Reaction to Champs League Round of 16 (1st Legs) and Miscellaneous

Craig Bellamy hit a hole in one against Barcelona, and may have saved his Liverpool career. This game was fantastic. Barcelona started the game firing on all cylinders with a beautiful Deco header. It was not, however, to be their day. Liverpool attacked, and then they attacked some more. Bellamy fired a header in on goal that was sloppily handled by Victor Valdez and it rolled over the goal line for a 1-1 equalizer. Then, in the second half, John Arne Risse gave Liverpool the lead for good with a great goal on the run of play. 2-1 Final, and another wrong prediction for me.


As for my predictions in the first legs, I went 5-3 to bring my overall Champs League total to 58-46 and an increase from 55% accuracy to 56% accuracy. Not much, but still an improvement. Now for my Impressive and Disappointing teams.

Impressive: Liverpool: This is a no brainer. They carved up the supposed best team in the world. They are a very deep squad, and maybe Rafa Benitez's squad rotation system will finally pay off.
Valencia: Rafa Benitez's old club was impressive. They came back with a late
equalizer and are in prime position to dump Inter from Europe.

Dissapointing: Every other team that played on the 2nd day of the first leg matchups.
- Barcelona: Once again, Barcelona seemed to have had a brain fart in the
defense. This seems to happen to them from time to time. It
will take the game of this team's lives at Anfield to advance to
the quarterfinals.
- Chelsea/Porto: BORING!!!!! Shevchenko is on the rise again, though
- Internazionale- uh-oh. Looks like Chelski syndrome to me. They got
all of the big stars, and the team chemistry just isn't
there. They need a big performance away at
La Mestalla.
Now for the Miscellaneous.

John Terry got knocked out cold, but Chelski still managed to win the Carling Cup, and I am going to say the same thing I said when Man U won it last year, woo-hoo. Although there was an all out brawl at the end that made it all worth while.

Cristiano Ronaldo is turning into the Michael Jordan of football. He scored the gamewinner against Fulham on a 50+ yard run from his own half. Manchester United seem to be firing on all cylinders, but they have a tough match tomorrow (2-27) against Reading in a FA Cup replay at the Madjeski stadium. I predict Manchester United wins in a walk 3-0. I just hope that when Henrik Larsson returns to Helsinborgs on March 12th, he doesn't take Manchester United's Treble hopes with him.