The Best Champions League Moments of 2008-09

In their second leg of the Champions League round of 16, English Champions Manchester United met Italian Champions Inter Milan at Old Trafford in Manchester, after their were no goals at San Siro two weeks earlier. Many were saying that Man Utd, the defending champions, could fall, mainly because they weren't able to score an away goal at San Siro. But all that talk disappeared in the fourth minute, as Man Utd defender Nemanja Vidic scored off a Ryan Giggs corner, and gave the defending champions a 1-0 lead, which is all that they needed, as they won the game 2-0, and advanced onto the next round.

In their second leg of the Champions League semi-final, Liverpool and Chelsea met at Stamford Bridge in London, with Chelsea up 3-1 on aggregate after their win at Anfield by the same score. Liverpool was without their captain Steven Gerrard, but they weren't afraid of Chelsea. They showed that in the 19th minute, Fabio Aurelio took a free kick that was directed toward the near post, but Petr Cech completely missed it, and it gave Liverpool a 1-0 lead. Nine minutes later, Xabi Alonso took a penalty which tied the match and the series on aggregate, with Chelsea only ahead by away goals. But in the second half, Chelsea responded with goals by Didler Drogba and Alex, to tie up the game and Frank Lampard scored a goal in the 76th minute to give Chelsea a three goal lead on aggregate. But in a within the next five minutes, Liverpool retook over the lead with goals from Lucas and Kuyt, and Liverpool only needed one more goal to advance to the semi-finals. But Lampard scored again, this time in the 89th minute, which tied the game at four, and ensured Chelsea a spot in the semi-finals, after what is considered to be one of the top games in Champions League history.

In the first leg between Manchester United and Porto in the quartefinals, it seemed that United would run them over on their way to the semi-finals. But Porto didn't listen to the media with that, and they took an early lead in the fourth minute on a goal by Christian Rodriguez. Wayne Rooney equalized up the game in the 14th minute on a turnover right near the Porto goal. Porto continued to gain many offensive chances against the Man Utd defense, which had gotten weak in the last several weeks. But Man Utd continued to try, and they scored on a Carlos Tevez goal in the 85th minute, which gave United the lead. But Porto never gave up, and they capitalized on a turnover in the United zone by Gary Nevile just three minutes later, in which Mariano Gonzalez then consequentily beat Edwin Van de Sar, and stunned the Old Trafford crowd again as they left with a 2-2 draw, and it seemed very likely that they would knock out the defending champions.

In the first leg of the round of sixteen between French giant Lyon and Spanish giant Barcelona, the game ended in a one all draw at Lyon's Stade de Gerland. But early in the match, Juninho,

Another matchup in the round of sixteen was Arsenal and Roma, which many considered to be a very close cup tie. Those people were right, as in the first leg, Arsenal won 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium, but missed many more opportunities to put away the series. In the second leg at the Stadio Olimpico
(which is hosting the Champions League Final), Roma got an early goal by Juan, but weren't able to put away the visitors. After overtime solved nothing, the game went to a penalties, and the winner of the penalities would advance to the quartefinals. Eduardo missed an early penalty for Arsenal, but Mirko Vucinic took a terrible penalty, which tied up the penalty shootout. In the eighth round, Tonetto hit his shot over the crossbar, which allowed Arsenal to advance onto the next round.

In the first leg of the semi-finals between Barcelona and Chelsea, many people expected Barcelona to run away with this game, mainly because of their ferocious attack, and Chelsea keeper Petr Cech conceded four goals to Liverpool in the second leg of the quarterfinals between the two. However, even after a somewhat suspect start to the game in which he was misjudging shots and crosses, Cech clamped down on these problems in the second half, as he made several fantastic saves on Eto'o, Messi and the rest of their attack and didn't concede any goals. Because of this, he helped keep Chelsea in their series as they headed to Stamford Bridge in the second leg, and they wouldn't have had a fighting chance in the next leg if it weren't for his goalkeeping.

After their tie with Porto at Old Trafford the week before, many people expected the defending champion Manchester United to be eliminated from the Champions League. They now had to play at the Estadio do Dragao, where no English team had ever done before, and Porto also scored two crucial away goals, which would allow them to most likely advance if the game ended in a draw. But Portugese star Cristiano Ronaldo refused to listen to critics about his performance and his team performance from the week before, and in the sixth minute, he unleashed a 39 yard missle onto the Porto goal, and Porto keeper Helton had no chance of stopping the shot, as it landed in the back of the net. This proved to be enough for Man Utd, as they won the game by this score, won the series 3-2 on aggregate, and were able to advance onto the semi-finals because of this goal.

After the first leg at the Camp Nou had no goals betwen Barcelona and Chelsea, the winner of the series would be decided in the next leg would be decided in Chelsea's home: Stamford Bridge. In the ninth minute of the first half, Michael Essien scored of the top crossbar and past Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead. Chelsea then continued to dominate the game, and they also got Barcelona's defender Eric Abidal to get a red card, which caused Barcelona to be down to ten men. However, Barcelona never quit, and in the third minute of stoppage time, Barcelona's Andrés Iniesta recieved a pass from Lionel Messi, and nailed it into the top right corner, tying up the game, and giving Barcelona the lead in the series based on away goals. The game ended five minutes later, and even though the game had many calls go against Chelsea, Barcelona still did have a miracle ending that has brought them into the Champions League final against Manchester United,.