United on the brink

UNITED ON THE BRINK

Last time around, we faced Roma in the Champions League quarter finals. The first leg was at the Stadio Olimpico and despite being on home turf, the Serie A side never really looked like a threat, United winning 2-0 to in theory seal the tie there and then. The second leg was at Old Trafford and Roma started out strongly but a turnaround was always going to be unlikely. Roma blew their chances and then United responded, winning 1-0 on the night. Unlike the previous year's encounter this wasn't a tie that'll go down as a classic but we still did the business and got ourselves a step closer to making it back to the final for the first time this side of the Millenium.

This time around, we're up against Porto, a team we have mixed history with. Well the tie the footballing world in general remembers was in the first knockout round of the 03/04 season. I was at Uni and this was where a certain Jose Mourinho really made his name, his guys wound up winning the tie 3-2 on aggregate. What United fans prefer to remember though is what happened in the 96/97 quarter finals. At the time I was in secondary school and Premiership sides were still expected to bow down to continental big names(and Porto were seen as one of them). Well that changed after United won 4-0 on aggregate and Fergie's men got everyone's attention for the first time.

This time around well, I'd have been happy to face Porto in the first knockout round of the Champions League, facing them in the quarter finals was pretty much our best case scenario. We'd seem to have gotten our act together, players were returning from injury and suspension(though some were playing their second game in three days) so a first leg match at Old Trafford looked to be pretty straightforward surely. United went 4-3-3. O Shea right back, Vidic(captain) and Evans in central defence, Carrick Scholes and Fletcher in midfield with Rooney, Ronaldo and Park up front. The aim was to finish the tie off before we got to their place for the second leg.

Well that plan fell apart when our Portuguese Liga opponents started battering us from the kickoff and in the 4th minute Lisandro crossed to Cristian Rodriguez for a shock opener. However, United then took advantage of a bit of 15th minute luck when Wayne intercepted a defender's back pass right in front of their goalie. 1-1. Even that goal was arguably against the run of play though, Porto had come into this game on seriously good form and though they had few familiar names in their side, they were certainly playing with a lot more confidence than we were. Again half time came with Fergie needing to give a seriously good team talk.

Well Fergie must have done something right as United certainly started the second half in better shape, and soon we were giving Porto trouble but it turned out not to be anything our opponents couldn't handle and it didn't shut them down entirely as they could have had a penalty at the other end. Fergie brought on more fresh legs but injuries elsewhere wound up limiting our options and the worry was now that we'd have our work cut out in the second leg. And then Wayne set up sub Tevez in the 83rd minute to finally complete the turnaround. And yet somehow we still threw that away, Lisandro setting up Mariano in the 89th minute to level the match once again and United are facing an embarassing exit.

Elsewhere, Liverpool faced Chelsea at Anfield. Well these two sides certainly have enough history with each other and Fernando Torres opened the scoring early on for the Scousers only for Chelsea to grab an equaliser through the unlikely source of Branislav Ivanovic. Ivanovic proceded to complete the turnaround in the second half and then Chelsea's regular assasin Didier Drogba got his team's third. There was still time for the home side to pull at least one goal back to set up a competitive second leg. That time was wasted. Bragging rights in this latest all-Premiership rumble are surely going to go to the Blues, Pool were certainly caught on an off night.

Arsenal faced Villarreal at the El Madrigal. The La Liga side are all-too-familiar opponents for Premiership teams and Marcos Senna proved their competitiveness with an early opener, the injury hit Gunners looking simply to hang on. However Arsene Wenger's team did manage to find an equaliser through Emmanuel Adebayor. The next order of business was to turn the game round, however that proved to be a target too far. Still, despite having their weakest Premiership season for some time, Arsenal go into the second leg looking on course for an appearance in the Champions League semis, of course the Yellow Submarine will have other ideas.

Going down a level, the UEFA Cup quarter final 1st leg matches were also taking place and Man City faced Hamburg at the Nordbank Arena. Stephen Ireland opened the scoring for City in the opened second only for Joris Mathijsen to equalise not long afterwards. City still looked competitive in the early stages of the second half but once Piotr Trochowski turned the game around with a penalty, they were looking to be on the ropes. Jose Paulo Guerro then grabbed a third for Martin Jol's team, and now the Blues are on the canvas. City have had a great run in the UEFA Cup so far but surely now it has come to an end, the Bundesliga side giving them a reality check.

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