Roma leads Arsenal 1-0 after 90 minutes. Since Arsenal won the first game 1-0 in London, that means the aggregate score is 1-1 with no goals scored by the away team. Thirty minutes of extra time, and perhaps a penalty shootout, beckons. (The Journal’s online sports page has all the Champions League scores and other news.) But for your reporter, it’s time for an early night. He’s got a big powder day high up on Mont Blanc ahead of him tomorrow. Good night from Chamonix!
93rd: The ref whistles for full-time after two minutes of added time for stoppages. It’s all over! Inter just couldn’t put the ball in the net, despite creating several good chances, especially in the first half. The Italian team’s quest to revive its 1960s glory days must wait another year. United’s quest for a second European crown in two years goes on: the English team marches on into the quarterfinal. Ferguson embraces his great rival Mourinho. This time, for once, it’s the United coach who’s smiling.
87th: The English crowd in this Chamonix bar thinks it’s all over. They’re starting to fight amongst themselves.
84th: The Old Trafford crowd is singing paeans to its team. United takes off Rooney, who provided the assist for 2-0, and brings on Korean midfielder J.S. Park. Ronaldo hits a free kick from 25 yards out, Julio Cesar does well to save it. Inter’s heads are dropping now. Has Ferguson finally figured out how to beat a team coached by Mourinho?
82nd: Ibrahimovic fails to latch on to a pass that would have put him through on goal. Oh dear. He could have turned this game Inter’s way in the first half. Now nothing is going right for him or Inter. Time is running out: Inter needs two goals in the last few minutes.
It’s not impossible. Man United won the Champions League in 1999 by scoring two goals against Bayern Munich in time added on for stoppages after the 90 minutes were over.
79th: Financial crisis update: United’s shirt sponsor is insurer AIG. American taxpayers, rejoice that your money is being well spent.
75th: This live blog is being brought to you from a bar in Chamonix, France. You could say it’s neutral ground in this Anglo-Italian contest. Or you could say your reporter just happens to be on vacation here. (To any skiers out there: we’ve had two feet of fresh powder fall in the last two days and the off piste is epic. Feel free to hate your reporter.) The bar, like thousands of its kind around the world at the moment, is largely populated by Brits who have had copious amounts of beer. They haven’t set the place on fire yet.
72nd: Figo is a classically dark, handsome type. He was once also a very, very good player. Can he rouse Inter to a glorious comeback?
Ibrahimovic misses another chance.
70th: Inter brings on aging Portuguese star forward Luis Figo, taking off a tired-looking Balotelli.
66th: Ibrahimovic wins the ball on the left side of the field! He moves inside a defender! And he fires a bullet-like shot straight at the spectator in row T, seat 56. Then Adriano takes a shot and endangers some more spectators. Inter’s new tactics for silencing the raucous Manchester crowd?
64th: At last the game is getting fun to watch. Inter’s change of formation, with more attackers, leaves more space in midfield for United to attack through. The game is starting to swing from end to end. More goals are coming, surely…
60th (part two): It nearly pays off immediately! Adriano’s first touch is a volley which hits the United post.
60th: Inter is bringing on an attacker, Brazilian player Adriano. He replaces midfielder Stankovic. Inter is now playing with three attackers. Coach Mourinho is renowned for his substitutions. Will this one work?
57th: Inter are playing rough. Balotelli makes a crunching tackle on Ronaldo. Then Samuel dumps Ronaldo on the ground. That’s what you get for scoring against this Italian side…
Ronaldo isn’t exactly the most popular player among his opponents. He tends to show off how well he can dribble the ball, flashing pointless tricks. Defenders hate that sort of thing.
53rd: United’s second goal came after some great trickery on the left wing by Rooney, who found the narrowest of gaps between two Inter defenders to cross the ball.
52nd: In the battle of the prima donnas, it’s Ronaldo 1, Ibrahimovic 0. Ronaldo hasn’t had a good game but he took his chance - whereas Ibra dragged his best shooting chance wide.
49th: GOAL! Rooney crosses for Ronaldo, who heads past the keeper. Just what your reporter ordered. 2-0 to United. Now Inter has to forget about this cagey midfield stuff and just go for goal.
