By Myles Palmer
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I love to see good teams play each other, so I really enjoyed the Liverpool and Chelsea quarter-finals
But I wished Arsenal had been there.
Chelsea beat Bayern 4-2 and appeared to maintain radio contact with Mourinho, who was in a health club.
It looked as if they blatantly flaunted the Uefa ban on communications between the team and the manager. The bench looked very guilty at times as the camera zoomed in.
It was oddly comical to see the fourth official scold them so mildly for passing notes.
He should have said to fitness coach Rui Faria, who had a big earpiece bulging under his navy blue bobble hat, “Give me that hat! And give me that radio now or we abandon the game!”
The Special One doesn’t think he has done anything wrong, or could ever do anything wrong, so he decided to take the piss.
He ignored his punishment in an obvious way. He was virtually saying, “You can see me taking the piss, what are you gonna do about it?”
When Chelsea were winning 4-1, Ballack threw himself on the ground and the ref gave the softest penalty in Champions League history and bighead Ballack smashed it into the bottom corner for 4-2.
As in the game against Arsenal, Bayern created nothing in open play.
They marked, double marked, pressed, denied space, pinched the ball, played for free-kicks. Second half, their marking and pressing fell apart.
Before the game I thought super-athlete Lucio might toy with Drogba.
But Drogba made one goal, scored another, and won vital flick-ons as Chelsea showed Arsene Wenger what you can do if you play with a centre forward.
After 4 minutes, Joe Cole’s scuffed shot was going wide but was deflected in off Lucio.
Glen Johnson chested the wrong ball in a kamikaze moment, but Ze Roberto poked his shot wide.
Ballack threw himself over Carvalho’s leg to earn a free-kick.
On 33, Gudjohnsen lays back a neat ball for Lampard to hit and it fizzes just wide of the top corner, taking a slight nick off Guerrero’s left thigh which nobody noticed.
Playing in midfield, Gudjohnsen had a tremendous game.
Chelsea are belligerent and hands up to Oliver Kahn for not squealing when John Terry collided heavily with him.
Kahn was obviously hurt but he got up quickly and did not say anything or make faces or wave his arms
LAMPARD is a method player, not a flair player.
He has everything you can learn.
Second half, Chelsea started like an express train with a slick Arsenal-type one-touch passing move and Lucio made a great block on a Duff shot with Kahn beaten.
On 51, Gallas did what Liverpool had avoided doing against Juventus. He made a stupid challenge on the edge of the box.
Ballack’s shot hit the wall (there were some good walls in this game), Ze Roberto’s shot was parried by Cech and Schweinsteiger made it 1-1.
The goal for 2-1 was Route 1 by Glen Johnson. He was ten yards inside his own half when he hit a 60-yard ball for Drogba to knock down to Lampard in the D.
Lampard picked his spot and hit an impeccable left foot shot just hard enough to beat Kahn.
That was 59 and Lampard made it 3-1 in 70, chesting a Makelele cross and spinning perfectly to blast left footed across Kahn.
David Platt, eat your heart out!
Oliver Kahn was superb, didn’t make one mistake.
At 3-1, I thought : Bye, Bye, Bayern. I fancied Chelsea to score four or five.
Duff’s corner was cleared and then Gudjohnsens’ shot hit Kahn and Drogba blasted in the rebound for 4-1.
My brother Paddy kept saying that if Bayern got one back they would only need to win 2-0 in Munich.
And I kept saying Bayern wouldn’t score again but Chelsea would.
Then Huth conceded another silly free-kick near the touchline, Ballack felt a tiny touch by Carvalho and threw himself down.
Did Ballack really mug the referee?
Or was six foot six Dutch ref Rene Temmink just saying, “This one’s for you, Anders Frisk !”
I thought Chelsea would win, but not by 4-2. Wished I’d had a bigger bet, but my bottle went after backing Juventus for a draw or win at Anfield.
Still, I also backed Milan to beat Inter, which they did by 2-0.
For me, Terry- Gallas is still Chelsea’s best defensive partnership.
Gallas is no left back, and Johnson won’t be a right back for another two years at least.
ANFIELD’S ATMOSPHERE was incredible on Tuesday night.
The passion of their fans propelled Liverpool into top gear and left Juventus looking like a team of arthritic millionaires playing an antiquated style.
Juventus were pathetic in the first 25 as Hyypia rammed in a volley at the post after Luis Garcia headed on Gerrard’s corner.
Best volley by a centreback since Ayala of Valencia at Highbury! And Ayala was standing still, not running onto an awkward ball on his left foot.
Then Luis Garcia sent a dipping half-volley zooming over Buffon’s head for 2-0.
What drama !
This was like Arsenal going 2-0 up against Effenberg and Co : Henry scores, Kanu scores again, and all hell breaks loose.
But of course Anfield was noisier.
Juve had not played for since March 19th, following the international break and the death of the Pope, which saw last weekend’s Serie A programme postponed.
Gerrard led the cavalry charge but the cavalry could not maintain that tempo for 90 minutes and young keeper Scott Carson dropped a clanger when he missed Cannavaro’s bouncing header.
A final score of 2-1 leaves Juventus slight favourites to go through and meet Chelsea in the semi.
But it’s not over.
The performance was a bit like the Liverpool of the Seventies and Eighties.
Bill Shankly would have loved Jamie Carragher and Bob Paisley would have enjoyed the craft of right back Steve Finnan, who reads the game so well.
STEVIE G is an all-action gladiator, but still hits too many long passes that are, in his own words, “too Hollywood”.
April 7th 2005