Manchester United and Lyon Win, AC Milan and Real Madrid Inquests Begin

In the UEFA Champions League, there's only one place to start, and that's in Manchester.  

As Old Trafford welcomed back past hero David Beckham, Wayne Rooney yet again took over the talismanic role filled previously by Beckham and later Cristiano Ronaldo.

Four goals in two games, first in front of a 80,000 San Siro crowd and then a 74,595 mainly anti-Glazer support, the phenomenal Englishman helped Manchester United sail to a remarkably comfortable 4-0 home win after emerging as historic 3-2 victors a few weeks ago in Italy.

In a match where AC Milan had their chances, everyone was waiting to see whether Beckham would shine for his current employers with a match-winning headline goal in front of the unwaveringly loyal and ferocious Stretford End.

But thanks to a culmination of slack defending, due to the classic duo lapses in concentration and clueless marking, as well as the total disdain for back-tracking displayed by strike trio Marco Borriello, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, and most crucially Ronaldinho, United ensured with consummate ease that a heroic match-winning Beckham return would never appear on the cards.

Despite their numerous and potentially decisive goal-scoring opportunities, the Rossoneri were unassailably poor in the north of England, and crumbled under the demanding pressure of overturning a big first-leg deficit and facing possibly the world's greatest player at the moment in Wayne Rooney.

A case of psychological trouble and perilously high cognitive anxiety seemed to hit the likes of Thiago Silva, Daniele Bonera, Marek Jankulovski et al, leading to four deleterious defensive lapses.

As for Manchester United, the combination of occasional cacophonous support as well as the strong desire of every player to kill off their equally illustrious opponents meant the likes of the aforementioned Rooney, Antonio Valencia, Ji Sung Park, etc, were able to perform at the optimal level desired by Sir Alex Ferguson.

The desire of Gary Neville to make forward runs proved very beneficial, as the United veteran capitalised on the space given to him by Ronaldinho's lack of back-tracking by setting up Rooney's first, a goal which severely dented the plans of AC Milan coach Leonardo and his players.

Also, the said passive defending by Ronaldinho and his fellow attacking chums allowed the United midfield all the space they desired to pick apart their opponents' defence, with captain Massimo Ambrosini forced to cover too much ground, hence leaving his team far too vulnerable in the latter stages of the encounter as their midfield fatigued.

In the end, it was a night in which AC Milan were far too poor than Manchester United truly sensational, as a whole host of issues will surely be looked at by Leonardo in his team's video analysis session and subsequent inquest on the training pitch.

And as one inquest begins in Italy, so does another when you look west to Spain and the capital of Madrid.

Real Madrid were dreaming of winning the 2010 UEFA Champions League more than any other club, considering they had been knocked out six times previously at the first knockout stage, and more crucially because the final is being hosted in a very special place.

That place is the Santiago Bernabeu, the very home of possibly the most powerful team on earth, Real Madrid themselves.

But just as in everyday life, dreams are shattered, with the mega-million superstars of Real being no exception to such pain.

The pain of being knocked out is made worse when considering it is against Olympique Lyonnais, the team from Lyon who are languishing below Montpellier in Ligue 1.

Whilst the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain had glorious chances to score match-winning goals and send tens of millions of fans worldwide into a state of delirium, they were ultimately made to rue such wasted opportunities.

As Bosnian world football superstar in the making, Miralem Pjanic, struck the back of the net in the 75th minute, Los Galacticos of Florentino Perez had failed Spain yet again in Europe.

A 1-1 draw was enough to see Lyon through after their 1-0 victory at the Stade de Gerland, and it was sufficient for us to witness yet another colossal collapse from the nine-time European Cup and UEFA Champions League winners.

On a day where Manchester United waltzed into the quarterfinals and Olympique Lyonnais also joined the last-eight party, the two biggest clubs in world football again fell short of expectations.

For AC Milan and Real Madrid, the two most  prestigious teams in World Football, there will be no party, but rather a painful video analysis and a long, hard inquest into yet another shortfall in expectations.