Champions League round-up: Chelsea and Barcelona reach semis

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Chelsea
Chelsea logo
4 - 4
Liverpool logo
Liverpool
Pepe Reina(o.g) 51
Fábio Aurélio 19
Alex 56
Xabi Alonso(pen) 28
Frank Lampard 76
Lucas 81
Frank Lampard 89
Dirk Kuyt 83


Chelsea will face Barcelona in the last four of the Champions League after grinding out a memorable - but uncomfortable - 4-4 draw with Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool had dominated proceedings from the start and it came as no surprise when they opened the scoring after 19 minutes.

Fábio Aurélio lined up to curl a free-kick into the middle of the box but, at the last moment, he spotted Petr Čech straying too far across his goal and whipped a low shot from all of 30 yards into the bottom corner.

Liverpool were then in dreamland after 28 minutes as the two-goal hero of the first-leg, Branislav Ivanović, was penalised for holding back Xabi Alonso in the area and the Spaniard himself smashed home from the spot.

The hosts needed a goal to take the sting out of Liverpool's momentum and it arrived somewhat fortunately in the 51st minute when Pepe Reina turned Didier Drogba’s touch into his own net.

Then Alex rifled home a spectacular 25-yard free-kick to make it 2-2 five minutes later.

With 14 minutes remaining Liverpool's dreams looked finished when Frank Lampard converted Drogba’s cross to put the Blues ahead on the night.

But a long-range effort from Lucas was deflected off Michael Essien and beyond Čech in the 81st minute and, somewhat astonishingly, Dirk Kuyt put the Reds 4-3 ahead on the night and one behind on aggregate two minutes later.

Had Liverpool scored again, Chelsea would have gone out.

However, Lampard struck again in the last minute to hand Chelsea a 7-5 aggregate win and a safe passage into the last four.


Chelsea v Liverpool goals & highlights




Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich logo
1 - 1
Barcelona logo
Barcelona
Franck Ribéry 47
Seydou Keita 73


Barcelona eased into the semi-finals of the Champions League as they drew 1-1 at Bayern Munich to give them a 5-1 aggregate victory.

In front of a sold-out crowd of 66,000 at Allianz Arena, the hosts were by far the more aggressive side early on, knowing it needed a quick goal after the embarrassment in Barcelona.

The Germans went close in the sixth minute when José Ernesto Sosa robbed Éric Abidal and swung in a dangerous cross which Luca Toni unconvincingly flicked wide from eight yards.

Toni had the ball in the back of the net just a minute later, but the linesman's flag had long since been raised to deny him.

After a goalless first-half, Bayern went ahead two minutes after the break when Zé Roberto slid a pass into the path of Franck Ribéry, who did a neat dummy and beat Víctor Valdés with a rising shot.

Barcelona equalised with 17 minutes remaining as Seydou Keita was teed up on the edge of the box and he blasted the ball home past Hans-Jörg Butt.


Bayern Munich v Barcelona goal & highlights



Please subscribe to our RSS feed to receive more updates. You can also subscribe by Email and enjoy our latest posts sent directly to your inbox.


Also see:
 
Copyright © 2016. Privacy Policy
Design by Herdiansyah Hamzah & Distributed by Free Blogger Templates
Creative Commons License