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Just Because.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Match Day 2 of UEFA Champion's league first leg quarter finals of 2009
Another night of woah. For football.

You see
Liverpool vs Chelsea
and
Barcelona vs Bayern Munich
and wonder which one to watch. I was holding the remote in my hands the whole of the first half.

It's the quarter finals and there was one thing consistent in all 4 matches - a goal within the first 10 minutes.

Incidentally, Senna's goal was the latest at the 9th minute.

It's as though the first 10 minutes are deciding minutes which set the records for the rest of the game. This though, wasn't the same for all 4. (Thank God)

As Arsenal showed, they turned the game around and got that away goal.

For Chelsea, they played in the form of their lives and pegged Liverpool back three times. Impressive to say the least, and they do what they do best with set pieces. Drogba might have been toothless for his first 2 strikes on goal but he made no mistake for Chelsea's third. That effectively puts Liverpool out. Liverpool who thought the world of themselves after they whacked Real Madrid and Manchester United. And their boss, the great Rafa Benitez who can't shut his pie hole has done himself in by talking too much once again, saying that Ferguson would want them to beat Chelsea in order for Liverpool to have more commitments to deal with besides the title race.

Then his team loses 3-1 an Anfield. They need to win 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.

For the second half, there was no doubt about staying on the Pool-Chelsea game. The Barcelona-Bayern one was essentially over. I thought Liverpool and Chelsea would start nesting instead of going for gold. And good thing I was wrong otherwise I would have wasted 45 minutes of my life.

Ivanovic did another header and put Chelsea ahead. I was in stitches. And his post match interview with Cech was funny. You can go count the number of times he said the word 'happy' hahaha. Oh yes, very happy.

I figured out the reason why I could enjoy both matches with no pressure at all. The winners will definitely take each other out in the semis with the winner in the final. If Arsenal goes all the way there then we'll start worrying then. Concern when it's time. Now it's far from decided.

It's so contrasting when it's a different competition from the league. It's fantastic to see teams going for it rather than sitting back, which seems to be a favourite with some of the teams in the league. That takes the thrill out of the game. Another thing to note is that between Chelsea and Liverpool, I really don't think away goals are a huge deal considering how many times they've played each other. The Chelsea players can easily feel comfortable at Anfield having visited numerous times. The one thing Hiddink got right which decided the game was to keep Gerrard at bay which he did with Essien. Cut off Gerrard and you would have cut off Torres in the process, using one fantastic player to keep 2 out.

Sometimes football can be a numbers game.

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A Little Drunken Madness @ 5:22 AM






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