Kai, The Informologist

Instead of eating mushroom chicken amongst us two, we walked and shared and in return had a much better dinner experience with friends and f.r.i.en.d.s and KFC.

As a Man Utd fan, I’d naturally switch to Reds for the day. It has to be a bright day for Liverpool who had been in the shadow for most of the season, being the underachievers of the league.

The game was turned on from the very beginning, entertaining 2 goals in the first half an hour. It was thought to be a game of doldrum, with both sides tied at 1-1 for the game and 2-2 for aggregate. And with the history of both teams, it seems highly likely that it would require extra-time or even penalty to resolve the deadlock. A fantastic strike from Fernando Torres, leaving Senderos rooted saw them heading up to a single goal advantage.

It took Arsenal 15 minutes to drop the much feared away goal advantage, thanks to the amazing speed of Theo Walcott. 3-3, Arsenal leading on away goal. Another goal at 84th minutes seems improbable. It was, until a penalty was give just 60 seconds after. Manuel Almunia got it right, but was diving too low. Steve Gerrard coolly placed the ball at the top left corner of the net.

Danger was not over, considering the depth of the Arsenal team. Defending was the absolute priority. Oh, and by the way, Ryan Babel (substituted on at 78th minute) was the one who won the penalty for Liverpool. And it was him again whose speed surpassed the tracking Fabregas (who was the last man) to calmly slot the 4th Liverpool goal past Almunia into the right back of the net. Beautiful.

It was a game of passion from both sides. But it was evident that although Arsenal players gave their all, they are fatigue. This was 21-year-old Fabregas’ 47th game of the season. If Arsenal wants to still be a challenger to the English Premier League title, Arsene Wenger has to figure out a way to strategically rest his first team players while still winning games.

Good job Liverpool, you are a team that should still be feared in Europe, just for getting yourself into the 3rd semi-final of UEFA Champions League out of four season’s running.

(via Daily Mail)

In 7 short days, the dynamic of the game has drastically changed. It was a comfortable 2-0 win at Roma, and the same was expected to happen at Old Trafford today. That is, with a full squad of healthy players – especially the central line of defense that had kept out most attacks from opponent teams this season.

Sure, Wayne Rooney can be a fairly good defender chasing down balls at every turn. But his role is a striker – with him defending, the offense will be weaken. Therefore, losing both Vidic and Rio Ferdinand in the span of a week can definitely be consider a huge casualty for Man Utd.

That aside, according to Soccernet.com “Despite United’s worries at the back, it would be a major shock if they failed to advance.” And that is further backed by United’s record against AS Roma, which has yet to brought a defeat in the past couple of years, with the latest 1-0 win from the group stage in October.

Interestingly, thanks to the injury of both senior center-backs, Gerard Pique, the scorer on both occasion that he started for the club will be played. We haven’t seen the best and the rest of him and there’s much anticipation and expectation for the 21 year old Spaniard.

The game will kick off at 2:45p.m Eastern Time tomorrow and should be played over Barcelona vs. Schalke 04 on ESPN. Otherwise LiveFooty can be used.

Whoever the pitch may hold at Old Trafford, let’s hope it would be a good one.