Chelsea v Manchester United – live!

• Bash F5 or use or auto-refresher for the latest updates • Send your chit-chat to paul.doyle@guardian.co.uk • Follow Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk here 30 min: Nice play by Torres! Folowed by rubbish play by Torres! First he tricked his way cannily past Rafael and offloaded to Zhirkov, then he took the Russian’s return pass on his chest 10 yards from goal … and volleyed the ball backwards to safety. 28 min: Many feared United would be overpowered in midfield (er, I may even have indicated such myself) but the opposite has been true: Chelsea have looked jaded from the start … 26 min: It’s all too frantic from Chelsea. They lack cohesion and creativity. United look comfortable. GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 United (Rooney 24′) That’s a marvellous goal! Carrick picked out Giggs with a raking pass out to the left and the Welshman eliminated Bosingwa with a wonderful first touch before pulling the ball smartly back for Rooney, whose low sidefooter from 10 yards bounced in off the butt of the post. You have to say that’s magnificent. 21 min: Like Torres virtually every time he has got the ball so far, Rooney has just squandered a potential chance with a goofy first-touch. Far too many elementary errors in this dull fare so far. 19 min: A decent move by Chelsea! It culiminated in Ramires feeding Drogba, who had peeled away to the right-hand side of the box before blasting a ferocious shot at goal. Van der Sar tips over acrobatically. 18 min: Like a skunk in the throes of child-birth, Torres is having a stinker. 17 min: Torres and Cole get in a dither on the left, allowing United to nick the ball and hurtle forward. The visitors are starting to look the more coherent side … 15 min: After a bright spell of possession by United, Evra wins a corner. Giggs delivers an out-swinger, Drogba wafts to the edge of the box, where Park seizes upon it and drives for goal. It deflects off Bosingwa and out for another corner. 13 min: Decent play by Carrick to track back and dispossess Drogba. So far the midfielder has belied those pre-match fears about his softness. 11 min: It’s high-energy stuff so far but mostly predictable and imprecise. A good avert for not letting English teams play each other in Europe … 9 min: Bosingwa’s speed and attacking intent is causing United plenty of bother down the right, but most of the Portuguese’s crosses have been wayward so far, which has reprieved United. 7 min: Evra dozily gives the ball away to Torres, who sprints down the left but decides against taking on the covering Carrick, and instead sends a tame shot into Van der Sar’s arms from 20 yards. 5 min: Drogba unleashes what may very well be the worst shot of his career. The ball lands among the United fans, who don’t bother to try to contain their laughter. 4 min: Giggs lumps it long towards Hernandez. Terry heads it easily clear. United are going to have to come up with something better than that if they’re to grab an away goal. 2 min: Bosingwa skins Park down the right and flips a fine cross towards the near post. Torres is poised to meet it but Ferdinand intervenes with a superb tackle to divert it away. United then tip down the other hand but their progress is halted by a late tackle from Essien on Rooney. 1 min: Vidic perpetrates his first foul on Torres after 37 seconds. More will surely follow. How many will the bull-runner tolerate? 1 min: United kick-oof and immediately launch it towards Valencia on the right. Cole wins the aerial duel. 7:42pm: “I’m sure I am one among many United fans who are pleased to see Nani on the bench tonight after his recent comments on lack of freedom,” squelches Michael Hardiman. “I’ve seen all united’s games and he has plenty of freedom. Fergie is making sure his flat track bullies, Nani and Berbatov, are going to be up for it v. Fulham on Saturday, arguably a more important game given the fact that 19 league tites puts us at the top of the heap. He really is a master.” 7:38pm: The teams are in the tunnel. All of them silent and stony-faced. 7:35pm: “Tough one this,” spurts Grame Neill. “Who do I want to lose more? Chelsea, with the preening tedious macho humbug of England’s Brave John Terry and his one man mission to personify testosterone? Or United, starring the preening tedious macho humbug of self appointed Big Man Wayne Rooney and his big box of sweary tricks?” Preamble: [Adopt Barry Davies-esque tone] Look at those teams … just look at those teams! Manchester United have conceded fewer goals than any of the teams remaining in the tournament but Chelsea know they are defensively dodgy nonetheless and may go for the jugular tonight: Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba start together and attempting to contain them will be Nemanja Vidic – who has frequently seemed overwhelmed in recent weeks, including when he was sent off on his last visit to Stamford Bridge – and Rio Ferdinand, who may or may not be fit but, either way, is a safer option than Jonny Evans; whether Chris Smalling would have been a better inclusion, on the other hand, remains to be seen – then again, given Torres’s tendency to float like a butterfly and sting like a former frontman of The Police (every little thing he does is pap), perhaps United are confident they can survive whatever the hosts can hurl at them and perhaps plunder a goal on the counter, especially with Chelsea shorn of the magnificently-coiffed David Luiz? Mandatory deployment of the one sentence that can be uttered before every single football match at any level without the slighest fear of contradiction: Midfield is going to be a key battleground here. The TV folks are predicting that Park will be stationed on the left but he will surely spent a lot of his time in-field, otherwise Carrick and Giggs, haradly a dynami duo, will certainly be overrun by Essien, Lampard and Ramires (who continually cuts in from the right). Teams: Chelsea: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Lampard, Essien, Zhirkov; Drogba, Torres Subs: Turnbull, Benayoun, Mikel, Malouda, Ferreira, Kalou, Anelka United: Van der Sar; Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Valencia, Giggs, Carrick, Park; Hernandez, Rooney Subs: Kuszczak, Berbatov, Smalling, Nani, Scholes, Evans, Gibson Referee: Alberto Mallenco (Spain … in fact, he’s from Pamplona, so, in the event of him making a bad decision, feel free to accuse him of being full of bull) Champions League Chelsea Manchester United Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.