Champions League Quarter Final Round-Up

The strength in depth of Manchester United’s squad was clearly evident in their comprehensive 2-0 in Rome during the week. Paul Scholes rolled back the years with an imaginative display in the centre of the park. His delicate pull-back for Ronaldo’s headed goal was the highlight in a vintage performance from the mercurial midfielder. Wayne Rooney demonstrated his seemingly boundless energy with another unselfish display while Ronaldo finally sparkled in an important European tie.

United will never have a better opportunity to lift Europe’s most prestigious football trophy than this season. Should they progress as expected past Roma, a Barcelona club in disarray awaits in the semi finals. Sir Alex Ferguson has utilised his squad superbly thus far and as the run-in to the end of the season begins in earnest, few would bet against the Govan native lifting the Champions League trophy for a second time.

One potential sting in the tale for Alex Ferguson's side is the injury to centre-back Nemanja Vidic. Although it appears the Croatian will be out for up to three weeks any long term problems could ultimately scupper United's chances of lifting the Champions League. It is a fact that Rio Ferdinand plays better with Vidic to cover for him in the centre of United's defence and the break-up of this prolific partnership (a meagre 15 league goals conceded so far this season) at such a critical time of the season could prove fatal.

As for the remaining Premier League clubs the quarter-final ties clearly demonstrated the short-comings in each side’s turbulent end to the season. Arsenal visibly tired towards the end of their incessant second half attacking performance. The minute the Gunners conceded an away goal to Dirk Kuyt they were forced to attack at every opportunity and failed to breach a disciplined Liverpool rearguard. For all Benitez's critics on his squad-rotation policy, his Liverpool side - despite defending for much if the second half - look the sharper coming into the final weeks of the season. Granted the Anfield side lost too many winnable games at the start of the season but Torres, Gerrard, Mascherano and Babel all looked much fresher than their North London opponents did on Wednesday night and Benitez should take some credit for that.

Chelsea continue to look and play like a club in constant inner turmoil after their surprise 2-1 defeat in Turkey. Most worryingly for Avram Grant, his Chelsea defence conceded another two goals and the murmurs of results such as this never occurring under ‘the Chosen One’s’ tenure refuse to go away. The Blues should have enough quality to turn the tie around in Stamford Bridge next week but a resurgent Liverpool are their likely opponents in the semi finals where Grant’s future will be decided depending upon the outcome of that semi final encounter.