March on Rome

Jubilant Man Utd players marches away from London to Rome

The first leg at Old Trafford saw United ending the match on a very favourable note with a 1-0 win. It could have been more, if not for a crossbar bounce from Ronaldo's attempt or Giggs' narrow offside run. The Gooners were outclassed in the first leg as United dominated the match. The 1-0 win at Old Trafford meant two things, firstly, it's a win with a one goal advantage and secondly, Arsenal failed to score the vital away goal. As such, the Gooners will have to score 2 and prevent United from scoring any in order to progress through to the final. The moment Man Utd scored one away goal, Arsenal will have to score at least 3 goals to even get through. Of course, the probability of scorelines lie heavily in favour of Man Utd.

Man Utd would also remember the last time that they played at the Emirates, they were outclassed by the Gooners 1-2, courtesy of some fantastic performance by Nasri. Well, Nasri was there too in the second leg, and it remains to be seen if he could make any impact in overturning the deficit. Man Utd's defence were fortunate once again as Arshavin did not make it to the first eleven once again. Honestly, I expected the Gooners to at least put up some resistance but within 8 minutes, a noob boo-boo defending by Gibbs gave Park Ji Sung the opportunity to pounce on the ball and provided United with the vital away goal. It was an embarassing slip by Gibbs (to the laughter of all United fans) and credit should be given to Park for taking the chance well especially with Almunia fast closing down on him. It was bad enough to give one away goal so early in the game. But that was not all. 3 minutes later, Ronaldo placed the task on the Gooners to beyond impossiblity when he blasted a superb free kick from outside the area. Again, credit to be given to Ronaldo given that the audacity of the range of the freekick. Within 11 minutes, the game was over for the Gooners and they were beyond redemption. I could imagine how torturous the remaining 79 minutes will be especially for the Gooner fans at the Emirates.

At the second half, a nice counter-attacking move piled on further misery and humiliation to the home fans as United went 3-0 up with Ronaldo finishing off the night with his second goal. You can literally see the signs of "The fans had seen enough of this!" as the stands starts to become empty. United are cruising mercilessly towards Rome. The only blip for Man Utd was Fletcher missing the final due the red card that he had gotten from tackling Fabregas in the penalty box. I think Fletcher should have just let Fabregas run through and van der Sar would most probably be near enough to cover his areas. It's a pity for the Scotsman as he was placed in the same position as Scholes and Keane during the 1999 final. Anyways, during the match, I was joking with Reuben that they should have sent Silvestre down where he could score a couple of goals for them..hahahaha.

Over at the other semi-final, Chelsea were leading 1-0 for most of the period before having their broken when Iniesta scored a last-minute equaliser at the 93rd minute. Barcelona went through on away goals and they will meet United in Rome for the Champions League final. I'm actually glad that Barca went through because even if Man Utd lose, it will be an honourable loss to a good team. As for Chelsea and Arsenal, it's another failed attempt at landing their first Champions League trophy. It's always the case of so near yet so far huh...

So, it looks like Man Utd is given the chance to have an attempt at becoming the first team in the modern era to retain the Champions League trophy. They have come a long journey now, with some major blips after the 1-4 Liverpool loss. But since a few weeks ago, it looked like Man Utd are more or less recovered and have shown their appetite to win. For Premier League, there will be a heavily anticipated derby match against old nemesis Man City at Old Trafford and then followed by a cruncher between Arsenal and Chelsea afterthat. Just two more league match victories, and the Premier League will be United's! Theoratically, a victory against Man City and Wigan meant that the title race can be wrapped up by Wednesday. I will dearly hope that Man Utd won't leave it till the last match like last season..lol