CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:FANS ARE people of great imagination but often against their own wishes. Manchester United supporters at Estadio do Dragao would have felt that calamity was only ever a touch of the ball away. It is true that Porto would have gone through to the Champions League semi-finals if, for instance, a freak deflection had given them a 1-1 draw.
Such an occurrence, however, was as unlikely as Jesualdo Ferreira’s team devising a goal for themselves.
United’s defending had recovered its authority. Truth to tell, the occasion was a bit dull. But for Cristiano Ronaldo’s 40-yarder to put his side in charge, the game could have been taken for a remake of the goalless draw at San Siro in the last 16. An unruffled United outclassed Inter, just as they did Porto.
Defence is in fashion. Arsenal, who will begin their semi-final at Old Trafford, can brag of the unbroken record of six clean sheets, including a qualifier with Twente Enschede, at the Emirates in the competition this season. Arsene Wenger’s team are also starting to let rip and there were three goals against Villarreal on Wednesday. The semi-finals will be about establishing just such a balance between security and the instinct for adventure which is all that stands between the public and penalty shoot-outs.
Of the four sides left Chelsea looked the most disorderly. No one anticipated them scoring seven times over the matches with Liverpool or conceding five. Together, they and Liverpool came up with 12 of the 28 goals in the quarter-finals. If Chelsea have morphed into entertainers it is mostly against the wishes of Guus Hiddink. Were they to attempt to outgun Barcelona, the English club would probably be mown down.
There is a lack of instant remedies for the current laxity. On Tuesday, against Liverpool, the goalkeeper Petr Cech was in the throes of a crisis so personal that it made a spectator feel like a voyeur. Somehow that has to be addressed by Hiddink since there is no credible alternative to the Czech.
Other difficulties are more commonplace. Ricardo Carvalho is one of the world’s outstanding defenders but his progress towards full fitness after injury appeared halting in the Liverpool match. John Terry, banned on Tuesday, will be back, but he has not been in especially good form.
Aside from that, Hiddink has a highly specific issue to contemplate. Losing a left-back to suspension is a draconian punishment when an encounter with Barcelona is in the offing. Ashley Cole does defend sternly, but now someone else will have to cope with Lionel Messi. Hiddink does not have a natural deputy for Cole.
A right-footer in that position such as the versatile Juliano Belletti, who scored the winner for Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final, will at least have Messi coming at him on his stronger side since the Argentine naturally angles towards the middle. That, however, does not resolve what is to be done with the brilliant overlapping full-back Dani Alves.
Under Pep Guardiola there is ruthlessness to Barcelona. This is a more rounded and, in the best sense, functional team than the one that took the trophy three years ago. But Chelsea have their own weapons and Didier Drogba was uncontainable against Liverpool. There may be scope for unsettling Rafael Marquez and Eric Abidal in the Barcelona back four.
Elsewhere Arsenal will wield newly honed weaponry. Wenger’s team is ebullient in its eruption from comparative obscurity. There are fresh problems but this has been the ideal period for Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor to emerge from injury.
United may counter that surge but could need a sharper edge to their own attacking. While the measured style is Ferguson’s preference, he must have anticipated Dimitar Berbatov would bring an imaginative incisiveness. Some speak as if the striker is simply too refined to be appreciated properly by uncultured onlookers. In fact, the Bulgarian is still living off the regard he achieved at Tottenham. Should Berbatov make his full presence felt with United, it will give them the extra dimension they may well need in their defence of the trophy.
Meanwhile, Guus Hiddink has said that Roman Abramovich turned to him to manage Chelsea on an emergency interim basis because he feared that the club might finish outside of the Premier League’s top four and miss out on qualification to next season’s Champions League.
Abramovich, the billionaire Russian owner, had grown increasingly alarmed at the team’s slump in fortunes under Luiz Felipe Scolari and sacked the Brazilian coach in February with Chelsea in fourth place, two points behind Aston Villa.
Hiddink, who was asked to divide his time until the end of the season between Stamford Bridge and his job with Russia, has since won six and lost one of seven Premier League fixtures to all but assure Chelsea of a top-four finish and even an outside shot at the title. He has also guided them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Hiddink’s success has increased the pressure on Abramovich to retain him on a full-time contract at the end of the season but the Dutchman has maintained that will be impossible.
“I love working in this fantastic environment,” he said, “so I might miss it, of course, but that’s life. We have our commitments. Hopefully my best Chelsea memories are still to come.”
Guardian Service
