Wed, Apr 9: UEFA Champions League (Quarter-Final 2nd Leg)
Man Utd 1-0 Roma
Barcelona 1-0 Schalke 04
SUMMARY:
Manchester United and Barcelona pulled off 1-0 home wins over Roma and Schalke 04 respectively in the Champions League overnight to setup a mouthwatering semi-final clash in a fortnight's time.
United's 2-0 cushion from the first leg prompted Sir Alex Ferguson to drop the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes to the bench (in anticipation of the EPL clash with Arsenal this weekend) but still managed a narrow 1-0 win over the Italian side.
The home side was let off the hook in the first half when Daniele De Rossi skied a penalty in the first half and were made to pay the price when Owen Hargreaves crossed for Argentina striker Carlos Tevez to score a diving header in the 70th minute to seal a 1-0 win on the night and 3-0 on aggregate.
Barcelona shrugged off their recent woes in La Liga with a hard fought 1-0 win (2-0 agg) over German side Schalke 04 at the Camp Nou.
Despite missing the likes of the injured Ronaldinho and Messi, Barcelona just had too much class for Schalke as Yaya Toure scored the winner with a scuffed shot late in the 1st half to send the Catalan giants through to the semi-final in a competition they last won in 2006.
The first leg of the semi-final clash between Manchester United and Barcelona will take place at the Nou Camp on April 23.
Tue, Apr 1: UEFA Champions League (Quarter-Final 1st Leg)
Schalke 04 0 - 1 Barcelona
Roma 0 - 2 Man Utd
SUMMARY:
Barcelona earned a vital 1-0 away win in their quarter-final 1st leg clash against Germany's Schalke in Gelsenkirchen overnight to ease the pressure on under-fire coach Frank Rijkaard.
On the back of a run of poor form in La Liga, Barcelona were too classy for the home side in the 1st half and were duly rewarded with an early goal in the 12th minute from Bojan Krkic after good work from France striker Thierry Henry. Schalke retaliated in the second half but it was a case of too little too late as the visitors held on for the win and a precious away goal ahead of next week's second leg at the Camp Nou.
Meanwhile, English giants Manchester United are in firm control of their quarter-final tie against Roma with a convincing 2-0 victory at the Stadio Olimpico.
Portugese winger Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with his 36th goal of an amazing season - a powerful header - before the break to give his side the lead. In the second half, it was the other half of United's dynamic duo, Wayne Rooney, who gave his side a two-goal cushion with a simple tap in to put Sir Alex Ferguson's men firmly in the driving seat for the return leg at Old Trafford.
On current form, Manchester United are one of the favourites to win the competition they last won in 1999. If they manage to do so, it will be a special cup triumph for the club in the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.
Schalke 04 1 - 0 FC Porto
Liverpool 2 - 0 Inter Milan
Roma 2 - 1 Real Madrid
Olympiacos 0 - 0 Chelsea
SUMMARY:
Rafa Benitez's Liverpool has a knack for playing their best football in Europe and it was the same case overnight as the Mighty Reds came back from an embarrassing 2-0 loss against Barnsley to beat Italian giants Inter Milan 2-0 at Anfield.
The most ardent of Liverpool fans would have been worried by the prospect of facing the form side in Europe in the middle of a horrendous form slump, but Benitez's men had other ideas as Inter collapsed spectacularly in the last five minutes.
Dutchman Dirk Kuyt made it two goals in two games with his 85th minute opener, a deflected right-foot shot before talismanic captain Steven Gerrard took possession on the far right corner of the box and fired the second home off the far post in injury time.
While life was made easier for the Reds after the sending off of Marco Materazzi for two bookable offences on the half hour mark, the Italians defended bravely for almost an hour until the home side did enough to finally make a breakthrough.
There is still plenty to play for in the second leg of this intriguing tie.
Elsewhere, Roma were fourth time lucky as they beat Spanish giants Real Madrid 2-1 at home at the fourth attempt. Spanish striker Raul opened the scoring the visitors in the 8th minute, but Roma equalised through Pizarro in the 24th minute before Mancini sealed the game with a 58th minute winner.
Real, with a precious away goal, will fancy their chances when the return leg takes place at the Bernabeu.
Schalke 04 played admirably in their first appearance in the knockout phase of the Champions League, beating FC Porto 1-0 while English Premier League side Chelsea were held to a bore draw by Greek side Olympiacos.
Just in case you were wondering, there is no typo in the title of my post.
That is the amazing score-line by which the Red Devils emerged victorious from their clash against Roma at Old Trafford in a pulsating night of European football.
