ARSENAL TASTE GLORY, CHELSEA, SCOUSERS, RANGERS HIT TROUBLE

 

 

(Images taken from Sky Sports, Liverpoolfc and BBC)

 

"You can't actually beat...the Champions"Whatever. Bottom line, the Champions League is back in business. 16 teams left, two legged knockouts...and United are ready to take on...wake up Matt, the United squad are going to be having their feet up watching the TV. Anyway, four British sides are still in the mixer and they have some tough competition to deal with in the first round first leg.

First stop is the Bernabau, home of the seemingly invincible Real Madrid, who would surely trash the misfiring Arsenal. The Gunners had other ideas though and hammered the Spanish giants from the start, the rookies in defence having the galactico's number seemingly effortlessly. Not long into the second half and Thierry Henry hit the net and even bringing Raul on didn't help Real spare any blushes. David Beckham and crew will have to bring their A game to Highbury for the ex-United player's first trip to England on Real business.

In the Stadio de Luz, Liverpool had to deal with one of United's conquerers Benefica. An interesting enough tie but one that in theory the Scousers could handle, despite Benefica's images of Portugese thieves making off with the Champions League trophy. It didn't help Rafael Benitez that his midfield was injury hit and sure enough it was Benefica who came up with the goods, Anderson Luis de Silva hitting the winner, not that a 1-0 deficit can't be turned around at Anfield.

At Stamford Bridge was arguably the tie of the round. Chelsea vs Barcelona's a tie with some interesting recent history due to some controversial refereeing and it looks like more of the same is coming this way after the otherwise classy Lionel Messi's dive got Adrian del Horno sent off. It was still Chelsea who opened the scoring though after a Frank Lampard free kick caused enough chaos in the Barca box for Brazilian Thiago Motta to put the ball in his own net. Unfortunately the Catalans had the last laugh, John Terry scoring an og in similar fashion before Samuel Eto'o headed in the winner on the night to probably set Barca up for payback over Jose Mouriniho's crew.

Finally at Ibrox, Alex McLeish had a last shot at some European glory when his Rangers side took on Villareal. No tie was going to be easy for the Gers so it shouldn't have been a surprise that Juan Riquelme opened the scoring for the Spanish side. Peter Lowenkrands pulled things level to start with only for Diego Forlan to make it 2-1 Villareal. Late on Villareal's Bolivian defender Juan Manuel Pena scored an og to level things up on the night but it does still mean that Villareal get out of Scotland with an edge.

Going down a level, two their English sides had Uefa Cup 1st knockout round business to finish off, in the Stade Velodrome, Bolton took the lead over Marseiles thanks to a Fabian Barthez blunder only for the home side to swing things round and win 2-1. Middlesborough had better luck at the Riverside though, despite losing 1-0 to Stuttgart, they still make it through to the 2nd knockout round on away goals(final score 2-2) to face Roma with the first leg at home.

In the Premiership, Newcastle drew 0-0 with Charlton at St James's Park, the now-Glenn Roeder coached Geordies running the show forcing Charlton to get a point the hard way.

Here's to United winning the Carling Cup!

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