Liverpool v Chelsea and AC Milan v Man Utd are live on RTÉ Two and RTÉ.ie ((RoI only; 450k) on 01/02 May.
The Champions League semi-finals were always going to be tight and so it proved last week. Manchester United and Chelsea will take a one-goal advantage into the return legs in Milan and Liverpool and that could well prove enough of an edge to see them reach the final in Athens next month.
Chelsea proved far stronger to Liverpool and should have had a two-goal lead at least for their efforts at Stamford Bridge. I really fancy Chelsea to go through now as Liverpool don’t have the quality of attacking players needed to hurt Chelsea’s defence sufficiently.
Liverpool actually tried to attack Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but the quality up front just wasn’t there. Dirk Kuyt is an honest worker and will give 100% but John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho were fairly comfortable throughout. Liverpool didn’t create one real chance during the whole 90 minutes. Obviously at Anfield they’ll be more on the front foot but they still lack a real cutting edge against the top sides.
I haven’t met anyone who can understand how Bolo Zenden stayed on for the full 90 minutes, he had a very poor match. Benitez will have to leave him out for the return leg and bring in a more creative player. We may see Craig Bellamy on the left hand side with Kuyt and Crouch up front, with Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano in midfield. Liverpool have to go and attack Chelsea and that means playing the more creative players.
Liverpool will also be concerned about Drogba – he destroyed them in Stamford Bridge and is a huge player for Chelsea. He’s a great outlet when they want to play long balls out of defence and will dominate again if given the opportunity. I can’t see him being as effective at Anfield though because Chelsea will have a lot more defending to do but he’s still a very potent player and will be ready if given the opportunity.
He was play acting a bit again at Stamford Bridge, but it’s fair to say he has improved this season in comparison to last. He had cut out a lot of the nonsense but had a relapse on Wednesday night it would seem!
The other semi-final was a lot more entertaining for the neutral, as was expected, and there was a lot more football played. United played really well and showed a lot of courage but the key to that game was Gattuso and Maldini coming off injured – that was a hammer blow for Milan. They are two huge players for them and Milan didn’t have anything on the bench to replace them.
It looks as though Maldini is out of the return leg too so they’ve got it all to do. Milan have some fine players but I don’t think they’ve enough quality throughout the squad to deal with the loss of those two. A lot will depend of whether Gattuso is fit or not. His fitness will be a big factor on the outcome of the match.
Milan have to score which will suit United as they are a very powerful counter-attacking side. Rooney in particular, and Ronaldo’s pace, could cause Milan big problems, while Paul Scholes will always be an attacking threat.
So my view is that it will be a Chelsea/Man United final, although it is still all to play for!
Eamon was in conversation with Johnny Proby
