Only Game In Town

I don't remember the last time only 1 of the 4 quarter finals merited a watch in its second leg. Miracles of varying degree would be necessary for Inter, Spurs, or Shaktar to make it interesting tomorrow and Wednesday. The only match with any appeal is Chelsea's visit to Old Trafford, and even here I have a strong suspicion United will make the 1-0 away win from last week stand up without much of a threat. Obviously a lead gives a team an edge going into the return leg, an away goal even more so. But beyond that I feel Chelsea's attack lacks the cohesion necessary to unlock a defense that knows it wins by drawing. With the names on the team sheet scoring shouldn't be a problem but for some reason Torres has gone dead cold and I feel like trying to shoe-horn all the top talent onto the field at the same time is working against the Blues. United's back four isn't impregnable but they are more than adequate. Add to that the very credible threat on the counter with Rooney/Hernandez/Berbatov and it looks like United will be back in the semi-finals. A non-Champs League related note: Valencia crushed table rivals Villarreal over the weekend 5-0. This game was a battle between roughly equal teams in the sub-elite region of the Spanish table and the victory put los che 6 points up on the yellow subs for the last automatic Champions League spot with only 7 games remaining. I have been very impressed with Valencia all season and I thought yesterday's win was symbolic of the team they've become. Economic realities forced the sale of David Villa and David Silva before the season, unquestionably their two best players, and being starters on the Spanish national team they would be amongst the best players at any club. Instead of throwing their hands up and accepting a rebuilding process they brought in modestly priced players like Miguel Soldado and Aritz Aduriz and found a way to make it work.