Champions League: 1/2 Finals (Round 1)

This week's Champions League semi-final games gave soccer fans everything they could have asked for. Goals, dramaturgy, and disappointment. After the first set of games there are still no "guarantees" as to who will play in the big Final in Moscow, May 21st of this year. Only four best teams on the continent are still competing for the big final and three out of those four teams come from English Premier League. Manchester (English Champion), Chelsea, and Liverpool. The Spanish only have their second place team playing in the Semis, FC Barcelona who is having a very disappointing season in the Spanish Primera Division.

The first pair, Liverpool and Chelsea played their game on Tuesday. So far, most of the time the two teams played each other in CL Chelsea played the first game at home, this time it's different. Chelsea traveled to Liverpool knowing that the second game will be played in London. In the first half Liverpool showed why they always win their home games, a beautiful shot from Dirk Kuyt in the 43rd minute of the game put them to lead. The rest of the game both teams focused on defending their own goal rather than attacking. Sporadically, Chelsea decided to counter-attack the Home side, but with no luck. The game was actually boring until the last couple of minutes. In the 90th minute when everyone was waiting for the referee to whistle for the last time, Joe Cole, Chelsea winger, crossed the ball into the penalty area and Liverpool's defender John Arne Rise tried to clear it, but he did it in such an unfortunate way that the ball landed in his team's net. Chelsea fans were in their joyous mood celebrating while Rise was literally crying on the field. The game ended in a tie, 1-1. Chelsea has the home advantage next week and Liverpool will really have to play to the best of their ability to even pose a threat.

The second game of the Semi Final was between Manchester United and FC Barcelona. The English team really wanted to win this time to make up for their weak performance in the last weeks game. Barcelona, playing at home, did not demonstrate an offensive football like they used to. Manchester was the more dominant side and they even had a chance to score, the team leader, Cristiano Ronaldo was tripped in the penalty area and the referee granted a penalty shot to the English side. To everyone's disappointment, Ronaldo missed the penalty shot! Was it the pressure? It is not the first time that Ronaldo shows that he can't handle the pressure. The rest of the half and then the rest of the game both teams played defensively and the game was pretty brutal, with 34 fouls altogether. Next week Man Utd. is playing at home and is the clear favorite for this confrontation.

Round two of the Semi-Finals will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday.