Equivelant Trade

Friday, March 20, 2009

Draw for Champions League was just made @ 7pm:

Quarter-Final:
Villareal vs Arsenal
Man U vs Porto
Liverpool vs Chelsea
Barcelona vs Bayern Munich

Semi-Final:
Man U or Porto vs Villareal or Arsenal
Barcelona or Bayern Munich vs Liverpool or Chelsea

slowly talk about the legs one at a time.

Villareal vs Arsenal: this is a rematch of 2006 semi-final where Arsenal won it slighty and go into the finals. this time round, who will win? i think will be Arsenal. they have key players back just in time like Fabregas, Adebayor. and Villareal are still fighting for their Champions League qualification next year. Arsenal will win.

Man U vs Porto: last time they meet, it was Jose Mourinho Porto. and they won at Old Trafford and kicking them out of thr Champions League. this time round, no Jose Mourinho and Man U had already bcome too strong. Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, just name one on the teamsheet. which player is not famous, not skilled? complete knockout for Porto. Man U will b victorious.

Liverpool vs Chelsea: haix, why it has to be them once more. 5 years liao, 5 times (including this one). each time is a difficult round. let recap what happened through this 5 years.

2004/2005: Liverpool won Chelsea in the semi-final and went on win the dramatic Champions League against AC Milan from 3-0 to 3-3 to penalty shootouts.

2005/2006: due to Liverpool finish fifth in Premier League, UFEa bent their rule to allow Liverpool defend their crown but they r unseeded and they are drawn in the same group stage as Chelsea. in each of the 2 matches, they r held in a draw.

2006/2007: meet once again in the semi-final and Liverpool emerged victorious once again on penalty shootouts. they go on to the Final facing AC Milan once more but lose in the end.

2007/2008: last season, Liverpool r holding a slight 1-0 lead in 1st leg till Riise head into our own net and giving Chelsea the crucial away goal. 1-1 in 1st leg. back at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea taken the lead through Drogba, equalise through Torres and go into extra time. Lampard had a penalty scored after Hyypia pinned down Ballack and Drogba added a crucial 3rd goal to effectively end the match. Babel gets a goal back but it ended 3-2. out of the Champions League. Chelsea went on face Man U but lose in penalties in the end.

2008/2009: QF, what is going happen this year? hunch give me Chelsea will win as they have their crucial away leg yet again.

Barcelona vs Bayern Munich: biggest tie of the QF leg. both r best attacking so far, notching 24 goals each. Bayern Munich set new aggregate scoreline of 12-1 in Round of 16. there is no doubt a lot of fireworks will be on this match. last time this 2 met, it was dated all the way back to 1998 where Munich emerged 3-1 on aggregate. i just Barcelona, with their impressive form on La Liga, despite falling short in recent weeks, will pip through this.

so my semi-final prediction will be:

Man U vs Arsenal
Barcelona vs Chelsea

Final prediction:

Man U vs Chelsea, for 2 successive years but this time Chelsea will win it and will not let Man U get their crown retained.

7:21 PM