Champions Chelsea!!!

Didier Drogba‘s hat-trick and whole lot of goals from others sealed Chelsea‘s premier league title with 8-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the final league match of the season. The blues gave no chance to Manchester United who also won their last match against Stoke City by 4-0. Tottenham Hotspur secured the champions league qualifying place for Europe for the first time in decades despite loosing 4-2 against already relegated Burnley.

Terry & Co took only 6 minutes to get the first one on board when Nicolas Anelka fired the ball past the net. Second goald followed at the half hour mark when Frank Lampard had taken Drogba‘s return pass and surged into the area where he was stopped by Caldwell who grabbed a handful of the front of his shirt. The referee pointed to the spot and the Englishmen converted with no problems. The first half was over and it seemed that the title will surely be at Stamford Bridge this season. 

But Chelsea wanted more… Salomon Kalou got another one for the blues after running in from the right, coordinating with Lampard and finally getting the ball at the back of the net. In less than 2 minutes it was four for Chelsea when Anelka from out wide volleyed Ivanovic‘s crossfield ball with perfect precision across the goal keeper and to find the net. The match was not over yet, the Drogba drubbing followed with 3 back to back goals in the span of 15 minutes from the Ivorian and the things were finally wrapped up by Joe Cole in the 90th minute much to the delight of the over-joyed Stamford Bridge crowd.

 

Chelsea scored a century of goals this season which definately put them in the driving seat. Didier Drogba also the the goalden boot for the maximum number of goals in the premier league this season. He netted 29 goals in 33 games for the blues. Getting the hands on the trophy since surely 2006 must have surely brought great smiles over the whole of Stamford Bridge.

At Old trafford, Sir Alex fielded the best possible squad for the day to gain advantage upon any favourable news from London. The match started with Darren Fletcher scoring at half hour mark when Vidic directed the ball in to the crowed area where Fletcher touched the ball to get into the net. By the time United scored first Chelsea was 2-0 ahead. Second followed for United just 6 minutes later when Ryan Giggs fired close ranger past the goal keeper. Second half goals followed when Danny Higgingbotham scored an own goal for Wigan in the 54th minute. A fourth Reds goal arrived in the 84th minute when substitute Ji-sung Park produced a diving header from Giggs’ corner to make it 4-0. But the scoreline was for pride alone. By that time Chelsea has sealed the title bid with 7 goals. It was an elusive task for the red devils to win with a realtiver easier team for both of them and rest is history.

The final scores are:

Arsenal 4-0 Fulham

Aston Villa 0-1 Blackburn Rovers

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Birmingham City

Burnley 4-2 Tottenham Hotspur

Chelsea 8-0 Wigan Athletic

Everton 1-0 Portsmouth

Hull City 0-0 Liverpool

Manchester United 4-0 Stoke City

West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Sunderland

Rooney’s demolition of Milan continued. Real Madrid exit Europe…

Two goals from Wayne Rooney followed by one each from Park andFletcher completed a 4-0 drubbing of A C Milan in the champions league pre-quarters at Old Trafford. Also in a major upset in Europe nine times European champions Real Madrid crashed out of this year’s campaign after losing on the aggregate score of 1-2 againstOlympique Lyonnais over the two legs as they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home in Santaigo Bernabéu.

 

It was a perfect night for the Red Devils, who were already up 3-2 from the 1^st leg and now playing in front of here home crowd. United got the early lead in the 13^th minute whenNeville gave a wonderful cross from the right which found Wayne Rooney in the Milanpenalty area, who headed past Christian Abbiati making the aggregate 4-2. United’s second came just after the half time when Nani’s great run from the left cleared half of the Milandefence and then passed a brilliant ball to free Wayne Rooney in the centre who grabbed the ball and shot past Abbiati for his second. Just at the hour mark J S Park tripled the home side’s lead when he scored a great goal of a very narrow angle from the right and things were finally wrapped up by Darren Fletcher in the 88^th minute who made it 4-0 whenRafael’s long ball found him and he sweetly headed it past the keeper.

