CHAMPIONS LEAGUE : SEMI FINAL LINE UP

Records are meant to be broken is one of those clichés that we hear every other time and wonder, what the hell?

Porto have never lost to English opposition is one of those records that never made any sense but was the theme before the quarter final match up between Porto and Man Utd yesterday. Cristiano Ronaldo erased the record in the 6th minute and Porto didn’t bother to see if they could beat or even score against a Man Utd team short on confidence and susceptible to mistakes at the back.

Rio Ferdinand being back was a good thing but Porto was just disappointing. It seems they depended more on a record than actually playing to win or even draw a game that could have eased them into the semis against Arsenal.

Now Man Utd will have to lock horns with the old enemy, Arsenal for a chance to defend their title. Now another useless record says that no team has ever won back to back Champions league titles. Let’s see if Man Utd will smash that one this year.

Arsenal already had an advantage with the away goal scored in Spain but Arsenal has never been a team that could play for a draw, well except in the 2005 FA cup, so they went all out and swarmed the Villarreal team and were rewarded with a beautiful opener from Theo Walcott after a cheeky back pass from Cesc Fabregas opened up the Villarreal’s defence. After that first goal it was all Arsenal and two more goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie sealed the game.

The reward is a game against the champions of the world (??), Europe and England. There is no obvious advantage yet as these two teams know each other and their managers will set out the stall to win by disabling the potent threats of Rooney, Ronaldo, Walcott and Fabregas.

Both teams need healthy players to compete favourably against each other and Arsenal cannot afford to play Man Utd with just one regular from their back five, like they did yesterday. I will have a prediction later.

The game of the round was the battle at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool was down 1-3 to Chelsea from the first game and needed to win by 3 clear goals. They started well when Chelsea spotted them 2 goals in the first half.

But as it is always the case, the fool who did the most pre-match boasting was the one to let his team down. Pepe Reina’s near post idiocy let Didier Drogba’s poke into the goal and the fight back was on. Frank Lampard who hasn’t seen a deflected speculative shot he won’t take then brought them back to 2 all and Chelsea soon led 3-2 but Petr Cech was doing his best impression of a bad goalkeeper and let in 2 more Liverpool goals for a 3-4 deficit.

At this time, Liverpool need to score one more goal to go through a but team that had nailed its successes to the backside of Steven Gerrard and the Istanbul miracle just couldn’t muster one more goal. Lampard scored again and Chelsea has the unenviable task of stopping Barcelona in the semi finals.

Can Chelsea stop Barcelona and set up another all England champions league final. Normally they should but the team has now shifted 7 goals in two games. Petr Cech can’t catch a cold and their first choice left back, Cheryl Cole’s husband is not available to try and keep up with Lionel Messi in the first game.

Barcelona may be vulnerable if attacked but how do you stop Thierry Henry, Xavi, Etoo, Messi and Iniesta?

Guus Hiddink will earn a big bonus if he beats Barcelona.