Champions League Roundup: Bayern Drubs Arsenal. Barca Fall

Didier Drogba returned to Champions League Play with Galatasaray (Getty Images)

The second week of knockout action in the UEFA Champions League action certainly provided some interesting results, though not a lot of it along with the pundits' scripts.  Out of the eight teams that played, probably only one really punched their ticket to the next round, but there definitely could be some surprises in store in the second legs.

The action kicked off on Tuesday with Arsenal hosting last year's finalists Bayern Munich at the Emirates in London.  The Gunners were reeling after the weekend saw them drop out of the FA Cup with a home loss to Blackburn.  Sadly for Arsenal supporters, things didn't improve on Tuesday as Bayern were up two goals within 25 minutes courtesy of Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller.

Arsenal did manage to survive until halftime without conceding again, and a stroke of luck awarded them a comeback goal in the second half.  The referee wrongly awarded a corner kick to the Gunners after Santi Cazorla's shot defected off of his own man.  Bayern 'keeper Manuel Neuer totally flubbed on the corner, missing the ball completely.  Arsenal man Lucas Podolski was in the right place at the right time to nod the ball into goal to give Arsenal hope on on 55 minutes, but Matrio Mandzukic struck in minute 77 to ice the match 1-3 to Bayern.  It's tough to see the Gunners going to Germany and making up the deficit, but as Chelsea fans will tell you, stranger things have happened.  However,  I do believe at this point that Bayern are as good as through.

Tuesday's other match took place in Portugal as FC Porto hosted La Liga's Malaga.  Much of the punditry, especially on Fox, gave Malaga the advantage in this one, despite Porto's excellent record at home in Europe.  Malaga have been decent in La Liga this year, but far from world beaters, and to me, they're a bit over-rated. 

Porto controlled the possession 63%-37%, but the match offered few clear chances for either side.  Finally Porto broke through in the second half though.  Portugal international Joao Moutinho took a pass from Alex Sandro, who positioned him well between the final Malaga defender and goalkeeper. From there it was only for Moutinho to side foot the ball into the net to give Porto the 1-0 win.  The hosts would probably have preferred to see a bigger advantage for all their possession, but Malaga will be disappointed not to come away with the away goal.

The shocker of the week came Wednesday at San Siro in Milan as AC Milan hosted Barcelona, who have looked to be a juggernaut in most of their competitions this year.  Barca seemed to sputter a little more than usual against Milan, albeit on an obviously choppy pitch.  Kevin-Prince Boateng put the home side up early in the second half, but in controversial fashion.  Riccardo Montolivo took a shot the quite clearly deflected off the arm of Milan's Christian Zapata, but there was no whistle.  The ball fell to Boateng, who managed to slot past Victor Valdes to give Milan the 1-0 lead on 56 minutes.  Gerard "Mr. Shakira" Pique was booked for dissent after the goal.

There wasn't controversy in the 81st minute though as Sulley Muntari beat Valdes with an excellent finish to make it 2-0 on full time.  The organized Italian side contained Messi for most of the match and their lead is well deserved, despite the obvious talking point.   Certainly Barca are more than capable of making up the ground at Camp Nou, but it might be a bit tougher without the away goal.  Don't bury them yet though.

The final game of the week took place in Turkey as a revitalized Galatasary squad hosted Schalke 04.  With former UCL champions Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba now in the fold, the Turkish side looked to be in good shape for a deep run in the knockout stages.  They even took the lead only 12 minutes in when Burak Yilmaz.  Yilmaz wowed the crowd by flicking the ball over a Schalke defender then banging into the net to get to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

Schalke had some other things in mind though.  Right before halftime Jefferson Farfan set up  US International Jermaine Jones after Gala gave the ball away in midfield.  Jones took the pass and calmly beat Gala 'keeper Fernando Muslera to tie the score at 1-1.  It would be the last scoring of the day.  Schalke will be well pleased with the way goal.

There is some controversy surrounding this result as well as Schalke have officially challenged the match with UEFA.  The concern is over Drogba's inclusion in the Galatasaray squad.  Drogba was given a temporary license with UEFA after the Ivorian striker contended that his contract with the Chinese club he joined was void after they failed to pay his wages for three months.  He then joined Galatasaray.  However, there is some dispute over this, and UEFA is investigating the legal status of the contract.  Schalke is contending that Drogba was ineligible to play pending the outcome of this investigation.  I doubt UEFA will do anything given the temporary license, but we'll see.  At any rate, the result is a positive one for the German club.