 

Olympique Lyonnais had a one goal lead before coming to Madrid for the return leg but one thing they knew was that playing at Santaigo Bernabéu in front of 1,00,000+ Real fans is not easy. Cristaino Ronaldo put the home side in the front in the 6^th minute when Guti’s ball found him and after controlling it he shot past the goal keeper making the home side coming at par. The situation was getting tense and the proceedings were referring to extra time but just 15 minutes from time Miralem Pjanić one -on -one with Lisandro ended upPjanic scoring from close range to put Lyon in aggregate lead again. With no serious attempts on goal the final scoreline remained the same, making it worst for Madrid come true and for Lyon, the prized place in the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier event.

United’s trip to San Siro to meet Becks

After a long break, the premier tournment of Europe is back and back with a big bang with 16 super powers of Europe will be starting the knock out phase of theChampions’ league. Tonight will see 99’s treblers Manchester United go to San Siro to face the Italian giants AC Milan and in the other match Real Madrid will be up against French side Olympique Lyonnais.

It will be more than a match for ex-Manchester United player David Beckham who will be facing his former club for the first time in his adopted home at San Siro. In the press conference he said “I am a Manchester United supporter and for the first time I will have to hope for them to lose”. After topping a relatively easier group this will be Unitedfirst test in Milan specially when the likes of Ronaldinho and Co. Further blow for the visitors is that thier ace wingerRyan Giggs is out due to the fracture he got against Villa which will keep him out for atleast a month. It will beWayne Rooney who is expected to take the cake and Milan will be ready to stop every inch of his movement. So in just couple of hours, the first leg will decide the future course of action, don’t miss the action at 2045 Hours GMT (0215 Hours IST).

Lyon will be all set to prove that their place in the lats 16 is not a fluke when they will be hosting Spanish giants Real Madrid for the first leg. They will be banking on the likes of Cristaino Ronaldo, Kaka to fire in this one. WIth their unbeaten run this year in the champions league it is no doubt that they are the favourites to take the fixture away and carry on the momemtum till they reach their home ground for the final in may. With both the teams playing for some important point it will be exciting to see what results takes them to the return leg a week later. That match will be starting at the same time of that at San Siro.

The Unforgettable 1999 Champions League Final

It was Wednesday 26th May 1999, the venue was Nou Camp, Barcelona, Spain ( the home of Barcelona football club). The stage was set for the final match of the 1998-99 champions league season. Manchester United was up against a tough German side Bayern Munich. No one was better than the other as both of them had fought their way to this day for over 8 month competing against the bet in Europe. 32 teams started as always but only 2 reaches for the finals…
The match started, both teams were attacking but the shorts were going of the target and saved by the two ace goalkeepers standing on the opposite ends of the field. On one side was Peter Schmeichel of Manchester United and on the other side it was Oliver Kahn for Bayern Munich. The first goal was of the match was scored by Balser for the German side as quickly as in the 6th minute. Bayern 1-United 0. The match progressed but no goals were scored. The first half ended with the same score line. In the second half too, no goals were scored till the end of the normal stipulated time of 90 minutes and it was looking like this score line will stay till the final whistle until something spectacular will happen. AND IT HAPPENDED.
Just when the match went into the injury time (Of 3 minutes), United’s goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel ventured up to Bayern’s penalty area for a last ditched effort to equalise from a corner of David Beckham. At this point the commentator commented “Can Manchester United score? They always score”. It was 90+1, Beckham flighted the corner in just over Schmeichel’s head, Dwight Yorke put the ball back towards the crowded area, and after Thorsten Fink failed to clear sufficiently, the ball arrived at the feet of Ryan Giggs on the edge of the area. His right-footed snap-shot was weak and poorly struck, but it went straight to Sheringham, who swiped at the shot with his right foot, and nestled the ball in the bottom corner of the net. Bayern 1- United -1. And with less than Less than 30 seconds after the subsequent kick-off, United forced another corner, but Schmeichel stayed in his penalty area this time. Beckham again swung the corner in, which was headed downwards by Sheringham. Solskjær shot out a foot and poked the ball into the roof of the Bayern goal for United to take an astonishing lead. It was a fairytale for the red devils, the whole stadium was in traditional red flames for Man Utd’s support. Just as the referee blew the final whistle, the stadium erupted in joy and players had no words to describe their happiness. It was a dream come true for united. 70,000 and more would be able to say “I was there” and the rest is history…
It was Wednesday 26th May 1999, the venue was Nou Camp, Barcelona, Spain ( the home of Barcelona football club). The stage was set for the final match of the 1998-99 champions league season. Manchester United was up against a tough German side Bayern Munich. No one was better than the other as both of them had fought their way to this day for over 8 month competing against the bet in Europe. 32 teams started as always but only 2 reaches for the finals…
The match started, both teams were attacking but the shorts were going of the target and saved by the two ace goalkeepers standing on the opposite ends of the field. On one side was Peter Schmeichel of Manchester United and on the other side it was Oliver Kahn for Bayern Munich. The first goal was of the match was scored by Balser for the German side as quickly as in the 6th minute. Bayern 1-United 0. The match progressed but no goals were scored. The first half ended with the same score line. In the second half too, no goals were scored till the end of the normal stipulated time of 90 minutes and it was looking like this score line will stay till the final whistle until something spectacular will happen. AND IT HAPPENDED.

