Champions League Round-Up

By Joel Martin

Every English team in the Champions League went on the road this week, and every team other than Arsenal is heading home with a good result. Manchester United and Liverpool needed a degree of luck to get the results they needed, but sometimes that is what these games are about more than anything.

The goal taken away from Lille in the Manchester United game was blown completely. Peter Odemwingie’s hand touching the shoulder of Nemanja Vidic was incidental at best, and Vidic clearly fell because of his own momentum, not the contact between himself and the Nigerian striker.

Giggs’ goal, as much as it pains me to say it, was legit though. I’ve seen Henry do it plenty of times. Quickly-taken free kicks are dangerous, dangerous weapons.

Liverpool had no business going in to Camp Nou and beating Barcelona. Although Barcelona did not play well enough to win, they still had two-thirds of the possession and arguably the best team in the world. The European Champions should not lose to a team like Liverpool at home.

It was nice to see Bellamy score the first and set up the second goal to Riise, the victim of his five-iron tirade. Kuyt could have even added another—hell, it could have been 3-1! If you had told me that Liverpool would have 33% of the possession playing at the Nou Camp I’d say you’d be crazy to think that Liverpool could escape Barcelona with a draw, let alone a win.

This week’s round of Champions League fixtures have proven that luck has just as much a role as anything in this competition. Although Chelsea was unlucky to lose John Terry to injury so early, they were also lucky Quaresma’s swirling rocket sailed over a befuddled Petr Cech and ricocheted off the bar. Porto could have easily won that game.

In the end, the “lucky results” by the rest of our English counterparts make me optimistic about hosting PSV at the Emirates in two weeks, because we’re due for some luck.