Messi And Ronaldo Chat
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| Messi and Ronaldo Talking |
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| Messi And Ronaldo Chatting |
FC Schalke 04 2-1 FC Internazionale Milano (agg: 7-3)Raúl González scored one and set up a delightful second as the Bundesliga outfit completed a resounding aggregate win to advance to the semi-finals.
FC Schalke 04 are through to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the first time after rounding off a 7-3 aggregate victory over holders FC Internazionale Milano in Gelsenkirchen.
Raúl González's 71st UEFA Champions League goal further dented any faint hopes the Nerazzurri had of mounting an unlikely comeback from their 5-2 first-leg reverse on the stroke of half-time. Thiago Motta equalised early in the second period, but Benedikt Höwedes fired in a superb winner with nine minutes remaining to leave Ralf Rangnick's side looking forward to a last-four encounter with Manchester United FC.
Sir Alex Ferguson observed proceedings from the stands as, like in the first leg, Leonardo's side made the early running. Wesley Sneijder fired the first of two early attempts on goal straight at Manuel Neuer and the message was clear: the visitors were not giving up their title without a fight.
The best football came from the hosts, though. Alexander Baumjohann was a constant threat with his thrusting runs down the right and José Manuel Jurado's trickery and vision caused problems on the opposite flank. The evergreen Raúl was dropping deep to link midfield and attack before haring forward to get on the end of things. On 16 minutes Júlio César had to be on his guard when one move found the 33-year-old popping up unmarked to head Jurado's left-wing cross goalwards.
Inter threatened intermittently, finding space particularly down the left, but Höwedes twice made crucial blocks on Samuel Eto'o. Dejan Stanković, scorer from 53 metres in the first leg, went close for the Nerazzurri but on this occasion, from half that range, Neuer was his equal. Inter's frustration was compounded when they fell behind and it was no surprise that the approach work involved Baumjohann and Jurado, the latter feeding Raúl, who rounded Júlio César with ease to score.
The visitors' reply was swift, though, and the 2,500 travelling supporters were given something to cheer when Thiago Motta bundled in from close range after Lúcio's header, following a Sneijder corner, was deflected. With four more goals required, Inter threw more men forward, Eto'o clearing the bar with a header and curling narrowly wide of the top corner.
Such adventure left the outgoing European club champions exposed at the back, where Kyriakos Papadopoulos twice headed over from set pieces. Leonardo had insisted on the eve of this match that this was not mission impossible for Inter, but they simply had too much to do: they needed every shot on goal, such as Sneijder's 75th-minute free-kick, to go in rather than fizz wide.
Instead it was their opponents who put the seal on the tie with a winning goal on the night, carved out by a wonderful piece of skill from Raúl. The former Spain striker flicked a clever through ball into the path of the onrushing Höwedes, who had already had a goal disallowed for offside, and the Schalke centre-half lashed in his shot to complete another memorable evening for the Knappen.
Uefa Champions League 2011 Quarter Final Results
Tottenham Hotspur FC 0-1 Real Madrid CF (agg: 0-5)
Cristiano Ronaldo's second-half goal ended Tottenham's memorable run and took Madrid through to a first semi-final since 2003 – against FC Barcelona.
Cristiano Ronaldo's second-half goal ended Tottenham's memorable run and took Madrid through to a first semi-final since 2003 – against FC Barcelona.
Real Madrid CF set up a mouth-watering UEFA Champions League semi-final against their great rivals FC Barcelona after Cristiano Ronaldo's second-half goal completed a comprehensive aggregate defeat of Tottenham Hotspur FC.
Ronaldo's speculative 50th-minute effort, fumbled into his own net by Heurelho Gomes, ended any faint hopes of a Tottenham comeback and confirmed Madrid's progression to a record 22nd semi-final in the competition – albeit their first since 2003 – with the only blemish on their impressive evening's work the yellow card for Ricardo Carvalho that rules him out of the first leg against Barcelona.
