Champions League Quarter Finals Leg 2

PHB

Team vs. Team - Result [To go through]

Man Utd vs. Roma - HOME [Man Utd]
Valencia vs. Chelsea - AWAY [Chelsea]
Bayern vs. Milan - DRAW [Bayern]
Liverpool vs. PSV - Home [Liverpool]

I think everybody knows Liverpool are through bar a shocking shocking performance.
I'm not sure about the other three to be honest,

Valencia are a great team, and I can't see them not scoring, especially with Chelsea having to come at them. THat said, Mourinho is very good tactically in Europe, and I think Ballack/Shev will put in a performance to win.

Milan are just lacking up front without Shev/Ronaldo, and they can't seem to buy a goal in Europe at times. Bayern to go through, probably on the away goals rule.

Utd vs. Roma should be very interesting. I think either United will win on the away goals rule or Roma will just win outright. I can't see United beating them 2-0, but I can really see a 2-1 victory for United, with extra time, especially considering our defense's poor form.

Saha won't be fit enough to start which is a loss, but at least if we aren't playing well, we can bring him on for the last half hour to give us an aerial threat. I'd like to see the defense like this
Brown-Rio-Heinze-Evra
but it will probably be
O'Shea-Rio-Brown-Heinze (unless Evra can show full fitness in training)
which is quite weak. O'Shea and Brown can't pass the ball around as much as we need them to.
It's going to be a weak enough United line-up,

---

VDS

---

--O'Shea----Rio

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Brown---Heinze-
--Ronaldo---Carrick--Fletcher--Giggs-

---

Ole

---

Rooney

---

We need big performances from everyone, especially Carrick with Scholes missing.

Mark

Liverpool, Roma, Valencia and Milan to go through in descending order of certainty.

mike65

Liverpool, Man Utd (somehow), Valencia (would prefer Chelsea) and Bayern.

Mike.

county

Man Utd vs. Roma - Home
Valencia vs. Chelsea - Draw(Chelsea)
Bayern vs. Milan - Draw(Bayern)
Liverpool vs. PSV - Home

zAbbo

Liverpool, Roma, Bayern and Valencia

RE*AC*TOR

Liverpool (3 away goals), Valencia (away goal), Roma (goal up and UTD not looking good) and Bayern (two away goals) if I had to put money on it.

Mr. Presentable

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Liverpool (3 away goals), Valencia (away goal), Roma (goal up and UTD not looking good) and Bayern (two away goals) if I had to put money on it.

What he said

kinaldo

My predictions:

Roma - I was very impressed with them in the first leg and have been very unimpressed with Manchester Utd lately, bar their recent performance against Blackburn.

Valencia - only because I want them to go through. This is really way too tough to call. The Mestalla will be a boiling cauldron of noise on Tuesday night, but Chelsea are one of the few teams capable of standing that sort of heat.

Bayern Munich - Ottmar Hitzfeld's experience will guide them through. All the hard work was done in Milan.

Liverpool - obvious. I think they could go all the way again. Rafa Benitez performs miracles every season it seems.

kaimera

zabbo wrote:

Liverpool, Roma, Bayern and Valencia

Ditto.

PHB

Saha is out injured, big loss for United.
United are probably going to have to score in the first half.

cournioni

I reckon United will squeeze it, 2-0.

PHB

I think we will need to score twice anyway, I can't see us winning on the away goal rule, especially with our weakness in defence.

RE*AC*TOR

Its a very big ask for such a depleted United team tonight.

super_furry

Untied and Chelsea to go out tonight, Livepool and Bayern to go through tomorrow.

PHB

Saha might be in, it's really not clear.

Team is more than likely going to start like this

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VDS

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--O'Shea

---

Brown---Rio

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Heinze----
--Ronaldo----Carrick---Fletcher---Giggs---

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Rooney

---

Ole

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It should be an interesting match, but we need big performances from so many players, VDS, Rio, Ronaldo, Carrick, Giggs, and Rooney all need to play well. They can do, but we'll just have to wait and see.
This is the sort of match that Ronaldo can earn the title best player in the world, so let's hope he can do it.

