As they are about to head into the winter break, the cups are drawing closer to a finale. With the draw for both cups on Friday, are there any matches that people want to see played, or teams to win?

I, personally, like that there are three Ukrainian teams into the last round of 32 in the UEFA cup. For CL quarters, I would really like to see a Milan-Madrid matchup. Classic, of course.

I think Wednesday's match between Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen is going to be the most exciting out of the eight. I really don't care who wins, but I would love to see that game!

After first turning down 35 mil pounds ($61.5 million) Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scores a hat-trick to defeat Welsh team Total Network Solutions (yuck, whats wrong with a Welsh name? :mad: ) by a score of 3-0.

I guess they wont be booing him again for a while.

Oh how I would love to have seen the game and the eye-candy at the Chelsea-Milan draw in New Jersey. And Didier Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho are two of the reasons. If Hernan Crespo hadn't been pulled to put in Drogba it would have been a triple treat.

Only thing better would have been the injured Andriy Schevchenko on the other side of the field for a little light distraction. Playing as much for pride and practice as for a prize, pre-season sure does have it's small pleasures.

Chelsea finally fall at the feet of Real Betis hottie Daniel Martin Alexandre better known as Dani. Fun while it lasted. Now coach Maurihno is getting testy, calling another coach a voyeur for being obsessed with Chelsea. What a world. Get a grip. It's just football wink

Barcelona 2 - 1 Arsenal
The 2006 Champions League Final in Paris was amazing. Barcelona looked in control for most of the match. They definitely had possession for most of the game. Arsenal looked more in control after scoring the first goal in minute 37 until the end of the first half. Jens Lehmann got a red card and left within the first 20 minutes. Arsenal took out Pires to substitute a g'keeper - who by the way did an amazing job despite giving up 2 goals late in the match. His name is Alaminia (sp?). A free kick was awarded to Arsenal (totally bad call) & Sol Campbell connected the header. Arsenal owned the rest of the half after that goal. Barcelona mostly controlled the second with Arsenal having a couple of chances by Ljungberg & Hleb thwarted by BCN g'keeper Valdes. Barcelona looked much more stylish with fancy passes & great connections especially the first goal to Eto'o in about minute 78. The equalizer. About 5 minutes later Barcelona went ahead with a goal by Belletti who drove passed the defenders and slipped it betwixed the legs of the g'keeper. Big disappointment of the match - Ronaldihno, 0 for 5 for goal shots (3 free kicks, 2 shots on goal). Arsenal did a great job only giving up 2 goals in the entire 2006 CL campaign. Sadly, they came in the final. Lehmann was the first g'keeper in CL history to be red carded out of a final.
:cool:

[ May 17, 2006, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: simontexas ]

Ronaldinho was HORRIBLE. There was one chance, with Barca down 1-0, when he completely missed a shot after Samuel Eto'o's hard work. Watching the replay, it was completely obvious that he hit the shot way too early...

How about Henrik Larsson's plays? He was incisive and had both assists. Belletti's goal was a bit lucky, but sometimes that what it takes to win a match.

Congratulations to Mexican national team defender Rafael Marquez- though I hate the Mexican team, I have to give credit where credit is due.

Apparantly, Thierry Henry was screaming at Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger to bring on Jose Antonio Reyes for Aliksander Hleb to give him more support. Wenger refused to make the sub at first, b/c when he started screaming, Arsenal was up 1-0. Reyes did eventually come on for Hleb, but not until the 84th minute or so- WAY too late. Henry can't blame Wenger though- he had two great opportunities. One time, he outmuscled Puyol and outsmarted Marquez to get to the endline...only to take a strong touch right into Valdes's hands. Another time, off a spectacularly weighted through ball from Freddie Ljungberg, Henry drove a shot right into Valdes with the entire goal beckoning...

Thank You MetroMathis13...it's about time someone agrees with me on Ronaldinho. I'm a big fan of the guy and there is no denying his talent, but this afternoon he simply was not on his "A" game. Granted, he did start on the right side which is unusual for him so I'll give him SOME slack but bottom line, you need your top players to perform and he just didn't today.

I too, was at a loss for words that Reyes came on so late. Against a team like Barcelona, you want as must offensive power out there as possible. Big mistake by Wenger in my opinion.

As for Henry....I understand his frustrations with the officiating, but you can not place all or even the majority of the blame on an official considering all the chances he had. Suck it up and move on.

Some of the rumor mills seem to be saying that for Henry, "moving on" could mean "moving to Barcelona"...