The Sporting calendar

If Ryan Giggs plays against Arsenal this week, he will be making his 800th appearance for Man Utd.
In the crazy world of premiership football where footballing talent is often over-rated, this is a phenominal achievement.
Yes, as a Liverpool fan, I think it is fantastic that Giggs has won the PFA award for player of the season.
Three years ago, Liverpool inquired about buying him when it looked like his Man Utd days were over, he was given a contract extention and hasn’t looked back.

Many players are derided when they play for clubs but credit Giggs, he joins a list of players who have great consideration for the clubs they serve.

Gary Neville (Man Utd), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Martin Keown (Arsenal), Tony Adams (Arsenal), etc, who have been loyal to their club.
Giggs is now 35 years old and hopefully will move into coaching, he is now and always has been, a credit to the game!

Man Utd and Arsenal booked their places in the last four of the 2009 champions league competition tonight, with wins over Porto and Villarreal respectively.

For Utd, a Ronaldo thunderbolt in the 6th minute saw them win, an impressive feat, against a Porto side that are very strong at home. Despite a very nervy last 10 minutes, Utd held on to keep a clean sheet, something they have struggled to do of late and close out the match.
Their opponents in the semis will be the impressive Arsenal!
They beat Villarreal 3-0 at the Emirates stadium, all the more impressive as they had lost most of their defenders for the game, they are quietly creeping up, on a long unbeaten run in both league and cups.
My tip for the FA Cup this year are beginning to assert themselves on opponents, and with Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd all still to play them in the league, they can cause a few worries.

Chelsea will play Barcelona in the other semi final, after an epic 4-4 draw with Liverpool at Stamford bridge.
Puzzling for me, as the pool took off Torres and Mascharano, just as they were getting back into the game, two of the players most likely to turn the game!
As good a fight as pool put up, the damage was clearly done in the first leg, Chelsea winning 3-1 at Anfield.
The one disappointment for me was the amount of times Drogba fell to the ground as if he’d been shot, only to jog away fine once the free kick had been given.
There is no place for this in English football, something needs to be done about it, once or twice, 50-50 challenges fair enough, but look at the free kicks he won last night, clearly he is playing on it.

The man of the match for me, was once again, Frank Lampard, his ability to pop up in the box late in the attack and his natural ability to hit the target is not being used to its maximum on the international scene. Like his dad, he is a quality player.

Barcelona make up the last four, after an easy win against Bayern Munich, a big win in the first leg made last nights game a formality.
As so often happens, the one odd team in the last four, normally goes on to win it.
Three English teams in the last four again, it wouldn’t surprise me if the only non English team wins it!

Teenage substitute Federico Macheda, stole a priceless 3 points for the premiership champions, Man Utd.
A wonderful turn and curling shot broke the hearts of Villa fans around the country, as Utd came from 2-1 down, to win 3-2 and return to the top of the table.
The ex Lazio trainee was due to fly out for a game, but injuries to Berbatov and Rooney, allowed him a place on the bench, which he used to his full advantage.

It’s always good to see youngsters coming through, regardless of team, a brilliant goal, lets hope (for Liverpool’s sake) we don’t see anymore of them this season!

Once again, Liverpool will meet Chelsea in the next round.
The winners of this tie will face the winner of Barcelona v Bayern Munich in the semi finals.

On the otherside of the draw, Man Utd will play FC Porto, the winners of this tie will play the winner of Arsenal v Villarreal at the semi final stage.

Ties will be played 7/8 April with return legs played on 14/15 April.

There are no easy ties at this stage of the competition, but with Barcelona and Bayern Munich having impressive wins in the last round, the English clubs will be relieved they are playing each other and not them!
If three English teams reach the semis, I’ll be putting a few earth pounds on the one non English team left, as is often the case, the one team not expected to win, often does.

