Champions League Semi-Finals Set
The Champions League quarter-finals are complete, and the semi-finals are set. Manchester United will play Schalke, while Real Madrid will face arch-rivals Barcelona. Real Madrid and Barcelona will face each other four times in the next month: once in the league (this Saturday), once in the league cup final, and now twice in the Champions League.
Manchester United sealed their spot in the semi-finals with a 2-1 win over Chelsea on Tuesday. Chicharito opened the scoring right at the end of the first half. Chelsea brought on Drogba at halftime and he made an immediate impact. Chelsea were much more threatening in the attack with him up front, rather than Torres. Drogba scored in the second half, only to watch United score just seconds after, restoring their lead. I thought Chelsea played better this week than last, but United were still the better team. Rooney is in fine form, and United look very dangerous for the run-in.
In Wednesday, Tottenham welcomed Real Madrid to London. Losing 4-0 on aggregate already, the game was a goodbye for Spurs. They ended up playing fairly well, but lost due to a goalkeeping blunder. Real Madrid left nothing for chance, starting their first team despite a few of them being one booking away from a one-game suspension. Carvalho was the only player to pick one up, so he will miss the first leg of the semi-final with Barcelona.
So we have two intriguing semi-finals: Manchester United vs Schalke will be very interesting. Schalke brushed away Inter, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they approach Manchester United. As for the other semi-final, I don’t think I need to say anything about that one!
Very excited for the Schalke vs. ManU game…very even matchup. If ManU can continue to play with energy, I think we’ll see them in the final. Crazy number of Clasicos this month…too difficult to predict a full sweep by Barca, but we’ll see.