UEFA Champions League Review: Quarterfinals, 1st leg
In a soccer scoreboards feature, I have reviews the last round of the Champions league, and look forward to the games this week. The wait is over. The much awaited knockout stage of the Champions League has begun. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Schalke won their respective matches in the 1st leg. Barcelona and Schalke fired 5 goals each in their matches against Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan respectively.
Real Madrid is expected to reach the semifinal, and there really is little doubt about this after the kind of performance they gave against Tottenham. Emmanuel Adebayor scored a couple of goals in the first half and he was joined by Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria in the second half with one goal each. The soccer scoreboards showed that they beat Tottenham 4-0, almost ending their Champions League run. The visitors (Tottenham) were 1 player down just 15 minutes in the game. The first goal was scored by Adebayor in the fourth minute, giving an advantage to Madrid.
Barcelona showed the world why they are THE favorites to win this title. In fact they have showed the world many times why they deserve to be called the best (and maybe even the best ever?). Iniesta, Barca’s influential midfielder started off the game in style by scoring in the initial minute of the game. Messi went without scoring however he was, as always, tremendous in the field and he made a great contribution to the team’s victory. Other players who scored were Daniel Alves, Gerard Pique, Seydou Keita and Xavi. They won 5-1 against Shakhtar. Iniesta was handed over a yellow card, which means that he will not be a part of the team in the return leg in Ukraine this week.
Schalke won 5-2 against Inter Milan and are very near to making the Champions League semifinals for the first time ever. Two goals were scored by Edu and he was joined by Raul Gonzalez and Joel Matip. Inter Milan’s Andrea Ranocchia also scored an own goal. Inter Milan lost Chivu as he saw red and was sent off. Schalke are in a very strong position to get into the last four and if they don’t take advantage of this win in the 2nd leg then it truly will be a miserable evening for the club!
Manchester United defeated Chelsea 1-0. Rooney’s 24th minute goal proved to be the only goal on the basis of which the match was decided. It was a big game which was evident from the nerves of the players on that day. Every player clearly felt the pressure, but in the end it was Manchester United who emerged victorious. Who will make it to the last four? It is a difficult one of call as the game is still wide open for both the teams. United’s advantage is slender, and they put in a great team performance in the league last week, so they will be confident that they can go through.
After the 1st leg it looks like we will witness an Al Classico semi-final, so all Real Madrid and Barcelona fans, keep your fingers crossed!
Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UEFA_Champions_League_1995_trophy.jpg
For more information, go to:
uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html