Just when the match went into the injury time (Of 3 minutes), United’s goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel ventured up to Bayern’s penalty area for a last ditched effort to equalise from a corner of David Beckham. At this point the commentator commented “Can Manchester United score? They always score”. It was 90+1, Beckham flighted the corner in just over Schmeichel’s head, Dwight Yorke put the ball back towards the crowded area, and after Thorsten Fink failed to clear sufficiently, the ball arrived at the feet of Ryan Giggs on the edge of the area. His right-footed snap-shot was weak and poorly struck, but it went straight to Sheringham, who swiped at the shot with his right foot, and nestled the ball in the bottom corner of the net. Bayern 1- United -1. And with less than Less than 30 seconds after the subsequent kick-off, United forced another corner, but Schmeichel stayed in his penalty area this time. Beckham again swung the corner in, which was headed downwards by Sheringham. Solskjær shot out a foot and poked the ball into the roof of the Bayern goal for United to take an astonishing lead. It was a fairytale for the red devils, the whole stadium was in traditional red flames for Man Utd’s support. Just as the referee blew the final whistle, the stadium erupted in joy and players had no words to describe their happiness. It was a dream come true for united. 70,000 and more would be able to say “I was there” and the rest is history…

First Champions League 09-10 home tie for Manchester United.

After a long wait, fans at Old Trafford will get the first taste of UFEA (Union of European Football Association) Champions league as it will be Manchester United’s first home game when it will host Wolfsburg Football Club of Germany. The match is scheduled to start at 2045 Hours GMT (i.e. 0115 Hours IST) on 30th Sept 2009.

As Manchester United were the Premier League champions last year, they automatically qualified for the main draw of the champions league along with runners up Liverpool while Chelsea and Arsenal, who finished third and fourth respectively, had to go through the qualifying rounds to get to the main draw of Europe’s premier club tournament.
Manchester United will be facing first timers Wolfsburg Football Club as they qualified after showing an impressive show in Bundesliga last year. Manchester United will be definitely reviewing the 2002/03 champions league semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen when they lost on away goals rule to a team which was predicted to be an easy team to beat for the final of the mega event. But the fact of the matter is that the Red Devils are unbeatable at Old Trafford since Feb 2005 so it will be pretty tough match for the visiting Germans.
From Manchester United’ locker room the news is that Korean lid-fielder Ji-sung Park is doubtful for Wednesday’s game after being laid low by a virus. Patrice Evra was also struck by the bug over the weekend, but has sufficiently recovered and should be in contention. Michael Owen, the hero of the previous Manchester Derby, is expected to play. The speculation of Owen’s, unpredictability came after he had a tight groin in training in the practice session but is more or less expected to play. Wayne Rooney will be hungry to find the net as he didn’t score in Saturday’s league fixture against Stoke City. The veterans Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs are expected to play the key roles and make way for Berbatov, Owen to put the ball to the back of the net.
With the first home game in the champions league stage the players will be fired up for the big match. Considering the situation a 2-0 score line is expected with Rooney, Berbatov to score or one may see Nani, Valancia getting into the action and converting the chances.
Other Matches for the day are:
Group A
FC Bayern München Vs Juventus
FC Girondins de Bordeaux Vs Maccabi Haifa FC
Group B
PFC CSKA Moskva Vs Beşiktaş JK
Manchester United FC Vs VfL WolfsburgGroup C
AC Milan Vs FC Zürich
Real Madrid CF Vs Olympique de Marseille
Group D
APOEL FC Vs Chelsea FC
FC Porto Vs Club Atlético de Madrid