Saturday

King of Europe

Barcelona, The King of Europe

Champions League soccer has already ended. Barcelona emerge victorious in this season tournament. Barcelona is the king of Europe, beating Man Utd 2-0 in the final. Samuel Eto and Lionel Messi were on the score sheet on that day.

With this result, Messi will surely a strong candidate for next season European and World player of the year awards. Now, soccer in Europe will go into hibernation and will resume in August.

That's all for now. See you all next season.

Friday

Slime Soccer News: Champions League Finalist

Both Champions League Semifinal matches ended with the outcome as I have expected. Man Utd vs Barcelona will meet in Rome later this month. However, both matches semifinal has their own type of conclusion and suspense.


1) Arsenal 1 vs Man Utd 3
Man Utd qualify for final (4-1 on aggregate)
When Park Ji Sung scored the first goal, Arsenal make themselves in a more difficult situation as they need to score twice to go through. Man Utd have the game firmly in control, taking on Arsenal on the break. When Cristiano Ronaldo scored United second goal from a stunning 40-yard free-kick, by then it was not in any doubt that which team will qualify for the final.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second goals in the 61st-minute. The only setback for Man Utd was the sending off of Daren Fletcher after a foul on Cess Frabregas in the penalty box. The referee awarded Arsenal a penalty and send off Fletcher in the process. Robin Van Persi restore some pride to the home team by scoring the penalty. But it prove too little to late for an Arsenal comeback.


2) Chelsea 1 vs Barcelona 1
Barcelona qualify for final on away goals rule (1-1 on aggregate)
The second semifinal was full of twist and drama. Chelsea accused Norwegian referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, robbed them a place in the Champions League Final. Chelsea was denied 4 penalty claimed by Tom Ovrebo. At least one of the 3 situations look genuine but the other 3 were not really that obvious, is a fifty-fifty situation. The penalty that the refreee failed to give was the hand ball by Gerard Pique after Nicholas Anelka flicked from a through pass. After the game, Pique admitted the ball touched his hand but it was not intentional.

Michael Essien has given Chelsea the lead on the 9 minutes with a thunderous volley. When Eric Abidal was send off in the 66 minutes, Chelsea look set to set up a repeat of last year Champions League Final with Man Utd. However, ten-men Barcelona managed to snatch a goal on the 93rd-minute to knock Chlsea out in the cruellest fashions.

But we can not take any thing out from Barcelona display from the 2 legged semifinal. In the second game, ten-men Bracelona actually maintained a 71% ball possession compare to Chelsea 29%. Eventhough Barcelona was fortunate from some of the referee's decisions, we have to praised their never say die attitude. In the end, Chelsea failure to score a second goal cost them dearly as Andrea Iniesta strucked the all important away-goal in 3 minutes deep into the injury time.

The whole world is awaiting the mouth watering clash between Barcelona and Manchester United on the May 27. Everyone are looking forward for the battle between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the best player in the world at the moment.