Can you smell the final?

So the semi-finals for the 2008/09 running of the UEFA Champions’ League is upon us once again with only 4 teams left standing. As we’ve seen for the past 3 years the English teams are once again dominating the matches with 3 representatives.

The fixtures are as follows:

FC Barcelona vs. Chelsea FC

Manchester United vs. Arsenal

Barcelona is currently playing some of the best football ever (I mean since the inception of the modern game). They currently sit at the top of La Liga with their fierce rivals Real Madrid sniffing at their heels. This pressure along with a very tightly scheduled month will no doubt be a stern test for La Blaugrana. Hopefully they won’t disappoint.

Chelsea has been a team reborn under interim manager Guus Hiddink. Didier Drogba has begun scoring at will again, and the team generally looks like they have regained their hunger. This was all too apparent in their demolition of Liverpool in the last round of play. The winner of their tie against Barça is widely regarded to be the strong favourite for the trophy.

Manchester United has over the past couple of weeks, looked a shadow of their true selves in some very boring showings against seemingly lesser teams. In the last round they were given a scare by Porto who went to Old Trafford ad played all over the home team, but were eventually outdone by a remarkable goal by C. Ronaldo in the Dragão. They need to find back the form that made them revered as the best team in the world in order for them to progress to the final.

Arsenal are the perennial underachievers of English football. Every year we are bombarded with talk of the amount of potential in this side, yet at the end of the season their cabinet is bare. Maybe they should sell it and buy some experienced players that would bolster a very shoddy midfield. Arsenal will be without Gallas and van Persie for this leg due to both being injured. Andrei Arshavin would have been a great help to this team in this year’s competition, but as he is cup tied and it is left to be seen how they would fare against a shaky but efficient Manchester united team. Samir Nasry might have to dig into his bag of tricks for a second time this season to cause this upset.

All in all, we are in for a great feast of football. I hope you are as excited as I am. Good luck to all the fans. (Except Chelsea supporters, hahaha. I joke, I joke.)