Champions League Round of 16 2nd Leg Wednesday Live(No, Really)Blog

By: Daryl | March 11th, 2009

So, after Tuesday and Wednesday, your quarter finalists are:

Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Chelsea, Villarreal, Barcelona, Man Utd, Arsenal, Porto

Thanks to everyone for reading/commenting.

Wow. My heart goes out to Tonetto and Roma. With all those injuries, Roma put up a good fight. But not to be.

Tonetto…
…skies it. Horrible. Arsenal are through, Roma are out.

Diaby…
…sidefoots home. 7-6.

Riise and his left foot.
No stopping that. 6-6. Let’s go around again.

Sagna for Arsenal.
Scores, bottom right corner. Is no one going to the left? 6-5 Arsenal.

Aquilani to keep Roma alive.
Scores. 5-5. We could be here all night.

Kolo Toure for Arsenal.
Loooooong run up. And goal. 5-4 Arsenal.

Sudden death.

Totti to keep Roma in it.
Top right corner. 4-4. Sudden death here we come.

Denilson.
A rocket. 4-3 to Arsenal. (actually not a rocket, but in)

Final pens now.

Montella (on for pens)
Does the stutter-step/gallop and puts it in the corner. 3-3.

Samir Nasri for Arsenal.
He scores in the right hand corner. 3-2 Arsenal.

Two kicks each left.

Baptista up for Roma.
Bang. Roof of the net. 2-2.

Walcott for Arsenal.
Doni touched it, but ball snuck in. 2-1 Arsenal.

Vucinic for Roma. Gunshot again.
Sidefooted straight at Almunia. Arguably the worst on-target pen I’ve ever seen. 1-1.

RVP for Arsenal.
Scores in the bottom left corner. 1-1.

David Pizarro up first for Roma.
He scores. 1-0 Roma.

Eduardo is first up. Brave as you like.
And Doni saves! 0-0, but adv. Roma.

ET120′ Pens it is.

Let’s wrap up the predictions. There were 10 goals total, and Keita’s goal adds another 46 to the Scrabble points for a total of 654. I make John the winner with 9 goals and 868 points. Rob is second with 9 goals and 1,100 points, LorenzoRosanero third with 11 goals and 1,300 points.

ET27′ Barring something spectacular, we’re pretty much waiting for pens now.

ET20′ This game has taken a weird turn. For about two minutes there it looked like neither team knew how to complete a pass. Turns out Champions League after 110 minutes is just like Sunday League after 10 minutes.

Sounded like a gunshot in the Stadio Olimpico there. Hoping it was just a flare.

And who knew John Arne Riise would make such a convincing centre back?

ET15′ Here come the final fifteen.

HT in ET. On the way to PKs. To see who makes the CL QFs. I love whoever invented abbreviations.

ET14′ RVP swings a left footed volley over the bar. Starting to look like spot-kicks this one.

ET11′ Not with corners like that though. RVP’s corner swings behind for a goal kick.

ET10′ After 100 minutes, both teams looking understandably sloppy in possession. Arsenal have a corner though. I get the feeling set-piece is how a goal might come.

Word in the comments is that Roma vs Arsenal ET is on espn360.com in the US. But of course you can only see ESPN360 if you’re signed up to a certain internet provider (I think Verizon?). Otherwise, Laurie has a link to a stream, or you can try your luck with one of these.

ET4′ I’m rewarding myself with a beer for LiveBlogging extra-time. But it’s not Heineken. In your face UEFA.

Hope everyone can see Arsenal vs Roma ET somewhere. Just kicked off. Basically, Arsenal have the fresh legs, Roma have the tired injured legs.

Man Utd, Barcelona, Porto go through. Extra time for Roma and Arsenal. Remember, Chris has a Roma LiveBlog going if you want a very Roma p.o.v on this game.

Now the big question. Will ESPN show the extra time from Roma vs Arsenal anywhere on their network? Disney channel maybe? Looks like a no.

90+5 Keita scores a fifth for Barca. 5-2 on the night, 6-3 on agg. FT there too.

FT at Old Trafford. Man Utd go through with a 2-0 win.

90+ Juninho red carded in Barcelona. Not sure why, but he has been.

90+ Arsenal with a corner as FT approaches. Nothing doing though. Looks like ET.

