Friday\’s Champions League draw will contain three English clubs.
Spurs could play Manchester United.
If Chelsea eliminate Copenhagen, as expected, they could play Spurs.
If the English clubs avoid each other, there\’s a bigger chance of one reaching the final at Wembley.
Myself, I’d love to see Real Madrid play Manchester United again.
Last night the Rooney -Hernandez partnership looked lethal enough to win the Premier League title for United.
Arsenal have their strengths but Hernandez is better than Van Persie, while Rooney, although erratic, is faster and more powerful than Fabregas.
Like Arsenal, United have loads of injuries, and both managers are filling holes as best they can. Arsenal have missed Song hugely, as we knew they would.
The Man United game against Marseilles was tense and tough, despite an early goal which Rooney made for Hernandez in five minutes.
Then Marseilles missed three good chances. After 36, United replaced right back John O\’Shea with Rafael, who then went off in in the second half with the same injury, a hamstring.
It was a very nervy contest until Hernandez made it 2-0 after solid work by Valencia and Giggs on the right flank.
Then sub Valbuena flighted in a fine corner from the left, Gabby Heinze bumped Wes Brown, and the makeshift centreback headed an own-goal.
But United kept scrapping and did just enough to win 2-1 after a 0-0 draw in Marseilles.
Overall, it was very open game with mistakes and big spaces and action at both ends. I\’ve hardly seen a game like that in the knock-out stages.
Compelling entertainment and we enjoyed it. My best friend Doug arrived at 7.15 and his son Matt arrived at 7.30 with a curry from Vijay\’s, a south Indian restaurant in Kilburn, and we had a quick spicy dinner, missing the first three minutes of the match but diving onto the sofas just in time to see the first goal.
For a while this season it looked as if Rooney and Hernandez would not play together.
Now they obviously can and will.
France\’s other team, Lyon, visit Real Madrid tonight to face their former striker Karim Benzema, whose goal put them 1-0 down in the home leg.
Benzema was sold for 35m euros. Unfortunately, Michel Bastos, their productive left wing-back, is having knee surgery in Brazil.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been out with a leg injury for two games but I think he’ll start tonight. Ozil and Benzema have played very well in his absence, as has winger Di Maria.
My friend Tony says Cristiano is so vain that he does 1,000 sit-ups a day, so he can have abs like the Incredible Hulk. but 1,000 is not that many, when you think about it. A superfit athlete can do 100 sit-ups very quickly.
When Cristiano left United in that £80 million deal, he had a medical and the Real Madrid doctors were amazed by his lung capacity. They\’d never seen anything like it.
In the end, football is about players and I love certain types of players.
Javier Hernandez is busy and sparky and brave and lives on the shoulder of the last defender, He anticipates, scores goals from five yards, gets on the end of things. He\’s a thinking player as well as a reflex player, very good in the air for his size, a little guy with a big appetite.
Last night he did some things that reminded me of Denis Law and no striker since Andy Gray has ever reminded me of Denis Law, who was my hero when I was a kid and the reason I went to Manchester University.
Being still involved in three competitions, and picking up injuries in every game, Manchester United might run out of bodies soon.
At various phases in a season, a team has good things happening within it and managers pray for those things to click and keep clicking.
Right now, Rooney is becoming an accomplished midfield playmaker, so much so that he\’s starting to remind me of the way Bobby Charlton used to swing the ball out to the wings.
I remember coming home on a double decker bus from Old Trafford one day, on the top deck, thinking, “Bobby Charlton, bloody hell! He was amazing, he carried that team, he did more than the other ten put together, he passed, he dribbled, he put in shots and crosses, he was non-stop, he was everywhere, all day long, he was superhuman today, how can one man do so much? He shouldn\’t have to do so much, the other ten should help him !â€
What am I saying today? Only that Javier Hernandez is the sparkiest £6 million striker I\’ve seen in the Champions League era.
He\’s electric, makes me want to watch, gives me belief, keeps doing things I like. He\’s my kind of footballer. When you\’ve blogged through last season and right through an endless and tedious World Cup without a break, and done what I\’ve done here since August, you need a few beacon players to keep you going .
Chicarito keeps me going. So does Jack Wilshere.
I couldn\’t do this without them.
PS Rob Hughes reminds me that Javier Hernandez has a pedigree.