Manchester United v Chelsea – live!

• Refresh this page for all the latest action • Emnail your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Follow Barry on Twitter • Follow our Shakhtar Donetsk v Barcelona minute-by-minute 3 min: John Terry carelessly misplaces a five-yard pass, ceding possession to Park just outside his own penalty area. The South Korean pings the ball to Rooney, who sends a sweeping pass out the right for Hernandez to chase. His cross is wayward and allows Chelsea to clear their lines. It’s all United in these early stages. 1 min: Game on, Chelsea are playing into the Stretford End in the first half. They’ve lined up with Ramires and Michael Essien behind a slightly advanced Frank Lampard in a three-man midfield, playing behind Nic Anela and Florent Malouda on the flanks behind lone frontman Fernando Torres. United have Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs bookended on the right and left by Nani and Park Ji-Sung in a four-man midfield, with Wayne Rooney playing off the shoulder off Javier Hernandez up front. Not long now: The teams march out and line up for the Champions League music, with both sets of players kitted out in their customary colours: Manchester United in red shirts, white shorts and white socks with black trim; Chelsea in blue shirts, blue shirts and blue socks Old Tafford is far from full yet, due in no small part to vast swathes of supporters having trouble making it up from London due to assorted bits of motorway being gridlocked and closed, according to Jeff Stelling. He might be mature enough to avoid making jokes about this affecting more fans of Manchester United than Chelsea, but I’m not. Despite the fans that many fans are struggling to make it to the ground on time, kick-off is at 7.45pm. It wouldn’t do to upset the TV companies now, would it? Good God: On Sky Sports 2, Rio ” @RioFerdy5 ” Ferdinand is extolling the virtues of Twitter. “It’s good to interact,” he says. “You can get your views across without them being twisted.” By “views”, I presume he’s talking about engaging in unspeakably tedious banter with Robbie Savage and Piers Morgan, or telling people not to “lynch” grown men for roaring obscenities down television camera. Why are so many footballers such tiresome, deluded, self-absorbed bozos? Team news we’ve plucked from the wires: Carlo Ancelotti gambles Chelsea’s Champions League future – and possibly his own – on Fernando Torres in tonight’s must-win quarter-final second leg at Manchester United. Ancelotti has opted for the Spaniard, who goes into the game having not scored for 817 minutes, over Didier Drogba, while Alex is handed his first start since November after recovering from knee surgery. United made two changes from their 1-0 first leg win at Stamford Bridge, with Nani and John O’Shea in for Antonio Valencia and the injured Rafael. Man Utd: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Hernandez. Subs: Kuszczak, Brown, Berbatov, Smalling, Scholes, Valencia, Gibson. Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Anelka, Torres, Malouda. Subs: Turnbull, Benayoun, Drogba, Mikel, Zhirkov, Ferreira, Kalou. Referee: Olegario Bartolo Benquerenca (Leiria) Good evening everybody. If Chelsea are to advance in their quest to win Roman Abramovich’s Holy Grail of the Champions League trophy this season, they’re going to have to do what no other club has done this season: beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. It’s a tall order, but far from impossible. And considering many of the impossibly imbecilic idiots in the YouTube clip above have been gulled into believing a hippy-dippy Jesus-a-like can heal them just by looking at them, Chelsea fans are entitled to believe their representatives on Old Trafford’s green earth can overturn a one-goal deficit … although they might have to do a bit more than just stand around looking beatific and serene to pull it off. For anyone who’s interested, here’s Michael “Guardian Chalkboards” Cox’s (aka Zonal Marking’s) ridiculously thorough pre-match preview . Elsewhere, the tactical Obi-Wan Kenobi to his Luke Skywalker, Jonathan Wilson, ponders The Question: Why Is Fernando Torres Struggling? Champions League Manchester United Chelsea Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 12, 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.