CL quarter finals, day 2

You know it’s CL football when it’s Liverpool - Chelsea :-)

What is it, the 6th time on the trot, this fixture? But whatever it is, you also know it means pace, passion and goals! And what a great first half it was. High paced passing football, tough challenges, and did I mention pace? Torres scored the 1-0 after a nice backheel flick from Kuyt and a Abelardo cross in. Unmarked, Torres said muchos gracias in the 6th minute. It appeared The Reds would have a field day, but quickly in the match Liverpool started to make mistakes. Bad passing and simply losing the ball. Gerrard never got in the game, Xavi Hernandez had many stray passes and Kuyt and Torres were continuously closed down. Chelsea position-played themselves slowly but surely into the game. Lampard at the Blues’ side didn’t play great either but Ballack stepped up to the plate and Kalou and Drogba were constant threats. It would take two corner kicks to get Chelsea back in the game. Hiddink couldn’t play Bosingoa at right center back and started with Serbian Ivanovich. The defender started very well - I’m not even sure Riera played for ‘Pool - and the debutant scored the 1-1 with the head in the first half.

In the second half, Chelsea started to string more good passes together and the Liverpool back four - in particular Skertl, Abelardo and Aurelio started to lose it. Ivanovich scored his second header to take the lead and Drogba finished a cool and snappy attack led by Ballack to score his first and Chelsea’s third: 1-3.
A great aggregate score for Lucky Gus, who will need to finish the job next week at Stamford Bridge.
Dirk had a good start this game, but slowly disappeared. Babel got on the pitch in the last 10 minutes and lost possession a lot, but obviously, Liverpool was in a hurry and precision and aesthetics didn’t matter anymore.
The main course of the day: Barca - Bayern. I personally figured Bayern would be able to hurt Barcelona. Yeah, right! They did score a record 12-1 aggregate in the last round against Sporting, and the Germans are known to be able to disrupt anything. How wrong I was…
In the first 12 minutes it was 2-0 already. Some Bayern players hadn’t even touched the ball. And it became a super exhibition of modern football. Four forwards, four midfielders and four defenders…hang on… That’s 12 fieldplayers… Well, that’s what you get with Daniel Alves in your team. Messi can move centrally, Alves takes over. Toure plays destroyer as if Barca has both De Jong and Van Bommel in midfield and Sneijder/Van der Vaart…oops… I mean Iniesta/Xavi can have a ball making the play. It’s hard not to compare this Barca with the potential of Oranje.

But anyway, first half ended 4-0, with Messi on fire and the aforemention midfield in glowing form. Messi was denied a penalty (and received a yellow card for his trouble while Pep Guadiola was sent to the stands….) and Barca even missed a couple of sitters.
During the first half, we saw some close-ups of the distraught Bayern players and Mark van Bommel can expect a call by Quentin Tarantino for his next movie…
Will Barca thunder forward in the second half? And another question: who will stop this team?
What a tremendous whoopin’ for Klinsmanns’ boys. Their defense looked like a Jupiler league team and Toni wouldn’t even be able to outrun my grandma. And she’s dead! I think Klinsi didn’t put the right team on. Barca is on form, Bayern isn’t. Don’t play a static striker with two wide players (Ribery, Pigclimber) but do it the traditional Bayern way. 5 Defenders, four midfielders and one quick runner up front a la Rummenigge. Anyway, who cares :-)?
Barca made their point. And inspired me to a new post to be published soon… Can Oranje copy Barca like Barca copies Oranje?
So, Chelsea - Barca in one semis and Porto - Arsenal the other one?
Another Arsenal - Barca finals?

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