Chelsea Stomp Barcelona 4-2 To Advance In Champions League

Needing to win at home by 1-0 or to win by at least two goals, Chelsea did just that last night after jumping ahead to a quick 3-0 lead, winning by a final margin of 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Sports Amnesia's favourite English player, John Terry, who headed Chelsea's decisive fourth goal, said, "What a great performance - this win is up there with the best of them.

"We started brilliantly and to go 3-0 up was fantastic - but they came back in it and at half-time it wasn't looking great for us.

Chelsea, who were 2-1 down from the first leg, had been in serious danger of throwing away a seemingly assured win despite having struck three times in the opening 19 minutes of the rematch. By the half, it was already 3-2 and Chelsea would need at least another goal to advance.

Chelsea's heroic manager, Jose Mourinho, who masterminded a series of mind games against Barcelona, flung himself into an ecstatic sea of players at the final whistle, while Barcelona were shepherded down the tunnel amid angry recriminations, scuffles and, seemingly, even spitting.

A simply brilliant, stimulating pregame take on the match is found at Chelsea FC Blog.

"The anti-Chelsea invective spewing from the mouths of those who clearly should know better has been at an all-time high this week, and it’s sure to play a part in the match. In recent days, a number of current Barcelona players, an ex-Barcelona player (whose words give the impression he’s in the first stages of dementia), and even UEFA have all been spouting words born of jealousy. Let’s hope they’ll be chewing on them later tonight"

Almost as exciting was the news of Man U getting knocked out by AC Milan. Sir Alex is already tipping AC Milan as the favourites to win for the rest of the way, naturally.


*****BACK TO BEISBAL*****

Ok, back to baseball. Of course, with quasi-regular updates on the state of the Mets at Archie Bunker's Army, there isn't always alot of time left over to focus on the rest of baseball, but it is happening indeed:

The poster boy for steroid abuse, Jason Giambi, took heaps of abuse from frothing Red Sox fans and then smacked them back with a homer to silence them. It's all in an exhibition game with both teams playing few regular starters but it goes to show that the relentless Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, with both teams having knocked the other from the ALCS final in consecutive seasons, is burning ever brighter AND that maybe, just maybe, the man who has taken the brunt of criticism for steroid use and who looked like a shadow of his former self last season, is rounding back and ready to have the kind of season the Yankees are paying him for.

It would indeed make a great story, not just for baseball's battle against steroids, but Jason Giambi's as well and I'm rooting for him to have a great season and shut everyone up once and for all.

(This says nothing about my growing hatred of the Red Sox Nation who have to be the most classless winners in World Series history, not only the fans, who are understandably excited, but especially the players, who have no such excuse and have spent the offseason taunting A-Rod like he were their own personal cabana boy. In fact, Giambi and A-Rod zooming past the Sox seems awfully nice to me, despite my hating the Yankees - here's hoping the Sox finish fourth this season, haha)

*****

Meanwhile, in news that seemed just as big, hired gun Randy Johnson pitched his debut innings yesterday against the Atlanta Braves, throwing two innings in his first start of the spring, allowing two runs on two hits -- one a two-run homer by Chipper Jones. He walked one and struck out two, throwing 36 pitches, including 22 for strikes.

And if that isn't exciting enough it also appears that Randy Johnson is the cure to shut Gary Sheffield up! (no one knew there was a cure)

The Unit is so focused on game day with his game face, that Gary Sheffield wasn't sure whether he should joke around with other teammates in the clubhouse before the game.

"He told me early when he got here [in spring] to stay out of his way," Sheffield said. "I knew already. I didn't know if we should be laughing in there or not."

Just like the Mets before them, the Yanks fell to the merciless Braves. The Unit got the loss and Mike Hampton, still looking for a school for his children, got the victory.

Of course, like most of baseball, we're looking forward to the potential Unit-Schilling opener, but as of yesterday anyway, Schilling is still questionable for the opener.

"I don't think he's supposed to be ready," said Sox manager Terry Francona.

"I just don't think anybody ever eliminated it because of how he does his things. It's not going to be a shock if he's not ready. Again, he's not supposed to be. But it wouldn't be a shock if he was ready. Besides the fact that he's our best pitcher, you need to show some patience. We'd rather have him make 32 starts at full strength than 35 and limp around, that doesn't make sense. You need guys like him to win, but we should be good enough where we can weather the storm."

It makes sense to everyone, really. It'd be much more satisfying to see the Unit outpitch Fat David Wells in the opener so Red Sox fans would have the excuse to open the season, that their best man wasn't on the mound for the opener. Schilling or not, I can't ever recall a more exciting opener in baseball.

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Phanatic Phollow Up points out that the Phillies, the Mets' other competition aside from the Marlins and Braves, have dropped four of their last five Spring Training Games.

My preseason best blog name in baseball goes to Goat Riders of the Apocalypse who have taken the charting of Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano's season to unprecedented levels.

Tiger Blog reports that the Tigers have finally lost their first game of the grapefruit league season. Good start or not, with or without free agent signees Magglio Ordoñez and closer Troy Percival, the Tigers are going to have their hands full trying to stay ahead of the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox this season. Other than the AL East and NL East, the AL Central will be my favourite race to watch this season.

Also on the site is a nice 1935 Championship Diary of the Tigers.