Champions League started up again yesterday after a long layoff with the quarter-finals, and boy did it not disappoint.
Excellent action in the AC Milan-Bayern Munich match. AC Milan is the only team still alive in this year’s tournament that made it as far as the quarter-finals a year ago. They looked to be in good shape starting at home against Bayern, who were down two notables, keeper Oliver Kahn and midfielder Mark van Brommel. Thanks to some incredible goal keeping by Michael Rensing (seriously, two insane saves in the first half) and scrappy play to the final seconds (literally!), Bayern earned a 2-2 draw and now look to be in the driver’s seat.
| AC Milan 2, Bayern Munich 2: I’m not sure which is more unbelievable, the Rensing saves at the start of this highlight reel or the timing of the goal at the end. |
A lopsided affair in the Liverpool-PSV Eindhoven match, but many a Liverpool fan will be happy today with a practically guaranteed pass to the semi-finals. It was a 3-0 drubbing of PSV on impressive goals by Steven Gerrard, John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch.
| PSV 0, Liverpool 3: The reporter tries to get Gerrard to bite on a next round opponent Chelsea-Valencia prediction, but he gives the standard “still 90 minutes to play” response. |
Once these games kicked off then the picks appeared in our Champions League Pool, and it sure looks like there could be a fair bit of movement in the standings after this round. Our top 4 entries each picked a different pair of winners from the opening two matches. One of them is going to get both right, and one is going to get both wrong.
There is more consensus in the picks from today’s matches, Roma-Manchester United and Chelsea-Valencia, but the bonus points for the goal predictions will be a big factor, as could a Roma or Valencia upset shake things up.