Champions League Quarterfinals: Your Running Commentary

Good afternoon folks. Today is the day. Arsenal vs. Liverpool and Chelsea vs. Fenerbahce.

Arsenal travels to Anfield needing a win or tie of 2-2 or greater to advance and a 1-1 tie to force overtime against Liverpool. Chelsea plays host to the Turkish club down 2-1 from the first leg, but holding a valuable away goal.

ESPN2 is showing Arsenal-Liverpool while you can follow Chelsea-Fenerbahce on ESPN360.com. If you plan on following the matches and will be online, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and some play by play in the comments section below.

My picks are Liverpool to win 2-1 and Fenerbahce to tie 1-1 and advance. I called Fenerbahce as an upset pick a while back and am sticking with it.

Enjoy the matches.

Comments

[ed-]

let's go liverpool

[eric]

Aw man, ESPN cuts off a stirring rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone". I'll defend Hick's no show, but no way I'd miss this if they were my teams.

Fascinating line up by Benetiz! Just might be the Best. Rotation. Ever.

[Louis]

I know this is unrelated but I can't find a answer anywhere. I'm doing MLS Fantasy in Ives league but I noticed NE and KC play two games this week(Wed and Sat). Does that mean players playing in both games can get double points for my team?

[Dominick]

I came in late, what was the moment of silence for?

[Steve-O]

Would it kill ESPN or FIFA to bring some HD cameras for the broadcast? I guess they're saving them for the women"s NCAA game.

[eric]

What a front 6 for both!!!

Liverpool:

Crouch Torres

Gerrard Alonso Mashcherano Kuyt

Arsenal:

Adebuyor
Diaby

Hleb Eboue Fabregas Flamini

[eric]

Hleb! Down!

[Spencer]

Aresnal is dominating early one. Liverpool needs to pick it up.

[eric]

Hypia with a terrible give away at the top of the box, but Adebuyor is offsides

[eric]

Gerrard is all over the place, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. He lined up on the left wing, but that's the 2nd time in the first 9 mins that both he and Kuyt ended up on right at the same time.

Then he went scurrying back to the left wing. If Arse can break faster, they might have a ton of space over there.

[Spencer]

Arsenal up 1-0. Liverpool is getting trashed.

[Adam]

anyone with a link?

[eric]

Arsenal goal scored when Diaby released Adebuyor, who takes an extra touch and loses his angle. But Liverpool fail to clear, and Alonso spends his time appealing for a hand ball instead of closing down the man with the ball, and Arsenal get way to much time to regroup.

Diaby is released and shoots instead of dribbling, and beats Reina.

[Ryan S.]

This is going to be a tough game for Liverpool. Arsenal are just handing Liverpool there butts in the first 20.

I see a few more goals coming out of this game.

[eric]

Now Gerrard is in the center of the field. One might say that Liverpool is a disorganized mess, but I'm sure all of it is part of Reina's long term strategy.

[eric]

Karma comes around as Kuyt gets knocked flat in the box going for a cross, no call and it's cleared.

Then Liverpool races back and Crouch releases Torres, who takes a bad touch and loses it over the line, and looks like he really wants that one back.

I bet it wakes him up, Torres will get one back, the question being if it'll tie up the game or decrease an even larger deficit.

[Spencer]

1-1 Hyypia with an amazing header.

[eric]

Hyppia with a great header off a Gerrard corner to tie it 1 - 1! Amazing stuff end to end.

[starks]

Great header. Couldn't have put it to a better spot.

[starks]

And pool pushes again. Both teams looking very dangerous.

[eric]

Like the galaxy's forming out of primordial chaos, Liverpool suddenly look like they're playing a daring brand of total football with waves of overlapping runs.

But I still don't trust that it won't collapse again into the mess that was the first 20 mins.

[Spencer]

Anyone feeling a shoot out coming?

[eric]

Arsenal sub in Gilberto for Flamini, who had a clearly accidental clip from Gerrard and has his ankle end his day.

[eric]

Spencer - I hope not, but it could happen. Flamini going down but the brakes on the game, and I hope it gets up to speed again, but both teams could dig in now that the momentum changed up.

[Spencer]

The first 45 mins was very fast pace for a champions league game.

[eric]

Half ends with the brakes coming off the roller coaster again, and it's mostly Liverpool running at the Arsenal goal. Best chance comes when Arsenal snuff out a Gerrard led break, but Gilberto shows why he lost his spot.

His clearance bounces off of Kuyt and he makes no effort to get the ball as Couch runs by him and sets up a couple of swipes at goal.

When Liverpool are clicking, Gerrard and Kuyt are doing this nice constant switching sides on the left and right and Arsenal get confused. It's exactly the way I'd love to see Beasley and Holden play the wings for the 'Nats.

[eric]

2nd Half starts with Liverpool pressing again, surprisingly led by some great play by Crouch.

Torres never has done much this game yet.

[eric]

Kuyt kicked in the face, he'll be fine. It's been a good day for Kuyt supporters.

[brant]

Tommy Smythe made it sound like Gilberto just whacked Kuyt, when it looked like Kuyt was the one who ran into Gilberto and just got the worse end of it. Certainly no foul there, but I'm not sure Gilberto had a clue what was going on.

[Spencer]

Anyone see an injury happening for the pace of the play with a collision?

[eric]

Arsenal bing around some pretty triangle passes then roar down field and get the proverbial one pass away. 57th, btw

[eric]

Arse pick out Hleb 10 yds out, but his shot is blocked

[eric]

It happened after Kuyt got a little too rah-rah with Anfield singing loud and made a rash slide for a tackle around midfield, and Arsenal just ran for goal

[eric]

Sensing the wrath of Benitez, Pool put 8 men behind the ball next time Arse come down. None of that now, we were having a great game.

[brant]

Now that the Texas Rangers are down 6-0 in their home opener, you think Hicks would rather be in Liverpool than Dallas?

[eric]

The crowd sing a happy little song about Rafa Benitez as he runs out to the touch line. Can't make out the other words besides his name.

I hate they sing it, though, as Liverpool start to get more and more packed in at the back and less of the free flowing stuff.

[eric]

Free kick Arse, horrible tackle from Mascherano.

Cleared out though, bad ball by Cesc

[brant]

GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLL

[brant]

Best striker in England?

[eric]

Goat of the game so far, Senderos, loses a long pass into the box and lets Torres get to it. He wakes up from his slumber, turns left, and fires a bullet into the upper left.

No more penalties! If Arse tie, they win on away goals

[eric]

Torres taking at Arsenal again and again. Doesn't come together, but plenty of pressure.

Someone should tell Adebuyor that the African Cup of Nations is going on right now, and he wasn't invited. That was the last time that Torres had a real rival for best striker in the EPL.

[eric]

Crouch releases Torres, who makes a mess of the break away, has to stop and get the ball, then makes a bad cross to Crouch on the run.

Babel in for Crouch. We knew he could do the robot, but Crouchigol's been a machine all day. He made Liverpool a lot of money with his impending transfer fee.

[eric]

Walcot to Adebuyor! Goal!

[Adebayor]

Glory glory Arsenal!

[brant]

Walcott is the hero now. Who's up next? You know Liverpool still has some tricks up their sleeve.

[eric]

Penalty Liverpool!!!

[WTF???]

Penalty?

[kpugs]

Toure is a moron...where are all the Gooners about to tell us that Toure should be allowed to pull players down in the box?

[eric]

The knife twists again! Toure pulls down Babel on the restart -

Gerrard scores the penalty

3-2, 86th

[brant]

Of course - as I was typing that, Liverpool was earning a PK.