Football: Champions League Draw

Draw 1 – Villarreal FC Vs Arsenal FC

The turnaround of fortune continues for Arsenal as they have drawn one of two possible teams that they really wanted, the other being Porto. After beating Roma on a very fortunate night for Arsenal, they had the best Premier League weekend they could have hoped for, beating Blackburn in a emphatic 4-0 win at the Emirates and Aston Villa losing to Arsenal’s bitterest rivals, Tottenham, to get the gunners in fourth spot for the Champions League. A further positive is nearly all their injured players will be back, and for the first time, Arsene Wenger will have a squad with in depth strength and creative options on the bench. Villarreal have had a better season thus far also sitting fourth in the Spanish Premier League, but matching the quality of the sides makes Arsenal the bookies favourite for this tie.

Draw 2 – Manchester United Vs FC Porto

A very fortunate draw for Manchester United, Porto are considered the weakest side remaining, though at one stage they had been tipped as outside favourites to make the final this season, but after losing to Arsenal 4-0 early on in the group stages, and losing one of their key players Ricardo Queresma, they really are up against it in this tie. Man Utd had just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Liverpool, but they are still tipped to win the Premier League title and the Porto tie may even be considered a breath of fresh air.

Draw 3 – Liverpool FC Vs Chelsea FC

The third draw came in as the most mouth-watering of them all, Liverpool and Chelsea have such a large history in the competition and in the domestic games, with Guus Hiddink bringing out Chelsea’s best form and Liverpool have just come through two monumental wins against two monumental teams so this tie is set up to be something special. Neither team can be happy that their other two domestic rivals got “lucky”, but to win this competition they will have to face the best and beat the best at some point. As both teams are locked in the Premiership on 61 points the game looks dead even, only Chelsea have the advantage with the second leg being at Stamford Bridge.

Draw 4 – FC Bayern Vs FC Barcelona

The two highest scoring teams this season in the champions league lock horns with the first game played at Nou Camp, Barcelona have been on high scoring form in their domestic games recently, but they did show a hint of struggle against Lyon with their back line, and against a stronger opponent a weak defence would be ripped apart with ease, as Liverpool showed against Barca’s rivals Read Madrid in the first stage. Bayern are just fresh from beating Sporting by 12 goals over 2 legs, it was pure free-flow football from the German side and they are now full of confidence and really have nothing to lose against Barca who are considered one of two favourites to pick up the title, it should be an interesting clash.

Football: Arsenal demolish Porto 4-0

Did someone say near the beginning that Porto have an outside chance of winning the Champions League? Well they do!

Porto are not a bad team at all, they have a very good attack, some defensive errors yesterday but they have Alves who is experienced and generally a very experienced team, with the Incredible Hulk on the bench to also make a difference. I seriously think Hulk should tattoo himself green! He would be an international superstar!

To say Porto are a good team shows how classy Arsenal were yesterday, they had full strength out yesterday bar Denilson, who I still am not a fan of yet, but he played well, there was no Eboue in the team which was good, as when he gets annoying he really gets annoying! Nasri and Walcott were the wingers who were immense throughout the game, especially Walcott, who looked like he was having fun racing everyone out there, Adebayor and VP used Theo’s pace really well, giving him impossible balls to chase which he did and always got there! His first touch is near perfect too.

Fabregas was the main man though, had control of the whole mid-field being the key for the first goal with his ball to Adebayor, who had great composure to pick out VP to get the goal. The whole game Fabregas was excellent, his passing was the top of his game and Porto just didn’t do enough to man-mark him.

The second goal was a perfect header from Adebayor and they went into the half 2-0 up, 3^rd goal, quite funny actually, Van Persie somehow seemed to walk into the box when he clearly should have been tackled and toe poking it in to make it 3, Adebayor made it 4 with a penalty.

A funny moment in the game was when Carlos Vela dribbled all the way in the box, great little ‘Maradona’ run, passed to Bendtner, who began acting like a mad man, it seems like he was tackling him self, and then, the funniest thing, he kicked the ball out for a throw-in, while he was sick yards from Porto’s goal!!! Bendtner has improved but he does do things that make him look dumb at times. Last season he cleared a shot off the line, only thing was it was the oppositions goal and it was Fabregas doing the shooting!!

Great game for Arsenal, the thing is when the first half of the season goes as good as this they tend to crumble, but… they have a much better squad than last year, no worries about injuries now, they have plenty of replacements – Vela, Bendtner, Wilshire, Ramsay, and don’t forger Da Silva and Rosicky to come back, they may just have enough to get that trophy they need!