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| Mata and Kalou celebrate his goal against Benfica ibtimes.com |
Tuesday March 27th, 2012
Benfica 0-1 Chelsea: Chelsea appear to be revived after Roberto Di
Matteo took over for the sacked Portuguese manager, Andre Villas-Boas. Chelsea
were able to turn the tables after they found themselves down 3-1 after the
first leg of the first knockout game in Napes. Di Matteo knew that his side
needed a miracle to go through, and indeed a four goal miracle came through for
Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after Ivanovic scored the winner for them in the
first half of extra time. Benfica finished top in their group and defeated
Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg in the round of sixteen to secure their spot
in the quarter finals.
The first half was fairly even,
with good attacks coming from both teams, but a disciplined Chelsea defense and
some smart play from Benfica kept the first half scoreline a stalemate. Chelsea
were the first to make the attack when Meireles won the ball in the midfield
but it was easily broken up by the Benfica defense after reaching the feet of
Saloman Kalou. Chelsea were the main attackers in the first half, but there
seemed to be a slight disconnect between the midfield and strikers Fernando
Torres and Kalou. Benfica had their fair share of attacks, many of them coming
from Bruno Cesar, but his efforts were either broken up by the visiting side’s
organized defense or stopped by Petr Cech.
In the second half, Chelsea were
not as dominant and didn’t possess the ball as much as the home side. They
were, however, able to take advantage of the possession gained by breaking up
the Benfica attacks. Mata hit the post in the 60th minute after he
was able to run on the blind side of the Benfica defense and beat the keeper
but it wasn’t meant to be as the ball went bouncing off of the post and out of
bounds. Witsel’s shot in the 64th minute was deflected off of a
Chelsea midfielder and very nearly worked its way into the back of the net past
Petr Cech, but Benfica were right back on the attack. Chelsea’s goal came in
the 74th minute after Fernando Torres picked up a loose ball from a
play on the wing. He sent the ball smartly across the box where Saloman Kalou
waited unmarked to slide the ball past the Benfica keeper. Benfica were not
about to sit back and defend a second goal. Almost immediately they were
pressing up the pitch again to try and beat down the English giants and score a
goal to make their looming task at Stamford Bridge less daunting.
David Luiz was a key factor to
Chelsea’s clean sheet, as was Petr Cech. Despite conceding a goal, Benfica
keeper Atur denied Chelsea multiple times and was able to keep the score line
to just 1-0 despite his fractured and slightly disorganized defense on Chelsea
attacks. Bruno Cesar was the main man creating opportunity for Benfica with the
help of box-to-box midfielder Witsel but their effort were in vain and Chelsea
have the valuable away goal advantage for the return leg in London.
APOEL 0-3 Real Madrid: APOEL were able to squeak into the quarter
finals when they were the victors in a dramatic penalty shootout against Lyon.
APOEL are surely little fish in a big pond as they struggle to stay alive in
the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League but nine-time Champions are not
about to let the little team from Cyprus interrupt them on their road to
Munich.
APOEL were the first on the
attack and Real Madrid goalkeeper Casillas was forced to make a creative
clearance, saved only by the referees whistle. APOEL were dealt a huge blow in
the 9th minute when Brazilian defender Olivera was carried off on a
stretcher. Olivera was a key player in their eventual victory over Lyon and his
presence was missed throughout the remainder of the match. Real Madrid
dominated and created multiple opportunities with the Cyprus side hardly able
to connect passes, let alone create attacking opportunities. Benzema had the best goal scoring opportunity
in the first half in the 32nd minute when he found himself unmarked
in front of a wide open goal, however he instead landed himself in the running
for miss of the season as he somehow sent it flying over the crossbar. APOEL
were able to hunker down and hold on despite the attacks and the scoreline at
halftime was 0-0.
From the start of the second
half, it was clear that Jose Mourinho had talked up his side during the
halftime break. Ronaldo and Benzema were quick to start off the attack, but the
effort went clear of the goal. APOEL threatened in the goal in the 58th
minute with some great individual skill from Ailton. The front man dribbled his
way through the Real Madrid defense and ended up forcing a free kick from the
back line. As time ticked on, it looked as though APOEL might cause yet another
embarrassing upset at the expense of a European giant, but Benzema finally
found a breakthrough for Madrid in the 73rd minute after he dove to
meet a cross from Kaka, sending it into the back of the net. A cheeky back heel
from Ronaldo in the Real Madrid midfield opened up the APOEL defense for Kaka
to put the ball past Chiotis, finishing off the Cyprus side. There would be one
more goal from Karim Benzema to put the nail in the APOEL coffin in the last
minute of play, making the final score 3-0.