Zapp Brannigan

i'd love to see Chelsea go out but I can see them getting a result at the Mestalla, they always grind out ugly results.
Utd and Roma is incredibly close to call. A full strength Utd team would send them through handy enough but with injuries and Rio being a clown it's become very hard for them. Especially considering they're playing a pretty much full strength Roma squad.
Liverpool, nothing really needs to be said here. Pool are in form, PSV look like they cant play football.
Bayern and Munich, with Gila and Inzaghi out that leaves Olivera to lead the line and I've always wondered why Milan signed him. So for me it'll be Bayern to go through.

leninbenjamin

Man Utd. v Roma I think is too hard to call. Utd look unstoppable on their days, and then other days they look like they've given up the ghost. I think a lot is going to depend on the fringe players who've come into the side as cover recently. It's gonna take big performances from the likes of Brown/O'Shea/Fletcher? too often their erratic performances have a negative affect on the team (Brown being the biggest culprit imo), they make the likes of Van Der Sar and Ferdinand look nervy and jumpy (a la the Pompey game). What I'd be hoping for is that they come and and start well, play like we know they are capable of and galvanise the rest of the team. If this doesn't happen i think Utd could be a lost cause, but ya never can tell with them..

As for Valencia v Chelsea, i want to see Valencia go through, but i think Chelsea could very well batter their way through like we see so often. i'd go with Chelsea.

Bayern vs. Milan. I would expect that the class of Pirlo and KaKa would send Milan through, but Bayern will never give up the fight, and they are on home ground. Players like Hargreaves will make life very difficult for Milan, so i think Bayern could well go through.

Liverpool vs. PSV. i think PSV will put in the performance of their lives and edge through a la Deportivo a few years back .

Edit: Anyone know which match RTÉ are showing of the Wednesday games? paper said 'pool but i remember them saying Milan v Bayern ???

eirebhoy

Roma rested Doni, Chivu, Panucci, De Rossi, Mancini, Taddei and Totti on Saturday.

leninbenjamin wrote:

Edit: Anyone know which match RTÉ are showing of the Wednesday games? paper said 'pool but i remember them saying Milan v Bayern ???

Setanta are showing Liverpool which I think means RTE will be showing the other match.

jank

Liverpool, Munich, Roma and Valencia to go through.

Roma beat Lyon away from home which IMO is the most impressive result in the CL this year. They have done it before and they will do it again.
They will sit back and hit on the counter.

Kingp35

super_furry wrote:

Untied and Chelsea to go out tonight, Livepool and Bayern to go through tomorrow.

I agree with this.

bucks73

United and Valencia tonight and Liverpool and Bayern tomorrow.

Brian017

I hate saying this but Chelsea, Roma, Liverpool and Bayern

Kojak

Man Utd vs. Roma - Home
Valencia vs. Chelsea - Draw(Chelsea)
Bayern vs. Milan - Home
Liverpool vs. PSV - Home

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

besty

Liverpool, United, Bayern, Valencia

raven136

United v Roma 1-1

Valencia v Chelsea 2-1

Liverpool v PSV 2-1

Bayern v Milan 1-2

event

jank wrote:

Roma beat Lyon away from home which IMO is the most impressive result in the CL this year.

it wasnt that big a shock, since christmas up until the first roma game, Lyon won 2, drew 1 and lost 3. They werent in the best of form anyway

bucks73

Plus they are over-rated every season in the CL. They have never impressed outside the group stages.

MonkeyWrench

These 4 to go through:

Man Utd
Valencia
Bayern Munich
Liverpool

MisterAnarchy

Hopefully United get thru but their form of late has been very ragged.
The defence doesnt inspire me I'd much prefer Evra at left back.
Cant afford any clangers tonight .
Will have to take some sedatives before the match to avoid heart failure.:D

Paul Tergat

Getting really excited about tonights game now but think we're in big trouble

i reckon Roma will score and therefore we'll need 3 - which im not sure that we are capable of without saha/scholes

Giggs will be very important for us tonight - the rest of the front 6 (except Ole) have little CL experience at this stage of the competition

COME ON UTD

by the way - dont care about the other results!

Erin Go Brath

Roma, Valencia, Bayern Munich and Liverpool to go through.

Man Utd v Roma draw.

I fancy Valencia to beat Chelsea.

Bayern Munich v Milan is the hardest to call! Think Bayern might scrape through.

L'Pool are through already, they'll probably win again.

redspider

Its possible that one of the 3 English teams will go out. With Liverpool almost guaranteed, either one of Chelsea or Man Utd could hiccup. Man Utd have to score at least one goal at home, which is doable, and Chelsea have to score at least one away, which is less doable, so Man Utd have an easier task.

