Buzzin Football Blog

The second leg of this quarter final tie saw Arsenal firing themselves out of the starting blocks, heaping wave after wave of attacking pressure on a Liverpool defence that appeared stunned that the game had started. The Gunners were relentless for those first thirteen minutes, in which Liverpool hardly got a sniff of the ball.

Arsenal didn’t create much in clear cut chances, but when Diaby broke through on the end of Hlebs pass and scored, you sensed there would be more goals in this young Arsenal side.

The game suddenly changed after the first goal with Arsenal attempting to defend their lead, unable to keep Liverpool under the cosh, things swung in favour of the home team. It was Liverpool who now looked the more menacing of the two, mounting a constant stream of attack at the Arsenal defence. On half hour Hypia found space and headed in a corner to bring the scores level.

Liverpool seemed to be relishing the game more as time passed and looked the most likely to score during the second half. And it was of course Torres who duly scored, lifting a shot into the top corner from inside the penalty area, after being found by strike partner Crouch.

This time Liverpool were content to sit back and soak up the pressure, and once again it proved the wrong thing to do. As Arsenal cleared a Liverpool attack the ball fell to substitute Walcott just outside the Arsenal area. The youngster ran with the ball at his feet the length of the field brushing of three challenges, before cutting back for Adebayor to tap in an equaliser.

At this point Arsenal would go through on away goals, but no sooner said than Liverpool had a penalty. Babel on for Torres sent tumbling by a clumsy challenge from Toure. Gerrard who had an awful game overall, hammered the ball home with just four minutes left to play.

Once again Arsenal dominated the game, throwing everyone forward, they were caught out as Liverpool cleared from defence to Babel on the half way line, who shrugged off the attentions of Fabregras to secure the win for the Reds.

Another fantastic game from these two teams, and once again Liverpool will face Chelsea in the semi finals of the competition.

In the other game Chelsea took an early lead, just five minutes into the game with Ballack heading home from Lampards free kick. Chelsea heaped the pressure on Fenerbahce for the next fifteen minutes. Then Cudicini was injured and limped off to be replaced by third choice goalkeeper Hilario.

Chelsea lost their composure after this often gifting the ball to the Fenerbahce team. In the end Lampard made sure that Chelsea would progress and set up yet another Champions League Semi Final against Liverpool.

Will Avram Grant do what Jose Mourinho was unable to do, and guide Chelsea past Liverpool?