As matches go, in the English Premier League, they don’t come much bigger than this.
Local rivalry and history will always make these games a tense affair, but once every now and again, the football mad fans from Manchester and Liverpool are treated to goals and bragging rights.

The game itself was not as fierce as we have come to expect, but we can’t complain, five goals is better than a one nil result.
Reading through the blogs and pundits this morning, you could be forgiven for thinking that the game was either all Man Utd or all Liverpool, truth be told it was neither!

Man Utd started brightly, Liverpool sitting back and easing their way into the game, culminating in Ronaldo giving United the lead from a penalty.
The lead lasted around five minutes, and highlighted what I personally have questioned for months, a simple problem regarding Torres.
In Spain, short burst of pace when an attack is on, is where Torres excels and the main reason he scored so many goals, it’s why Liverpool bought him.
His goal against Utd showed this up perfectly. Standing start less than 5 yards away from the last man in defence, he was able to show a turn of pace, steal the ball and cause utter panic in the defence.
He ran on and slotted past the keeper, 1-1.

Where Torres lets himself down, is when he starts to drop deeper, into no mans land, 10-15 yards from the last man, he is neither helping the midfield (no outlet) nor is he in a position to frighten defenders, by the time he has closed the gap on the defender, the ball is gone.
Sitting on the last man, any ball played down the sides or over the top of the defender, turns him to face his own goal, leaving Torress to execute a short burst of pace and panic the defender. If he gets the ball (as he does 3 out of 5 times) he is left with a one on one with the keeper. Why aren’t Liverpool’s trainers picking up on this?

Back to the match, with an Evra challenge after the ball had been nudged past him by Gerrard, resulted in a penalty, which Gerrard placed to the keeper’s left, 1-2 to Liverpool at half time.

Man Utd, as you’d expect came out for the second half playing keep ball as Liverpool sat deeper and deeper.
Contrary to what most pundits said, Rooney (for me) was Utd’s danger man, everytime he got the ball he ran at the Pool defence, Carragher was having difficulty picking him up as he ran from deep.
Reading about the game, the emphasis has been reported on Utd’s lack of attacking play in the second half, but easily they were creating too much for any team to hold on for the entire second 45 minutes.

With Torres standing off the last man too much and Gerrard following his lead and trying to play off him, the ball was returning too often and too fast by the wide open Man Utd midfield.

As if by magic, Liverpool started to play the ball out of defence and play further up the pitch but still relying on the one-two of Gerrard and Torres.
Having a bit of success in holding the ball upfield, seemed to spur Liverpool into a bit more attacking, committing more players forward as the half went on. Utd brought on Giggs, Scholes and Berbatov (who looked like he was still feeling the effects of an injury picked up warming up against Inter Milan in midweek) and started to spread the ball better, Giggs was popping up all over the place, but Liverpool got men behind the ball and lack of movement from many in the Utd side, they cancelled each other out.

By now Torress was playing about 10 yards further up the pitch, closer to the last man, a flick on from Torres to Gerrard halfway into utd’s half, left Gerrard one on one with Vidic (who to be fair was having a torrid time – mainly because Ferdinand kept leaving him so isolated!) Gerrard knocked it past Vidic and was away, Vidic had little choice and pulled him down. Had Ferdinand not stayed wide and watched and ran across to help his team mate out, it might have been just a yellow, but it was red.
With utd now down to 10 men, the game was still an each way bet, utd now had four upfront and three recognised centre forwards on the field.
From the free kick, Areleo, stunned the old trafford crowd with a regular free kick into the corner, which was all the more confusing as van der sar stood rooted watching it go in?

As a contest, the game was over, Liverpool had time for one more goal. A simple kick out by Reina missed the head of Babel and bounced right into the path of Dossena, who caught the goalkeeper in no mans land, lobbing him from outside the area.

Will all this change the title race? Maybe, but not in the way you would think this Liverpool fan would think!
Chelsea have been my tip for the title all season, this result will have done them a huge favour.