn't get much better. In fact Ribas da Cunha Diego hit what proved to be the winner on the night and Walter Smith's men were dodging bullets till the end. In the grand scheme of things though, Werder's win on the night did not matter. Rangers became the UK's sole entry in the quarter finals with a 2-1 aggregate win.

So, next up is the UEFA Cup quarter finals and Rangers are left to fly not only the Scottish flag in European football but the Union Jack in the UEFA Cup. They will face Sporting Lisbon with the first leg at Ibrox. Like the Gers Sporting started their season in the Champions League. They never proved much of a threat to United but at this lower level they shouldn't be underestimated. The Gers are capable of having very good nights in Europe, predicting them to win this one would be optimistic though.

Domestically there was some Premiership action going on. Chelsea faced Derby at Stamford Bridge. Frank Lampard and Soloman Kalou put the Blues 2-0 up by half time. In the second half the Premiership's dead men walking were simply buried though. Lampard got his second and Joe Cole joined the party before Lampard got his third and fourth goals of the night with Derby's David Jones allowed to get a consolation goal. That leaves United still 2nd in the Premiership, still two points behind leaders Arsenal with a game in hand but now only three points ahead of Chelsea and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries.

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