82′ Eduardo on for Bendtner. Welcome back to the Champions League sir. And don’t worry, they don’t let Martin Taylor play in this competition.

81′ Spaletti’s bald head shining under the floodlights. I’d be in favour of a mandatory hat rule for the Roma coach, especially for night matches.

78′ Baptista had a chance to score the winner against his old team, six yard box, ball across, Beast vs keeper. And he missed the ball, completely.

75′ Just so no one forgets, it’s still 0-0 between Porto and Atletico (2-2 on agg.) If it stays like that, Porto go through on away goals. And yes, I am the fool that predicted Porto vs Atletico would be the most exciting game today.

74′ The Roma vs Arsenal game is a bit slow, which is understandable given the extent of Roma’s injury woes. But it just got a bot faster now Theo Walcott is on for Eboue.

72′ The Lyon mini-comeback appears to have stalled. Still 4-2 to Barca.

69′ Figo replaces Balotelli at Old Trafford, while Anderson replaces Scholes. A perfectly balanced trade-off of youth and experience. And I can say this now he’s gone: Balotelli’s hair is super-lame, with all those swirls carved into it. I feel like this guy already thinks he’s a superstar, despite having done more or less nothing yet.

66′ Shot of Sepp Blatter in the crowd at Old Trafford. Just think: one day that man wont’ rule football. I hope I live to see the day.

Turning my attention to Arsenal vs Roma right now. Walcott and Eduardo warming up for Wenger.

Scrabble update. Nine total goals, and Ronaldo (79) and Juninho (91) make the point total 608

52′ Balotelli trips C-Ron (who – maybe – dives). Cue a Balotelli vs Cronaldo staring contest. Possibly two of the most arrogant men in football.

49′ GOAL! at Old Trafford. C-Ron heads in his first CL goal of the season, from a Rooney cross. So it’s Man Utd 2-0 Inter. The Special One not looking so special right now, and can expect a post-game grilling from the Italian press.

47′ Lyon have pulled another goal back in Barcelona. Juninho from a pull-back, and now it’s Barca 4-2 Lyon. Two more O’L goals and they’re though.

Right now Barca, Man Utd and Porto are going through. Roma and Arsenal going to extra time.

45′ Second half underway.

Seven total goals so far. Latest on the Scrabble scores:
Messi: 65, Eto’o: 65, Makoun 75.
Grand total at HT = 438
So Laurie leading so far with guess of 7 goals and 1,000 points.

Half-time. Here are the HT scores (aggregate in brackets).

Barcelona 4-1 Lyon (5-2)
Roma 1-0 Arsenal (1-1)
Man Utd 1-0 Inter (1-0)
Porto 0-0 Atletico (2-2)

45′ Bit of drama in Rome. Clichy got tangled with and then tripped Motta in the box, but no pen. Roma players surrounding the ref, but he’s not changing his mind.

42′ And now Lyon pull one back with a Makoun header off a corner. 4-1. But still game over. I think. And I’ve got some adding up to do at HT.

41′ It’s now Barcelona 4-0 Lyon. Samuel Eto’o in on the act, beating two Lyon defenders and the keeper even though he was trapped on the byline. Barca vs Lyon is looking a bit like Bayern vs Sporting right now.

40′ Inter having a real go at Man Utd here, and it’s turning into a good game of footy. From a neutral perspective, an Inter goal would be the best thing for this game.

39′ It’s now 3-0 in Barcelona. Messi dribbled through like only he can, played a quick one-two and slotted it home. Game over, man, game over.

38′ John O’Shea had a chance to make it 2-0, but Julio Cesar saved at his feet. Lucky he didn’t score, because Tommy Smyth would have exploded with joy. Which would have been messy.

37′ VDS saves a Stankovic strike. Ref was so impressed, he gives a goal kick instead of a corner.

And for those who are playing our little Scrabblesque word game, Henry is worth 70 points. So that’s 140 for his two goals. Giving us a grand total of… 233. Creeping up. So that’s four goals and 233 points so far.

29′ Zlatan heads a cross into the floor and off the Man Utd bar. There’s life in this game yet. And of course, one away goal and Inter are in the driving seat.

27′ Over in Rome, goalscorer Juan has had to come off injured for Julio “The Beast” Baptista. John Arne Riise is having to fill in at CB, which can’t be good.

