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Wednesday Football Thread
Man Utd vs Arsenal tonight. Ferguson is apparently very wary of conceding an away goal and would apparently be 'delighted' with a 1-0 win to take to the Emirates. My gut feeling is that Utd will win the tie comfortably (although not by a massive margin) but it really could go either way.
My view on Barca-Chelsea last night; it wasn't particularly pleasant to watch Chelsea sacrifice any attacking leanings last night but I think it became obvious very early on that giving Barca space wasn't an option. So even though it wasn't the best game to watch and will give 'neutrals' lots of ammunition to moan about Chelsea, I think we did excellently to not concede. Cech looked great after a shaky start and Bosingwa, Terry and Ivanovic were also very good. It really, really isn't easy to keep organised and tight against such a skillful and quick side and not conceding against a side with 140+ goals and no home shut-outs is so much more than a matter of keeping 11 man behind the ball. I'd have liked to have seen us play nicer football but ultimately I'd much prefer to see us win the tie. If your club was in the same position, I'm sure you'd feel the same, innit.
I said it in the other thread and will reiterate it here; even though the likes of Drogba and Malouda are no angels, I lost all respect for Barca last night. Virtually every Barca player went down whenever they came anywhere near a Chelsea player, they constantly chased the ref about waving imaginary cards and pissed and moaned at every point possible. The real icing on the cake was the two times that Chelsea players went down and Barca just kept attacking, despite the fact that Chelsea kicked the ball into touch every time one of their players was on the floor. No excuses for that. Feel free to slate me now.
Juventus are apparently in for Xabi Alonso but could first part company with Claudio Rainieri...