Champions league Semi-Finals

[BarryBreensBandage]

If United beat Schalke I cannot see Barcelona winning the CL, even though they deserve it.

It would mean Barca having to beat a Mourinho team and a Ferguson team to win the thing, and these two will be hell bent on revenge for the previous couple of years.

[new devil]

IF United got to the final i just couldn't see them beating Barca...Think they would be totally overrun at midfield, yes they could setup to stop that but that would take a lot away from they own game
Would be confident of beating Real thou, there defense didn't look to hot last night against spurs

[Forever Green]

My predictions:
Barca 3-1 Real Madrid
Real Madrid 2-2 Barca

Schalke 2-1 United
United 1-0 Schalke

[Shrewdness]

Nobody should underestimate Schalke at all. They have not arrived at the semi final by accident.

Can you imagine the plaudits we would bestow upon United if they had gone to the San Siro and beaten Inter Milan 5-2.
Schalke have some good players and won't be easily beaten i can assure you.

In the not too distant past, United have lost Champions League semi finals to other less glamourous German clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen (with Berbatov).

What odds on a Real Madrid/Schalke final?

[Blowitupref]

Have watched alot of Champions league football this year and the team that has impressed me the most has been Schalke,They remind me of Borussia Dortmund in 1997 & i think they will beat a tired United team in the Semi's & shock Barcelona in the final.

[mc_grens]

Barca dismantled the Man U midfield a couple years back. The United midfield now is even more poorly equipped to match up with Barca.

[gallsman]

Nobody should underestimate Schalke at all. They have not arrived at the semi final by accident.

Can you imagine the plaudits we would bestow upon United if they had gone to the San Siro and beaten Inter Milan 5-2.
Schalke have some good players and won't be easily beaten i can assure you.

In the not too distant past, United have lost Champions League semi finals to other less glamourous German clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen (with Berbatov).

What odds on a Real Madrid/Schalke final?

Berbatov didn't feature much in that side, Oliver Neuville was the striker. It was a damn good leverkusen side too. Only lost final because of zidane's brilliance

[Blowitupref]

The 1st legs on tomorrow and Wednesday

Score predictions

Schalke 2 Man United 1
Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1

[magpie seanie]

I keep thinking Schalke will win 2-1 tonight and then I see two predictions on this thread saying the same. Must log on to PP when I go home.

[Armaghtothebone]

Have watched alot of Champions league football this year and the team that has impressed me the most has been Schalke,They remind me of Borussia Dortmund in 1997 & i think they will beat a tired United team in the Semi's & shock Barcelona in the final.

That Schalke is the singular worst team that i have ever seen in a champions league semi-final.
As an aside Wenger should get his cheque book out and buy their keepe, no matter what he costs.

[new devil]

Things hotting up before tomorrows game

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hit back at Real Madrid counterpart Jose Mourinho as a stunning war of words erupted between the rival coaches ahead of tomorrow's Champions League semi-final first leg.

Speaking earlier today, Mourinho launched a stinging attack on Guardiola regarding comments the Barca coach was supposed to have made about certain refereeing decisions.

Mourinho, referring to an example following last week's Copa del Rey final between Madrid and Barca regarding a disallowed Pedro Rodriguez goal for offside, said Guardiola had created a new group of coaches - one that criticises officials when they make correct decisions.

"Up until now we've had two groups of coaches," said the Portuguese. "[There's] a very small group who didn't talk about referees. Then there's a larger group, of which I'm included, of coaches that criticises referees when they make big mistakes.

"And with Pep's statements we've come to a third group, which is a one person group, who criticises good decisions made by the referee. I've never seen this before."

Guardiola refused to take the comments lying down, though, and launched an angry response during his press conference this evening.

The Barca coach said: "Tomorrow at 8.45 we will meet each other on the pitch. Off the pitch he has already won.

"In this room (press room), he's the f****** chief, the f****** man, the person who knows everything about the world and I don't want to compete with him at all.

"It's a type of game I'm not going to play because I don't know how.

"I won't justify my words. I congratulated Madrid for the cup that they won deservedly on the pitch and against a team that I represent and of which I feel very proud."

He added: "Off the pitch, he has already won, as he has done all year.

"On the pitch, we'll see what happens."

[paco]

Was just reading that! Not like Pep to come out and say something like that, he's normally the epitome of cool but seems to have lost it a bit there. Couple of big players missing for both teams tomorrow, Khedira and Carvalho for Madrid and Iniesta will be missing for Barcelona - a huge loss given how badly their injury situation already is.

[Minder]

Have watched alot of Champions league football this year and the team that has impressed me the most has been Schalke,They remind me of Borussia Dortmund in 1997 & i think they will beat a tired United team in the Semi's & shock Barcelona in the final.

That Schalke is the singular worst team that i have ever seen in a champions league semi-final.
As an aside Wenger should get his cheque book out and buy their keepe, no matter what he costs.

He is going to Bayern.

[gallsman]

Was just reading that! Not like Pep to come out and say something like that, he's normally the epitome of cool but seems to have lost it a bit there. Couple of big players missing for both teams tomorrow, Khedira and Carvalho for Madrid and Iniesta will be missing for Barcelona - a huge loss given how badly their injury situation already is.

Not like Pep at all! From the moment he started he's always been very quiet and respectful, maybe fighting back is the boot up their hole they could do with. Puyol back too won't hurt them.

Iniesta wasn't banned in the end. Is he injured?

[paco]

Fair play to him I suppose, I wouldn't call it mind games but there's only so much you can take. Iniesta's injured, yeah. Good to have Puyol back, was reading he's probably gonna be left back, no Abidal or Adriano and Maxwell has just been confirmed as injured too!