My bold prediction of Barcelona exiting the CL looks more stoopid than bold now.

25′ + 27′ Wow. Thierry Henry has bagged two goals in two (or is that three?) minutes in Barcelona. So it’s Barca 2-0 Lyon.

22′ Meanwhile in Rome… Almunia makes a great save from a Taddei strike. That looks like the game to watch if you ask me.

20′ Poor Stankovic falls into the bottomless pit between the Old Trafford pitch and advertising boards. Anyone who says commercialization is dangerous for football is now correct in a very literal sense.

Apparently you can chat with Shaka Hislop on ESPN’s website. If you do, ask him how come he was solid in the Premier League but useless in MLS.

Juan was worth 46 points. Giving us a total of 93 so far.

13′ Xavi just went closeish with a free kick in Barcelona.

9′ GOAL! in Rome. Juan has made it 1-1 on aggregate.

9′ Balotelli with a nice little turn and nearly a genius pass. Whatever else happens tonight, I’ll enjoy seeing what this kid can do.

Vidic is worth 47, alpha-numerically btw.

4′ GOAL! Already. Vidic scores with his head from about 15 yards out. 1-0 to Man Utd, and no running down the touchline for The Special One tonight, unless his team wake up.

0′ We are off.

Teams are coming out in Manchester, Barcelona, Rome and Porto. Get ready for the song. The Chaaampiooons! A heartwarming hymn to the commercialization of football.

T-10mins: Did I read that right? ESPN2 just claimed that Zlatan has never scored in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, despite playing 15 games.

T-15mins: We have football on ESPN2. For the first time in a long time, the Champions League feels very very exciting. Fingers crossed that Man Utd vs Inter delivers some entertainment to the neutrals.

Preamble: It’s no secret that we had a few server problems yesterday, which led to the Champions League Deadblog. Wish we could backtrack and say it was all in honour of Sporting Lisbon, but no, it was just servers. Good news is that everything is now fixed and ready for action. Which is more than can be said for injury/illness/suspension ravaged Roma.

So, back to business: Here are today’s games:

Barcelona (1) vs (1) Lyon
Roma (0) vs (1) Arsenal
Man Utd (0) vs (0) Inter
Porto (2) vs (2) Atletico

LINEUPS:

Man Utd:
Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov.
Inter Milan:
Julio Cesar, Maicon, Cordoba, Samuel, Santon, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Vieira, Stankovic, Ibrahimovic, Balotelli.

Roma:
Doni, Motta, Diamoutene, Juan, Riise, Taddei, Brighi, Pizarro, Tonetto, Vucinic, Totti
Arsenal:
Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Toure, Gallas, Nasri, Denilson, Eboue, Diaby, Bendtner, Van Persie.

Barcelona: Victor Valdes, Dani Alves, Marquez, Pique, Sylvinho, Xavi, Toure, Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o, Heny
Lyon:
Lloris, Clerc, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso, Juninho, Toulalan, Makoun, Delgado, Benzema, Ederson

FC Porto:
Helton, Sapunaru, Rolando, Bruno Alves, Cissokho, Lucho Gonzalez, Fernando, Raul Meireles, Lopez, Hulk, Rodriguez.
Atletico Madrid:
Franco, Perea, Pablo, Ujfalusi, Antonio Lopez, Maxi, Paulo Assuncao, Raul Garcia, Simao, Sinama Pongolle, Aguero.

All very finely balanced, I’m sure you’ll agree. I’ll be watching Mr Alex and his Portuguese friend via the magic of ESPN2, but will also (hopefully) have a stream of that brilliant German simulcast to see what else is going on.

And now the interesting part. Predictions. How many total goals will there be today?
My guess is: not as many as yesterday (19!).

And, as ever we need a wacky tie-breaker. This week let’s go with alpha-numerics (A=1, B=2, C=3 etc). A bit like Champions League Scrabble.

What will be the total alphanumeric value of all goalscorers today? For example, when Torres scored yesterday, that was worth 95 points (TORRES = 20+15+18+18+5+19).

No idea how or even if this will work, but let’s find out. I’m predicting 8 goals and a total goalscorer alphanumeric value of 900. What’s your prediction?

LiveBlog starts at the top. See you up there.