Jose Mourinho led Inter Milan against his former team, Chelsea, in the round of 16 clash. Mourinho says he never loses at Stanford Bridge and he was right in this case as Samuel Eto'o scored late to give the win and round tie to Inter. Chelsea were unable to reverse the first leg 2-1 defeat at the San Siro. All they needed was to score and keep Inter out of the net and they would have moved on. However, they were unable to find the back of the net and can now only focus on the Premiership.
Chelsea never really looked like scoring the entire game and seemed to be on the back foot to a surprisingly attacking Inter. Italian teams are well known for taking a lead into the second leg of the tie and then sitting back and "parking the bus" to win the tie. Mourinho, however, isn't a manager who likes to sit back and started an attacking team with the intention of playing to win. I applaud Mourinho for this action as it leads to more positive soccer and more enjoyable soccer. And I am especially happy to see this done against Chelsea who are known for their "anti-football" defensive style that they displayed last year against Barcelona.
Inter came close a few times but finally found the mark in the 79th minute with a great thru ball from Sneijder to Eto'o who brought the down perfectly and then slotted the ball in the near post with his next touch. A great goal from a great goal-scorer who didn't have a particularly good game up to that point. Sneijder was great the entire game and who the orchestrator of everything that Inter did.
Drogba once again ended a Champion's League season in shame as he was sent off for a second yellow cardable offense late. Last year he along with Ballack were shamed for their actions after being ousted in the semi's. Drogba's second offense didn't look as bad but I can understand where the ref was coming from.
In the other game, CSKA Moscow defeated Sevilla 2-1 on the road to secure a quarterfinal spot. Sevilla seemed to be in control of the tie after drawing 1-1 in Moscow and grabbing that all, and seemingly, important away goal. However, CSKA Moscow opened the scoring with a clinical finish by Necid. Sevilla equalized almost immediately thru Perotti. This 1-1 scoreline would have lead to extra time but early in the second half Moscow scored again from a freekick. Honda, the played not the car, ripped a free kick that should have been punched away but the keeper fumbled it and it bounced off his hands into his own net. Sevilla was unable to find a good attack in the last half hour now needing two goals to move to the quarters. They brought on all their attacking options but couldn't score.
In the end, Moscow got pretty dirty making very late tackles and were rightly shown many yellow cards. I don't like this tactic as it is bad for soccer and could lead to injuries but it worked. It was a sloppy game the whole time but worked out in the end for Moscow. They join Inter, Man U, Lyon, Arsenal, and Bayern in the quarters.
The last two games are Stuttgart at Barcelona and Olympiacos at Bordeaux. The draw to see who plays who in the next rounds will be held on friday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment