Tuesday Champions League Round-up
5th March, 2008
Tuesday night’s Champions League matches saw both English sides through to the last eight of the competition. Arsenal made history by being the first English side to beat Milan in the San Siro, Manchester United made hard work of Lyon and Celtic were knocked out of the competition by Barcelona.
Arsenal were solid all game against Milan, dominating possession and creating the better of the chances. In a game with numerous goalscoring opportunities, it was a shock that it took nearly 180 minutes of play to get the first goal. Fabregas netted a long-range strike in the 84th minute to give the away side a deserved lead. As a result Milan needed two goals in the final few minutes and so were forced to take risks and push men up. This led to Walcott finding acres of space on the right, who easily crossed for Adebayor to net in stoppage time. The 2-0 victory was certainly deserved on the night.
Manchester United had the majority of the chances in their game against Lyon but wre fairly poor with their finishing. The only goal of the game came when Ronaldo finished a scrappy moment in the Lyon box. United failed to kill off the game, and the home fans’ hearts were in their mouths as Lyon striker Keita hit the post.
Barcelona proved too much for Celtic, and were ahead after just three minutes. This was however the only goal of the game, so Celtic went out 4-2 on aggregate.
Elsewhere Fenerbahce also progressed after a great game that finished 3-2. The first leg was a mirror of the second, so the game went to extra time. After no goals there it was down to pentalties, and the Turkish sides’ keeper redeemed himself with three saves after letting two soft goals in during the game to put his side through.
As a result of last night’s matches, Barcelona are favourites to win the Champions League at 10/3 with Bet 365, whilst United are second favourites at 7/2, then Arsenal at 5/1 and Chelsea at 6/1 who play tonight.
