The headline assumes, rather arrogantly from the point of view of the clubs concerned, that only Chelsea, United and Tottenham Hotspur have a chance of winning it.
It is safe to say that Brighton, Leicester City, Southampton, Swansea City and Wigan will all have fancied their chances before the quarter finals kicked off.
Here we take a brief look at the ties, both played and unplayed, in reverse chronological order. (more…)
In a hard-to-believe draw for the quarter finals of the Champion’s League the two remaining English teams have been drawn to play each other.
This despite there also being two Italian teams and THREE Spanish who have all miraculously managed to avoid having to play one of their compatriots!
Conspiracy theorists are already looking for fields in which to have a day!
Here’s the draw in full:
Liverpool v Manchester City
Juventus v Real Madrid
Sevilla v Bayern Münich
Roma v Barcelona (more…)
As is often the case when a team comes up against Lionel Messi, he wins. On Wednesday night it was a case of Lionel Messi, (with a little help from Ousmane Dembele who, in turn, received a little help from Lionel Messi), 3 Chelsea 0.
The scoreline was a little harsh on Conte’s team as they played quite well, just as they had at Stamford Bridge in the first leg. The problem is that, at this level, if chances are not taken by one side then they usually are by the other and, when Messi gets chances, he usually gets goals. (more…)
(José Mourinho’s “couldn’t-care-less” attitude is annoying many United supporters and turning them against him)
Where to begin? That is the question.
José Mourinho is, without doubt, arrogant, selfish, ego-centric and has a superiority complex which would have had even the great Brian Clough questioning his own importance in the presence of such a man!
The difference between Mourinho and a manager Like Brian Clough is that Clough was always fairly honest in his interviews with the press. He knew that a lot of fans watched those question and answer sessions and he thought they deserved the truth.
After their pathetic performance against Sevilla, which resulted in yet another exit from the Champion’s League, the Portuguese had the chance to express his remorse. (more…)
In a game where José Mourinho managed to outwit himself by starting Marouane Fellaini whilst leaving footballers like Juan Mata, Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay on the bench, the first half crawled by.
United played like a team who were 4-0 up from the first leg, not a team who needed to score to get through!
Sevilla weren’t much better but at least knew that if they could score on the break then United would need two. The problem was that neither team appeared to realise that they needed to score! (more…)
The race for the final three places in the top four is certainly hotting up with Chelsea now within four points of Liverpool who currently occupy fourth spot.
It would appear though, that despite a morale-boosting win in the Europa League over AC Milan being followed by a comfortable home win against Watford, Arsenal’s Premier League race is run and the best they can hope for is to maybe catch Chelsea in fifth. Even for that to happen there would need to be a major derailment of Antonio Conte’s train, as the gap between the two is currently eight points. (more…)
The answer is that they want both. Not through greed but because up the road, in east Manchester, Pep Guardiola is proving that having both is possible.
In all our years watching Manchester United there has rarely been a prolonged period of time where attractive football has been accompanied by trophies and, yes, we can go back a fair bit further than some of the so-called “fans” of today. You know the ones, they are screaming for the manager’s head having won two trophies in his first season and now sitting second in the Premier League while still contesting the later stages of both the FA Cup and the Champion’s League. (more…)
Following on from our article of yesterday in which we suggested that a draw between Manchester United and Liverpool would be the favoured result for Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur Hotspur, as they would all be able to gain two points on both teams, providing they win, of course.
There is another train of thought which suggests that the actual result of 2-1 to United gives the three a better chance of fighting for the top four as they can now gain THREE points on Liverpool. Providing they win, of course.
After a tactical battle at Old Trafford in which Liverpool had, by far, the majority of possession it was, as we mentioned, Manchester United who came out on top. (more…)
The early kick-off on Saturday morning is the game between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford. With only two points separating the teams, United are second and Liverpool third, a win for either side would be profitable. For United it would take them five points clear of Jürgen Klopp’s team and a win for Liverpool would move them a point above United into second place.
So the smart/clever/wise/whatever-you-want-to-call-it money is on a draw.
This wouldn’t necessarily be a disastrous result for either side and is certainly more preferable to losing but it would allow the three chasing London clubs the opportunity to close the gap as all of them are involved in games they should win. (more…)
At the time of writing England still has four representatives in the competition so the chances are reasonably good that one of them could win it. To an extent it depends on the draw for the quarter finals, particularly for Manchester City and Liverpool who are already through to that round.
Manchester United still have a potentially tricky second leg tie at home to Sevilla to overcome but should do so without major problems whilst Chelsea have the hardest task in that they need to either beat Barcelona in the Camp Nou or come away with a high scoring draw in order to progress. (more…)