I'm predicting, Man Utd, Valencia, Liverpool, Bayern, and another year where Abramovich fails to gather his coveted CL target ...

Its football though, so anything could happen, expect the unexpected, a shock, etc ......

enjoy ...

redspider

5starpool

I'm really looking forward to the Champions league tonight. They should both be cracking, tense games.

I am going to have to go for United to squeeze through 1-0, and chelsea to get edged out in a tight 0-0 draw. Tomorrow, easy night for the pool, prob 1 or 2 nil, and Bayern will win 2-1 I reckon to seal that tie.

el rabitos

man yoo and chelsea to hit the bricks tonight i reckon.

gustavo

The two English clubs to get done tonight , and Liverpool and Milan to go through tommorow .

PiE

Utd & Chelsea will both jam their way through.

Liverpool never make things easy for themselves so they'll probably lose 3-1 tomorrow.

Bayern to park the bus and keep Milan out.

Necronomicon

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Will have to take some sedatives before the match to avoid heart failure.:D

Ditto!

leninbenjamin

just watching Sky news there, they are saying there is violence outside Old Trafford. Sky seem to be blaming Roma fans taking on the police, but at this stage who knows. don't know if there are any fan on fan battles yet...

mike65

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/6538695.stm

Police and Roma supporters have been involved in a minor scuffle outside Old Trafford ahead of the Champions League match against Manchester United.

Greater Manchester Police are reported to have made at least one arrest after a confrontation in front of the ground.

The situation involved several dozen mainly Roma fans and was soon brought under control by officers with batons and police dogs.

Almost 4,000 Roma fans are expected at the quarter-final second leg tie.

BBC radio reporter James Alexander said extra security was very much in evidence outside the stadium.

"There are lots of security personnel and extra police cars and vans around the stadium," he said.

"It has been classified as a Category C match which is the highest alert there is for a match at Old Trafford. It is on a par with a home match against Liverpool."

Mike.

cruiserweight

Teams have been announced

Man Utd :- VDS, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Giggs, Smith, Rooney

Roma :- Doni, Cassetti, Mexes, Chiuvu, Panuci, Pizzaro, De Rossi, Wilhelmsson, Taddei, Mancini, Totti

Valencia :- Canizeres, Miguel, Ayala, Morretti, Del Horno, Jaoquin, Abidol, Silva Albelda, Villa, Morientes

Chelsea :- Cech, Diarra, Terry, Carvalho, Cole, Essien, Obi Mikel, Lampard, Ballack, Shevchenko, Drogba

zAbbo

Did Dunphy just call Ronaldo a 'Puff Ball' hahaha

besty

zabbo wrote:

Did Dunphy just call Ronaldo a 'Puff Ball' hahaha

Dunphy has just come across as an absolute idiot in his description of the United team. Not even a word of praise for Ronaldo, one of the most gifted players in world football - laughable. He described Carrick and Fletcher as "nothing players" - again, an unreasonable comment. Although neither are worldbeaters, both have talent with Carrick being a good performer for United this season.

zAbbo

we'll see after the game

Zapp Brannigan

Smith, thats a shocker.
Roma team looks very good, Pizarro beingback will be a great boost to them. But still no real striker.

therecklessone

besty wrote:

Dunphy has just come across as an absolute idiot in his description of the United team.

Dunphy is a clown who plays to the camera.

Giles ain't much better.

Pains me to say, but Brady is one of the only pundits on RTE who know what they're talking about.

besty

zabbo wrote:

we'll see after the game

Even if they all have shockers, it's ridiculous to classify Ronaldo and Carrick in the way that he did. I agree that Fletcher isn't world class (or anywhere near) but the others deserve praise and recognition for their good form throughout the previous 7/8 months of the season.

PHB

Can't stand RTE.

Apparently Ronaldo doesn't even do it for Portugal, it's just utter crap they spout. I wonder who this Ronaldo who got 5 goals in the last 6 qualifiers.

besty

Debut for Portugal in 2003, since then, 46 caps, 17 goals. Not bad I'd say.

Anyway, back on topic. United to win 2-1 in normal time and to win in extra time.

zAbbo

Hope Utd get an early goal, make it entertaining for the semi-neutrals like myself.

pp_me129

5 Mins gone: Roma seem to be the stronger team at the moment, United are
fighting for most balls. I'm already worried about van der sar:(