In one of Manchester United's most devastating performances in Europe, the Red Devils completely and utterly destroyed Italian club Roma to advance through to the last four of Europe's elite club competition.
By half-time, the Red Devils were already 4 - 0 up with goals from Michael Carrick, Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
All four goals were top notch and everything had fallen into place for Manchester United.
One would have predicted the second half to be less exciting than the first with United to defend their 4-nil cushion, but Ronaldo carried on the rampage with his 2nd goal and United's fifth of the evening just five minutes after the restart.
5 - 0.
If the score-line was getting a little ridiculous, the ease with which United carved up Roma's defence was ludicrous and soon Carrick had his second goal of the night with an arrowed shot into the top right corner.
6 - 0.
Roma pulled one back nine minutes later, but it was hardly worth celebrating as evident from the muted response from their shell-shocked fans.
Second half substitute Patrice Evra completed the rout with United's 7th goal in the 81st minute.
Chelsea's Ghana midfielder Michael Essien scored a sensational late winner to earn his side a berth in the Champion's League semi-final over-night.
With the match seemingly headed for extra-time, Essien rammed home an acutely angled shot in injury time to dump Spanish side Valencia out of the competition.
Valencia's Fernando Morientes had given his side the lead with a goal just past the half-hour and the reigning English champions were in trouble knowing that they had fallen 2-1 behind on aggregate.
Mourinho knew he had to make changes and sent on the talented Joe Cole in place of the ineffective Diarra during half-time and the move paid dividends.
Cole's direct running and trickery caused chaos in the Valencia box and up stepped striker Andriy Shevchenko to bundle in the equaliser - the Blues were back.
Chelsea continued to press and should have scored from a Ballack free-kick had it not been for the brilliance of opposition goalkeeper Canizares' fantastic save but Essien finally managed the vital breakthrough with his angle drive in stoppage time.
Wayne Rooney's first Champion's League goal in 30 months was not enough to save Manchester United from defeat against Roma in a match marred by off-field violence.
Manchester United fans and Italian police clashed during the half-time break with several United fans captured on TV bleeding from head wounds.
Things did not go too well on the pitch either for the Red Devils after going down to Roma 2 - 1 although Rooney's away goal means not all is lost with the return leg at Old Trafford next week.
Former England midfielder Paul Scholes will be watching next week's game from the stands after getting himself sent-off for reckless tackles which earned him two yellow cards and an automatic red for his efforts.
Meanwhile, Valencia showed their class against Chelsea with a 1 - 1 draw and a precious away goal at Stamford bridge.
David Silva's 30th minute goal was superb and Chelsea had to call on their Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba to save their blushes with a lobbed header in the 2nd half.
Although the prospect of three English clubs in the semi-finals of the Champion's League appear premature at this stage, anything can still happen when the return leg of the quarter-finals resume next week.
The second batch of Champion's League first round knock-out matches took place overnight with the highly anticipated clash between the two most recent Champion's League winning teams Liverpool and Barcelona taking centre stage.
After a traumatic week for Liverpool when reports of a training ground bust-up between bad-boy Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise made the headlines, the two players settled their differences on the pitch by scoring a goal apiece to down Barcelona 2-1 away from home.
Liverpool made a confident start but found themselves a goal down in the 14th minute when Barcelona's Portguese midfielder Deco headed in the first goal for the home side.
Shell-shocked but refusing to buckle under the sustained pressure of Barcelona's fabulous attacking game, the Reds found an equaliser through "golf-club swinging" bad-boy Craig Bellamy when the Welshman powered in a header which keeper Victor Valdes was unable to keep hold of.
Proving that he can make assists as well as score goals, Bellamy went on to play a loose ball across goal for the unmarked Riise to blast right-footed into the roof of the net in the 74th minute to give the mighty Reds a commanding lead ahead of the return fixture in a fortnight's time.
This morale boosting victory ensured that Liverpool's class of 07' became the only side to win at the Nou camp since the 1975-76 Liverpool team, which downed Barca 1-0 in the UEFA Cup semi-finals before going on to win the final.
Elsewhere, Andriy Shevchenko added to his wonderful goal scoring record in Europe by scoring Chelsea's only goal of the match in a one-all draw with Portguese side Porto.
The result, in Chelsea's favour by virtue of the away goals rule, was soured by the news of an ankle ligament injury sustained by England captain John Terry who will now be out for a few weeks.
The two other Champion's League matches also resulted in a draw: the match between Roma and Lyon remained scoreless after 90 minutes and the Inter Milan - Valencia ended at two goals a piece.
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