The last time these teams played each other in a UCL knock-out stage encounter was in 2004 in the round of 16 when Porto defeated United at Old Trafford to advance to the QF, Mourinho jumped and performed his now famous jig and Porto eventually won the UCL.
But that was 2004 and now it’s 2009 where United go into this encounter as defending champs. Agreed that they have now started developing cracks in their armor but this should be United’s game. This will not be a very difficult thing for United to do, however, it won’t be an easy one too. This game could ideally be termed as one of the potential ‘giant-killer’ games where you could have a major, major upset.
Obviously, for this to happen, Lucho Gonzalez will have to put on his best performance of the season and Bruno Alves will be required to perform just the way he has been this season. Also, Porto have never lost to an English team at home in a UCL encounter.
United have conceded 6 goals without scoring even one between them is a shock considering they’re chasing the ‘Quintuple’.
The real problem with United seems to be of momentum. Momentum is something that carries champion teams, performing averagely, to victories. Until last year United were winning and winning it good. They scored goals and defended pretty well, winning the games more beautifully. Surely the credit for this goes to Ronaldo’s 40+ goals which came with a lot of help from Rooney’s silent brilliance when on numerous occasions he passed the ball to Ronaldo for a tap in and Carrick’s brilliant passing.
It was last year’s momentum that United have carried on to this season which they unfortunately, at the most important phase of the season, seem to be losing. They don’t look like a team playing real bad football, they look like one which is losing steam. There’s a reason things aren’t going United’s way at the moment. To win the league is not always about playing the best football. Opposition teams will be desperate to beat the champions this time round and United need players who are willing to fight all the way. IF United want to win at least 2 out of the 3 remaining competitions they need Ronaldo to get his commitment, desire and most importantly Luck back! You may say he’s not half the player he was last season, but then if he can be, it would mean glory glory for Man Utd.
It also won’t be easy to score because they have a lazy-ass-good-for-nothing-chain-smoker up front with Rooney called Berbatov, who can do what he wants IF he wants to, but sadly WON’T do anything. And with Tevez and Rooney both preferring to play a supporter’s role SAF doesn’t have an option other than keeping his bum off the bench.
Frankly speaking, we don’t think United will win anything other than Premiership, but considering they are the only one’s with a rare chance to win all competitions this season, we hope they nail ‘em.
A lot of people may say that Arsenal should win this comfortably, but even Wenger would agree that they’d have rather played a bigger team than Villarreal. Because this is where unexpected stuff happens. This is definitely a ‘giant-killer’ game.
Villarreal, a team very strong on the ground, is probably one of the very few teams capable of opening up the Arsenal mid-field and creating chances. Arsenal should be glad that they’ll be with Eduardo, Walcott, Fabregas and even the forever injured Tomas Rosiscky for the second leg, at least. With
Eboue coming good, Song finally getting his groove and Vela and Diaby playing well, Arsenal can only face a problem of choice as a certain undroppable Van Persie and dynamic Samir Nasri will also be there.
But the one man they won’t have is Arshavin. And boy are Arsenal going to miss him badly. This is where we thing Arsenal lose the game. In this case what they should do is play Song instead of Denislon, because then they’ll at least have someone who can pass the ball ahead instead sideways.
Stoping Arsenal in their path are going to be Julio Ceaser - the brilliant Brazilian goalie and young Italian talent Rossi. But the one man Arsenal need to be wary off is a man called Robert Pires. We all know about the Arsenal curse and we bet he will score.
Even though Barca just had a minor slip-up for a month, everyone’s saying that if everything goes on with absolute normalcy, Barcelona will be easy winners. We say IF everything does go as it should, Barca might just have to wait another year for the UCL trophy.
Not getting carried away by their record breaking win against Sporting and they’re mediocre performances in the Bundesliga, we firmly believe that Bayern Munich is The side to look out for in this season’s UCL. They’re Not the dark-horse, as labeling them one will be under-rating a high potential strong side.
Just look at this - IF everything does go as it should, then you’ll have a tight game won by Bayern and Not Barca. And here’s how that will happen. The world’s best left-back at the moment - Philip Lahm will easily be able to block Messi - as most other defenders usually rush into him but Lahm is one cool man who waits for you to screw-up so that he can clear it off.
Lucio, Ze-Roberto and Van Bommel can, on any day, keep out Eto’o and Henry. Agreed Puyol, Marquez and Pique are brilliant defensively, but like the rest of the Barca side, they too, are weak in the air.
And when you have two crazy men, Scweinsteiger and one of the world’s most under-rated player Frank Ribery attacking you and feeding the likes of Luca Toni, who by the way is one of the strongest in the air, Podolski and Klose, you know no defence can do anything.
So just because Barcelona have been supremely dominating in the La Liga and are in the form of their existence, you know you can’t count the German heavy-weights out. And we all know how mentally strong the Germans are. This one’s definitely going to be a cracker!
Chelsea can count themselves really unlucky to be facing Liverpool during their current mood for liking for complete demolition. There’s probably no side in Europe who can defeat Liverpool right now. United will have to slip to lose the Premiership to Liverpool but the UCL seems to be surely be going to Anfield.
Considering they’re current form - 13 goals in the last 3 games: 4 vs Real Madrid, 4 vs United at OT and 5 vs Aston Villa with just 1 conceded, that too from the spot.
It’s not like Liverpool are playing great football, they’re just riding on sheer momentum. Momentum which actually comes a lot from the now famous and much envied ‘Champions League Luck’. They just don’t seem to be in a mood to stop and it’ll surely be a herculean task for any team to break that. And on current form, no team looks like it can do that.
And more so Chelsea - not a chance. Agreed they’ve got Essien back and Drogba back in form, it will take something really special to break a team which has Mascherano and Torres going completely crazy. A team which, as described by Zidane, has the greatest player in the world right now, Steven Gerrard. The biggest problem with Chelsea has been that they played almost the entire season without Essien and are still not playing to the strength of Drogba, something that has helped them to be extremely successful in the last 4-5 years. On the other hand Liverpool seem to be riding on a wave of absolute craziness, momentum and luck.
And frankly speaking, any team facing them before the finals in Rome will be unlucky, even if it’s a Bayern or Barca.
[Our wish-list: United clinch this along with the F.A. Cup and BPL and become the first team since Celtic in 1967 to complete a season with all trophies in the domestic circuit as well as Europe OR it's another Arsenal vs Barcelona final where Henry finally scores and wins the game for his side - which on this occassion will be Barca, and celebrates!]
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