UCL: Manchester United vs. Schalke '04

Glory, glory Man. United. That's about all there is to say about this tie. Thanks for showing up Schalke, not. Basically, both semi final matchups sucked, but this one sucked worse than the not so classic Clasico. At least we got to see Messi yesterday. Today all we got to see is United's second team take apart a near bottom Bundesliga side. Very lame.

Already up 2-0 with two away goals in Germany, United had a big upper hand, which they used. Rooney and Rio Ferdinand didn't even dress, and Giggs was on the bench. Didn't matter, Schalke pretty much stayed in the tunnel.

United got goals in the first half from Valencia in the 26th and Gibson in the 31st. This made that aggregate 4-0, and it was over. Jurado got a cosmetic goal in the 35th, and we went to the half 2-1 as far as the match was concerned, but the tie was decided.

The second half was a yawner with United's place in Wembley all but booked. Schalke didn't really threaten and Anderson, who had just scored two goals in his career coming in, netted two, one in 72nd and one in the 76th to put an exclamation point on it. 4-1 the match final and 6-1 on aggregate.

So, on May 28th, Barcelona will meet Manchester United in the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final in London. They have met twice before in that match, each team winning once. Who will be the champion this year?

UCL: Schalke '04 vs. Manchester United

So my friend and I were talking about Champions League the other day, and I actually picked Schalke to take this match and this tie. How very stupid of me. I thought my reasoning was sound. United had had a tough time scoring goals in Champions League, and Schalke had shown a lot of fire beating both Valencia and Inter Milan. Anyways, yeah, that doesn't seem to be working out.

I'd like to point out the time in the match where Schalke actually showed up, but they never did. United absolutely dominated from first whistle to last. It really was a tremendous performance.

My notes on the match read just like a roll of shots from United players. In fact the only reason Schalke was in the match at all from the get go was the stellar performance of their goal keeper, Manuel Neuer. He started saving shots in the 3rd minute, the first off the foot of Wayne Rooney, and it never got easier. The Schalke defense was a shambles and Neuer might as well have been facing a firing squad, especially with Chicharito buzzing about. Ryan Giggs also had several decent chances in the first half, but ultimately Neuer held up and we went to the half at 0-0.

United might have come out of the half a little concerned. After all, they'd had about 60% of the possession, but hadn't been able to find the back of the net. One counter from Schalke, and they would be in trouble. That trouble never materialized, and United remained in total control.

Schalke's best chance came in 52nd minute when they did actually stage a counter. However, in the end it only amounted to half a chance and Jurado hit the shot wide of the target.

At that point, United had had enough. in the 67th minute Wayne Rooney sent a cheeky ball into the 18 for Giggs, who finally slotted it past Neuer to give United the 0-1 lead and an away goal. Then just two minutes later, the Schalke defense must have been on break, because Hernandez managed an easy ball to Wayne Rooney for United's second goal and a 0-2 advantage. The final action of the match ended with a whimper in the 76th minute when Farfan hit a dreadful free kick out of bounds. The full time result was 0-2 to United.

So in the end, Manchester United looked like a team capable of winning the final, and Schalke looked like a team that wasn't capable of beating your kid's AYSO squad. Great run for the German side, but you're going to Old Trafford down two away goals. Good luck with that.

UCL: Real Madrid & Schalke 04 round out semifinals.

Two more births in the UEFA Champions League finals up for grabs today, so there had to be drama, right? Not on your life. Both Spurs and Inter stunk it up so bad their respective first legs that Real and Schalke had easy passages in the second leg.

In London, Galacticos sat back and had a vacation. Gareth Bale had a goal called back for offside, but that was pretty much the highlight of the entire tie for Tottenham, who just look like the fixture congestion and injuries are starting to catch up with them. Gomes fumbled a Ronaldo shot over his own line for the games lone goal. Madrid advances to face Barca on a 5-0 aggregate.

Who knows what was up with Inter Milan? I'm an Inter supporter and I can't figure it out. Perhaps they took Schalke and Raul way too lightly? Perhaps the German side was pissed for being written off before tie? Perhaps Inter isn't much without the Special One at the helm? No secret Inter struggled in the Champions League all year, and never looked to be really serious threats to defend their title. Lame. All the credit to Schalke. Good look against United. Inter needs to settle down and chase the scudetto now.

Great run for Spurs though, in their first campaign. Had Crouch not gotten the red in the first leg, things might have been different. Still, credit to Tottenham and their fans.