Rome awaits the best, or the luckiest, team on the night

MAY 5 — If you are a football fan, then London is the place to be this midweek. Four teams will battle it out to determine – on aggregate or penalty kicks – the right to play in Rome. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona are all still in with a chance.

Tonight, Arsenal will host defending champions Manchester United. Arsenal have it all to play for thanks mainly to their goalkeeper Manuel Almunia , who returned just in time from injury last week. Had MU’s numerous chances been converted then Arsenal could have been out of the tie within 30 minutes of kick-off.

Arsenal are unbeaten at home in the Champions League in 24 matches stretching back to a defeat by Chelsea in April 2004 while MU have not lost away in the competition in 11 outings since losing at Milan in May 2007.

However, Arsenal did beat MU at the Emirates Stadium in the English Premier League back in November.

Those are just the recent (and boring) facts. What usually happens on the pitch can ultimately surprise, frustrate and even anger fans of both sides.

So, seeing as my bias, being a die-hard Gooner, could tamper with the objectivity of my comments on the Arsenal-MU game, I shall refrain from making any analysis of the possible outcome.

As for the other semi-final where Barcelona will travel to Stamford Bridge, I have no qualms of giving Chelsea a piece of my mind for such negativity last week.

There is no question that true football fans will be hoping for Chelsea to be soundly beaten at home. A loss to the magnitude that Real Madrid suffered at home in the Primera Liga in the weekend will suffice for most of us as just desserts for a team that is undeserving to be on the same pitch as Barcelona.

I really doubt that Chelsea would dare go forward the way they did against Liverpool in the quarter-finals last month, but they will be forced to do so should Barca just grab that all-important first goal.

Barcelona did more than beat Madrid at the Bernabeu on Saturday, they clearly sent a message.

And that message is, afford them any space and the likes of Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto and Thierry Henry will make their opponents pay. Just ask Fabio Cannavaro and Cristoph Metzelder (of Real Madrid).

Perhaps the only solace Chelsea can take from Barca’s weekend trashing of Real Madrid is that Liverpool too inflicted a heavy defeat on the (so-called) Galacticos. But to be fair, that was in the stronghold of Anfield.

To those who say that it’s inconceivable that Barcelona won’t score over 180 minutes, let me just remind you that they have now not scored in 270 minutes of Champions League semi-final action against English opposition in the past 12 months.

In last year’s semi-final, MU held the Spaniards to a 0-0 stalemate at the Nou Camp and then went on to beat them 1-0 at Old Trafford, with Paul Scholes breaking the deadlock. That’s a total of 180 minutes. Add to that last week’s farce (on the part of Chelsea) for a game at the Nou Camp, and you have a total of 270 minutes of scoreless action from the Catalans.

The question shouldn't be whether Chelsea can contain Barcelona on the counter-attack but whether Barcelona have the defenders to stop Chelsea. With Rafael Marquez out for the rest of the season and Carles Puyol suspended after being cautioned for his first foul of the night last week, Barcelona may have to put Eric Abidal in the centre of their defence.

With the Spaniards deprived of two of their best centre-halves and scratching around for alternatives, Didier Drogba should be in his element tomorrow night.

Okay, I still believe that Barcelona will score, but Chelsea should be fancied for scoring at least one more than their opponents. Yes, I have a sneaky suspicion that Chelsea might just scrape through.

It will just demonstrate yet again how unfair things can be in life, let alone football.