Star names have yet to sparkle

AFTER WATCHING the events at Anfield and Camp Nou this week it is hard to avoid feeling the Champions League would be ill-served by an all-English final, that is to say a final between English-based multi-national teams, in Moscow on May 21st. But should today's Premier League encounter between Chelsea and Manchester United turn out to be a preview for the Luzhniki Stadium it is to be hoped this match lays the grim ghost of that hag-ridden non-event of an FA Cup final the pair produced last season.

Either way the problem is that the Champions League can be spared the sort of 39th Premier League fixture abroad envisaged by its chief executive, Richard Scudamore, only if United go out to Barcelona, which would be a pity since the presence of Alex Ferguson's team would probably provide a better spectacle than Chelsea or Liverpool, no offence intended. Then again the sight of Lionel Messi taking on defenders with his quick feet and close control would be a reasonable alternative to Cristiano Ronaldo delighting one moment and irritating the next.

The opening legs of the semi-finals were not bad as first legs go yet the only spell of true quality in either match came during that period at Camp Nou when Barcelona were passing and moving like a dream only to be let down by flabby finishing.

The match at Anfield, while an improvement on earlier European games involving Chelsea and Liverpool, was short of the class that should be evident at this stage of the tournament. It was not uneventful but, when one of the best players on the night is a midfield anchor, Javier Mascherano, that gives a good indication of the sort of game it was.

The match might have been quickly forgotten but for John Arne Riise's bizarre own-goal in stoppage time, which gave Chelsea their 1-1 draw. What possessed the Liverpool defender to try to head clear a ball bouncing knee high instead of kicking it away only Riise knows. The theory that the Norwegian was so distrustful of his weaker right foot that he considered this the safer option is plausible but does not make it a better decision. At least Chelsea's players forbore to shake his hand, which was what Arsenal's did after another Liverpool player, Tony Hateley, marking at a corner, headed into his own net at Highbury in the 1960s.

Should Chelsea reach the final, then good luck to them - just so long as Moscow is treated to a more profound attacking approach than hoisting the ball long and high towards Didier Drogba and just so long as Drogba resists the temptation to imitate a dying duck in a thunderstorm when tackled. Unlike United, Chelsea have an away goal to play with. Memories of Monaco and Real Madrid winning quarter-finals at Old Trafford after being held in scoreless games on their own grounds will prey on United between now and Tuesday.

Ronaldo's penalty miss may yet prove costly. The Portuguese should have had a second chance when Rafael Marquez clearly bundled him off the ball but here Ronaldo's thespian past may have caught up with him. While he no longer throws himself down quite so blatantly, these things stay in referees' minds.

Messi apart, the big names - Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Samuel Eto'o, Drogba, Fernando Torres - have yet to assert their influence on these semi-finals. In any case semis are about results not style.

At the same time one trusts that if the Champions League final, already guaranteed a Premier League presence for a fourth successive season, is to be contested by two of England's wealthiest clubs, the players will provide something better than a midweek equivalent of 'Grand Slam Sunday', which tends to be more slam than grand.

The last time English teams dominated the European Cup, which they won seven times out of eight between 1977 and 1984, only Liverpool's first triumph, the 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in Rome, has stayed in the memory for its quality and entertainment.

The stunningly dramatic successes of Manchester United in 1968 and 1999 and Liverpool in 2005 were more memorable, yet of all the British victories in the biggest European competition Celtic's defeat of Internazionale and their stifling catenaccio in Lisbon in 1967 stands alone for its sheer joy and exaltation.