Some very interesting remarks from Chelsea‘s Champions League hero on Tuesday. Salomon Kalou has for the first spoken on his icy relationship with former Blues manager Andre Villas- Boas.
Kalou who scored the only goal of the night in Chelsea’s win over Benfica claims that Villas-Boas froze him out of the first team because he refused to sign a new deal with the club. Speaking to The Sun, Kalou said that Villas-Boas had no idea to make him part of his long term plans with club.
AC Milan held Barcelona to an 0-0 draw at the San Siro, to leave their Champions League quarter-final tie delicately balanced heading back to the Nou Camp next week.
The last time Barcelona failed to score in the Champions League was in the 0-0 draw with Rubin Kazan in November 2009.
Both teams had their chances. Milan‘s were early as Robinho and Ibrahimovic both missed great opportunities in the opening 10 minutes. Messi had a goal pulled back for offside, and Barca were denied a clear penalty when Alexis Sanchez was brought down by Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati.
Important wins for both Chelsea and Real Madrid last night as both clubs took a giant step towards the semi finals after win over Benfica and APOEL Nicosia respectfully.
Of course the biggest result of the biggest result of the night was Madrid‘s 3-0 win over APOEL. The win make it very hard for APOEL to move onto the last four especially with a return leg at the Bernabeu in two weeks time.
Chelsea on the other hand are not out of the woods yet despite carrying the single away goal advantage back to Stamford Bridge. Truth be said, the Chelsea result does not do justice to their performance.
After getting the better of Manchester United in the Group Stages, confidence is sky high among Benfica players that they could repeat a similar feat against struggling Chelsea when the two sides meet tonight in one of two Champions League quarter final fixtures.
A loss to Man City in mid week action followed by a barren draw at home to Tottenham has left the Blues 5 points behind the North London side who hold the 4th and final Champions League qualifying slot.
Speaking to Goal.com Benfica midfielder Javi Martinez oozed confidence when asked about his team’s chances of making it through to the semis.
Champions League action resumes tomorrow with some very interesting fixtures. Real Madrid travel to Nicosia to play surprise package APOEL while Bayern Munich will be in France for a crunch fixture against Olympique Marseille.
Madrid who are one of the favourites to make it through to the final, have a rather easy fixture against Cypriot side APOEL. Los Blancos will be aiming to end APOEL’s amazing run in the competition with a game to spare when they meet them at the 23,000 seater GSP stadium tomorrow night.
AC Milan have been drawn against defending champions Barcelona in the quarter finals of the Champions League. The draw carried out in UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland however, failed to produce any other notable ties as all big clubs avoided each other.
Record holding Real Madrid seemed to get the easiest tie after drawing Cypriot side APOEL. If history is anything to go by, then the 9 time winners should easily overcome APOEL having beaten Cypriot sides 12-0 and 14-1 in their past meetings.
Here is a complete list of the last eight fixtures
APOEL v Real Madrid
Sure Ronaldo didn’t score anywhere near 5 goals last night, however, his double took his all time tally for Real to 127 goals in 128 games. Very impressive if you ask me.
Los Blancos easily made it to the last eight thanks to a 4-1 win inspired by an improving Kaka. The capital based club joins Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, Milan,Marseille and APOEL in the quarters finals that are expected to pair very interesting fixtures.
The much awaited draw for this stage of the competition takes place tomorrow 1300hrs CET. Looking at the teams that have qualified, none can really be ruled out, however, the favourites do stand out.
It will go down as one of the best European nights at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea beat Napoli 4-1 after extra time at a loud and boisterous Stamford Bridge to progress into the Champions League quarter-finals.
Chelsea were led tonight by the old guard; Petr Cech made some really important saves while Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard all scored for Chelsea.
In polar opposition to the side that AVB fielded in Italy in the first leg, Roberto di Matteo went with the old guard tonight in Chelsea’s biggest game of the season. John Terry was back in defense alongside David Luiz, while Michael Essien and Frank Lampard were chosen in midfield with Didier Drogba up-front.
Pressure is mounting on Real Madrid forward Cristiano to match the 5 goals rival Lionel Messi scored against Bayer Lerkusen last week when his side takes on CSKA Moscow in the return leg of their last 16 Champions League fixture at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight.
Ronaldo who himself has had an amazing season so far, acknowledged that replicating Messi’s feat would be very hard. Truth be said, both players are having a fantastic season and there is nothing really that can separate them.
Bayern Munich proved that their 7-1 victory over Hoffenheim over the weekend was no fluke as they thrashed Swiss club FC Basel 7-0 to move into the quarter finals comfortably.
Bayern‘s victory was the biggest win in a Champions League knockout stage match after they bettered their own record set in 2009 at the same stage of the tournament when they beat Sporting Lisbon 7-1 at the Allianz Arena. The loss was aslo Basel’s worst ever away defeat in Europe breaking the previous record of 5-0 set in 1963 and equalled in Donestsk by Shaktar in 2008.