Despite some fantastic play from
Chiotis in the APOEL goal and Ailton up front, APOEL were just too far out of
their league. Lack of Champions League experience made it difficult for the
home side and few teams have been able to hold off the strong Real Madrid
squad. Ronaldo and Kaka set up the goals, Kaka putting one in the back of the
net himself and Benzema, after missing a wide open net, compensated by netting
two. Real Madrid can sit back now for the return leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Wednesday March
28, 2012
Marseille 0-2 Bayern
Munich: Bayern Munich were the dominant side, but Marseille found a
considerable amount of holes in the Bayern defense, particularly on set pieces
as the French side tried to keep their Champions League campaign alive. The
Germans, coming off of a huge win against FC Basel in the round of sixteen,
were careful not to concede in the first leg like they did in Basel. They were
able to turn the tables in their favor thanks to some work from Mario Gomez and
Arjen Robben.
The home side were the first to create a good opportunity,
threatening Manuel Neuer in the seventh minute before his fellow keeper Elinton
Adrande, who was standing in for the banned Steve Mandanda, was forced to make
any saves on his end. However, the stand-in keeper was soon under siege as
Bayern made consecutive attacks in the first half, even if it compromised their
defense. Marseille were able to make some good chances on the counter attack
but Neuer denied them a goal.
The first goal of the match was surrounded by much
controversy as the ball fed through from the Bayern defense from captain
Phillip Lahm appeared to be controlled with a hand before it was booted up the
wing. Arjen Robben was there to collect the ball after the ref allowed play to
continue and slotted it between the Marseille defense to a prowling Mario
Gomez, who added to his impressive goal tally to make the score 1-0 to the
guests just minutes before halftime. Critics argued that Adrande should have done
better to prevent the goal from being scored. Despite his last defender
jockeying for the ball with Gomez, Adrande came running out, leaving the far
post completely exposed. Despite a questionable handball and questionable
goalkeeping, the score line was 1-0 in the visitor’s favor at halftime.
The goal was a confidence boost for Bayern Munich. For most
of the second half, they dominated in possession and chances on goal. The
second goal from Munich really came out of nowhere as Arjen Robben seemed to
run himself straight into two Marseille defenders but a cheeky give-and-go with
Gomez allowed him to run right through the two defenders, collect the pass
through while remaining onsides and putting it into the back of the net at the
far post.
Standout performances came from Arjen Robben, who struggled
to shine in the first leg of the last round against Basel. He was able to find
his creative niche again as he danced up and down the flank of the pitch
carrying the ball and creating multiple threats on goal. Mario Gomez added to
his UEFA Champions League goal scoring tally with his 11th in the
competition and was also a threatening presence as he prowled the inside of the
Marseille box. Center midfielders David Alaba and Toni Kroos did their jobs to
distribute and break up play and were continually the main reason for the
Munich defense’s relaxed evening. Mathieu Valbuena came close to scoring in the
second half and just minutes later Remy caught Jerome Boateng sleeping at the
edge of the box but Neuer was able to deny Remy a goal.
AC Milan 0-0
Barcelona: Not many teams can say they kept a clean sheet against Barcelona
in the UEFA Champions League, but after convincing performances against them in
the group stage and a dominant performance against Arsenal in the first leg of
the round of sixteen, the Italian side were surely more suited to this fixture
than some of the other quarter final teams.
Lionel Messi and Barcelona were unable to grab a valuable
away goal. Going into the fixture as favorites, the Spanish side were looking
for goals right off the bat, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the first to truly
threaten the goal, forcing a great save from Victor Valdes. The Barcelona
offense was sure to force some equally brilliant saves from Abiati at the other
end.
Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, arguable the best
strikers in the world, managed to create opportunities again and again. They
were both standout players, but the goalkeepers and defenders were able to keep
the ball out of the back of both nets. AC Milan defender Luca Antonini was
voted player of the match for his heroic acrobatics to continually deny the
Barcelona strikers from scoring.
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