46th: The second half is underway. Inter has made a substitution, bringing on Muntari for Vieira. This game could do with a goal. A goal for either side would force the other to take more risks and throw more players forward. It’s turning into a game of chess rather than soccer.
More half-time thoughts: United’s goal from a corner kick came out of the blue and before Inter hit its stride. After the goal United failed to impose itself. Inter looked more like the team playing at home. Mourinho’s teams tend to be highly tactical, cautious, defensively robust and dangerous on the counterattack. Inter had a string of great chances toward the end of the half.
The teams are back out on the pitch. Coach Ferguson isn’t looking too happy.
Half-time break: But Mourinho has an excellent record in games against Ferguson. With his previous clubs FC Porto and Chelsea, Mourinho was often able to outwit Ferguson’s United with clever tactics and substitutions. Tonight’s game is still wide open despite United’s lead.
In the other Champions League games being played today, Porto of Portugal is tied 0-0 with Atletico Madrid, Barcelona is trouncing Lyon of France 4-1, and Roma is beating the London team Arsenal 1-0.
45th: Halftime. United still leads 1-0, but Inter really started to take control at the end of that first half.
United’s coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, is one of the longest-serving soccer coaches anywhere. Your reporter was present at his first game in charge: a 2-0 defeat to Oxford United in 1986. Yes, he’s been the team’s coach for 23 years - an amazing feat in a sport where impatient club presidents change coaches nearly as often as they change underwear.
Ferguson has simply made himself indispensable to United. He has built and rebuult the team several times over, turning young talents into world stars, dominating the English soccer scene and winning the Champions League in 1999 and 2008.
40th: Inter is suddenly dominating. Ibrahimovic shoots from an acute angle, but the ball runs narrowly wire. The Manchester crowd is getting restless - whistles great every Inter pass, cheers of relief break out when United wins the ball.
39th: Each team just had great scoring chances. Inter is starting to put pressure on United’s goal: Stankovic hits a shot from 25 yards which United goalkeeper van der Sar tipped away. Then United passes the ball beautifully through Inter’s defence, but Carrick couldn’t finish the move: his shot hits Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Then Inter rushes up the other end and Stankovic puts a shot just over the bar.
36th: This game is tense and closely fought. With so much at stake for both teams, many players look nervous and both teams are misplacing a lot of passes. So far we’ve seen little of the flowing attacking football with which Liverpool destroyed Madrid yesterday.
34th: While Ibrahimovic is Inter’s star player, United’s is the amazingly skillful Portuguese wing-forward Cristiano Ronaldo, the current world player of the year. This match is partly a duel to see which of the two can turn on the style when it matters. So far Ronaldo has done little in the game, because his teammates aren’t passing the ball accurately enough to him.
29th: Inter’s Swedish-Bosnian-Croatian striker Ibrahimovic hits the United crossbar with a header! The Italian team’s first decent scoring opportunity. He should have scored. Ibra, as he is known, is an outstanding attacker who has a reputation for not performing in big games.
28th: United still leads Inter 1-0 and has the upper hand in midfield. But Inter’s defense has been solid since the goal, denying United further scoring chances.
United is seeking to become the first team to retain the European crown since 1989-1990, when AC Milan - Inter’s crosstown rival - won the huge silver trophy twice in a row.
AC Milan is one of the most successful teams in European soccer, while bitter rival Inter hasn’t been European champion since 1965. Inter’s owner and benefactor, Italian business tycoon Massimo Moratti, is desperate to correct that omission.
18th: United appeals for two handballs in quick succession in the Inter penalty area, but the ref decides neither incident was a foul. The ball hit the arms of two Inter defenders in quick succession, but neither contact looked deliberate. Good calls by the ref.
15th: Inter players are keeping calm despite the early goal by United. Inter knows they only need a 1-1 tie. So far this game is being fought mainly in midfield. Both defenses are snuffing out attacks early.
This game is the first big test of Inter’s new coach, Portuguese provocatuer and master tactician Jose Mourinho. Reviled for his loud mouth, feared for his coaching smarts, Mourinho was hired by Inter to improve the club’s European record.
Inter has been the dominant club in Italian domestic soccer in recent years, but the team just couldn’t translate its form into victory in the European Champions League, where the play is faster, more skillful, more aggressive. If anyone can devise new tactics for Inter’s Champions League campaign, Mourinho can.
source: blogs.wsj.com
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