Tottenham may have tried to deliver on their manager Harry Redknapp's words that "nothing is impossible" but for the competition debutants this was a bridge too far against José Mourinho's side, whose defensive discipline was underlined by an eighth clean sheet in ten matches.
Only three times in UEFA club competition had a team overturned a four-goal deficit and, despite the noisy exhortations of the home crowd, Tottenham never looked like producing a victory to eclipse their successes against the two Milan clubs earlier in the tournament.
That Madrid began with four players at risk of suspension suggested Mourinho was not taking Tottenham lightly. Also notable was the deployment of Marcelo in a left-sided attacking role with Álvaro Arbeloa behind him, although it was on the other flank that Tottenham's early threat came as Gareth Bale troubled Sergio Ramos with several dangerous forays.
The hosts were struggling to retain the ball for long enough to build up a head of steam, however, and the early goal Redknapp had called for could well have arrived at the other end. With two minutes gone, a quick one-two with Emmanuel Adebayor sent Mesut Özil clear on the right but the German sent a tame left-foot effort straight at Gomes.
It took until the 27th minute for Tottenham to find a hole in the Madrid defence, Aaron Lennon accelerating past Arbeloa on to a Rafael van der Vaart pass and laying the ball across to Roman Pavlyuchenko who drove wastefully over from just inside the box. Pavlyucheko was then involved in the build-up to Bale volleying into the net but the effort was annulled because Luka Modrić, whose header set up the Welshman, was offside.
Madrid's fans cheered old favourite Raúl González's strike for FC Schalke 04 when it was played on the big screen at half-time and they were soon celebrating a goal of their own. Gomes had allowed Ronaldo a soft goal in the first leg and now he spilled the Portuguese's 25-metre strike, the ball bouncing out of his hands and spinning over the line despite a desperate attempt to claw it back.
Tottenham heads did not drop and they came close to bowing out with a consolation. Pavlyuchenko nodded Van der Vaart's cross on to the roof of the net; substitute Jermain Defoe drew a fingertip save from Iker Casillas and later headed a corner against the far post. The goal did not come but Redknapp's men were worthy of the warm applause that came their way at the final whistle.
Soccer funny pictures Archive
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Manchester United FC 2-1 Chelsea FC (agg: 3-1)
A goal in each half from Javier Hernández and Park Ji-Sung took United through to the semi-finals for the fourth time in five seasons.
The Action
A goal in each half from Javier Hernández and Park Ji-Sung took United through to the semi-finals for the fourth time in five seasons.
Manchester United FC are one step away from a UEFA Champions League final appearance at Wembley after overcoming ten-man Chelsea FC, Sir Alex Ferguson's men securing a 3-1 aggregate victory in this all-English quarter-final.
Javier Hernández doubled United's aggregate advantage on the stroke of half-time and although Chelsea shrugged off Ramires' sending-off with a 77th-minute equaliser from substitute Didier Drogba, Park Ji-Sung extinguished the London club's flickering hopes within 60 seconds. United can now look forward to a fourth semi-final appearance in five years with only FC Schalke 04 or FC Internazionale Milano blocking their path to Wembley, scene of their first European triumph in 1968.
Sir Alex Ferguson said before this game that Chelsea had an "obsession" with winning the UEFA Champions League and for Carlo Ancelotti's team their quest must go on. They have suffered more painful defeats than this – not least to United in the 2008 final shoot-out – but will head south ruing their failure to profit from their early supremacy. They had arrived looking to become the first visitors to prevail here since their own 2-1 triumph on 3 April last year and, in a white-hot atmosphere, made a positive start.
Ancelotti had gambled on dropping Drogba and starting with Fernando Torres as a lone striker – supported by Nicolas Anelka, Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda – and the Spain forward nodded wide an Anelka cross after 12 minutes. He then set up Anelka to whistle a shot narrowly wide; it was not the Frenchman's only attempt. He sent another effort just over the crossbar and was also foiled by a superb tackle from Edwin van der Sar as he looked to round the Dutchman outside the box. Lampard, teed up by Malouda, spurned arguably Chelsea's best opportunity, however, shooting too close to Van der Sar.
A goal up from the first leg, United were not just sitting back. Wayne Rooney and Park, stationed behind Hernández, were looking lively and in the 27th minute Rooney's cross set up the young Mexican to head in only for an offside call to deny him. Hernández made up for that disappointment with the opening goal two minutes before the break. When Chelsea only half-cleared a free-kick, the impressive Rooney picked out Giggs out on the right and he exchanged passes with John O'Shea before bursting into the box to deliver a low ball across goal that Hernández, at the back post, buried into the roof of the net.
Ancelotti responded by sending out Drogba for the second half in place of Torres. The Ivorian flashed a shot narrowly wide from 20 metres but the tie looked to have slipped away from Chelsea when Ramires collected a second yellow card for a foul on Nani with 20 minutes remaining. Drogba instead revived their hopes by chesting down Michael Essien's through ball and finding the far corner of Van der Sar's net – but not for long. Inside less than 60 seconds Giggs had played in Park who fired across Petr Čech to secure United's passage.
FC Shakhtar Donetsk 0-1 FC Barcelona (agg: 1-6)Lionel Messi completed a resounding aggregate win as the Catalan giants became the first side to defeat Shakhtar at the Donbass Arena in Europe.
The Action
The ActionFC Barcelona are through to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the fourth successive season after a 1-0 victory rounded off a 6-1 aggregate triumph.
Shakhtar played valiantly and created a couple of excellent early chances. However, as in the first leg poor finishing was their Achilles heel and once the Spanish visitors had weathered that early storm, Lionel Messi's effortless strike just before half-time sent the visitors through to the last four. They will now meet either Tottenham Hotspur FC or, more likely, arch-rivals Real Madrid CF.
Knowing they had to score at least four times to have any chance of a massive shock, Shakhtar made an express start. A brilliant pass by Jadson put fellow Brazilian Douglas Costa through on goal, but the 20-year-old failed to properly connect with his strike, shooting straight at the advancing Víctor Valdés.
The Barcelona goalkeeper repeated his magnetic trick midway through the half, positioning himself perfectly to receive Jadson's shot on the turn following a pinpoint cross from Vasyl Kobin on his first UEFA Champions League start. Those two close calls sprung Josep Guardiola's team to life and the danger signs were there as left-back Adriano and Messi, who had been well marshalled by Shakhtar's makeshift defence, both went close. Fatally for the hosts, the warning was not heeded.
Two minutes before the interval the mercurial No10 escaped his markers again, cushioning Daniel Alves' ball with time and space on the edge of the penalty area. He ghosted past Yaroslav Rakitskiy's desperate challenge before cooling slotting left-footed beyond the helpless Andriy Pyatov. Messi's ninth UEFA Champions League goal of the season took the Argentina striker to 48 in all competitions this term for Barcelona, surpassing Ronaldo's 1996/97 club record.
With the aggregate result a foregone conclusion the second half felt like a procession as Barcelona were content to sit back and retain possession. Ibrahim Afellay almost doubled the lead on 59 minutes when Messi's incisive run left Mykola Ishchenko and Henrik Mkhitaryan in his wake, before he laid the ball off. The Dutch international's shot was well saved by Pyatov.
Mkhitaryan had a good chance to preserve Shakhtar's unbeaten record in European competition at the Donbass Arena alive with 15 minutes to go, but the Armenian international shot straight at Valdés. There was still time for substitute Marcelo Moreno to produce the miss of the match, somehow failing to convert Mkhitaryan's low cross from less than two metres out.
It summed up Shakhtar's night and first quarter-final tie; for Barcelona it is onwards and upwards, to the familiar ground of the last four.
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