A lot can happen in a footballing month, the business end of the season is fast approaching and we are witnessing one of the finer finales to what has been a season of pure entertainment.

For some it has been a season to remember, watching Cristiano Ronaldo play has become a necessity, I was one of the early disapproving voices because of his original theatrics but am more than willing to admit, I was wrong, so very wrong. The boy has become a man, a man that scores when you need him to. I was totally blown away by his cheeky nutmeg backheel effort against Aston Villa, the boy is scoring from multiple scenarios and Ferguson very well might look back at the day he signed the young boy as his best piece of business he conducted. The way things are going even an average Euro 2008 will see him crowned player of the year.

For some it will be a season of reflection, Arsene Wenger will consider himself unlucky, Key injuries have set his team back considerably and the backlash from the fans has been fierce. He has built a team up from practically nothing in terms of football money and they looked dominant for most of this season, but as before the home stretch is where they have crumbled. With a transfer kitty of what is widely touted to be around 60 million pounds its difficult to see why he fails to strengthen his squad with established names to fill in here and there as they have been found wanting to many times lately.

On the international front, I have to say that the recent week of friendlies also produced multiple moments of magic. I traveled to a little known stadium in Atteridgeville to watch South Africa play Paraguay, A game I will never forget. For the first time in years I felt the players fulfilled their potential, The team play was breath-taking, The goals were clinical and the crowd was fantastic, a sign of things to come I hope.

On the same night Brazil played Sweden in a competitive and fierce match, The game was looking to be a stalemate but then destiny made one of its frequent footballing appearances. With the game dying out a certain Alex Pato made his full International debut, It took no time for him to attack a loose attempted clearance from the Swedish keeper and instinctively chip him from outside the box. The young man brings a smile to your face, debut goals are a certainty for the duck. I feel that I cannot say enough about this young prodigy, He seems to adapt to any arena.

The Champions league is starting to take an almost identical shape to last years’ tournament, The only interchangeable team is Barcelona in place of a shadow of last years conquering Milan. Liverpool battled Arsenal in a wonderful game of football that saw multiple scenarios unfold.Fernando Torres was first to raise his hand after instinctively spinning his marker out of the game and firing a rocket into the top right corner from just inside the box. Young Theo Walcott then showed that potential of his by running all of 70 meters at Olympic qualifying speed, leaving defenders crashing into eachother on his way to the box, once there he cut Adebayor in for a tap in goal. Liverpool battled hard at Anfield, marching to victory and proving that in Europe, they are a totally different side. Chelsea will hope that a third time will be lucky against the Merseyside outfit

Manchester United dispatched Roma with relative ease after beating them in Rome by 2 goals. Barcelona will go into the match knowing that the fans will be dismal if they are eliminated from what looks to be their only hope for a trophy.

In the Premier league things are past feverish, Chelsea lie 3 points behind leaders Manchester United with both teams set to play eachother later this month, United host the gunners this weekend and Arsenal will go into this game knowing that nothing short of victory will put them back in the title chase. With 5 games remaining, absolutely anything can happen!

Any doubts about the Arsenal squad were dealt serious blows last night as the gunners stunned AC Milan with 2 excellent late goals. The San Siro on a champions league night, just ask any Manchester United fan what a daunting prospect that could be. The gunners however rose magnificently to the task. It took 170 minutes of football for any deadlock to be broken and Arsenal did it in style, Cesc Fabregas might have home affairs on his case because few people will believe that this young man supposedly only 20, can come up with such vital goals. 30 metres out, after a storming run he looked up for a split second, fired a shot past 2 blocking defenders and the accuracy of the ball rather than pace guided it ever so neatly into the back of the net, the keeper had no chance. The goal came at the perfect moment for Arsenal who dominated for large periods with no end result. Milan will be kicking themselves too as they could have taken the lead at various times but their finishing seemed to be lacking.

Theo Walcott will be pleased with his performance, The young winger was told by Captain Gallas to vary his game. He responded excellently after coming on by going on a jinking run geting up immediately from a foul and squaring a delightful pass for Adebayor to seal the victory.

Milan are now in crisis mode, after a seemingly disastrous league campaign has left them 5th and 4 points away from a champions league spot. Considering the squad the have available, that is a huge underachievement. There was alot of talk of fatigue setting into the camp but when you consider that at this stage Arsenal have played 7 more official matches, that is not really an acceptable excuse.

Wenger is a very happy man today and he will feel like he has overcome a massive hurdle. The victory should boost Arsenal back into form which will make for an interesting end to this current season. The manager selected a good squad last night and even showed his sense of humor by giving Sendeross a starting place and despite his comical antics he did have another solid game, one wonders though when Wenger will realise that he has another Pascal Cygan on his hands?

So whilst Arsenal went about securing progress, the other teams who worked their way into the quarter final stages were Manchester united, Fenerbache (Cracking game!!) and Barcelona. With 4 names to join the already formidable list tonight, Champions league football is alive and well.

What a difference one week can make in football. For the full answer to that ask any Liverpool supporter. Down and out of the FA Cup thanks to a very stubborn championship side Barnsley. How many people would predict that by Tuesday they would be deserved victors over the near domestically perfect Inter Milan? A team that has yet to lose in the very tough Serie A league. A European Liverpool side seems to be miles ahead of the side that Rafa Benitez has been rotating in the premiership. The beauty of football personified : down in the dumps Saturday and flying high by Tuesday.

Another contrast is the Arsenal side who were severely outclassed 4-0 by Manchester United. Come Champions League and both teams were able to earn respectable draws in contrasting situations. Arsenal very unlucky not to score at the end after a usually prolific Adebayor could only hit the bar following a header with an open goal and 2 meters in front of him. A good result however as Milan failed to get any away goals. Manchester were persistent after going down 1-0 to an absolute quality goal from target striker Karim Benzema. The introduction of Nani and Tevez on 63 minutes sparking the path that lead to a late equalizer.

At Celtic Park fans were treated to a great game of football! Celtic who had only been beaten at home once in champions league history twice took the lead against a Barcelona side fielding the “fantastic four” for the first time since October last year. Messi turned out to again be the Catalans’ savior after snatching two goals. Thierry Henry scored a delightful curling effort to leave The Scottish side the mamoth task of winning by two clear goals in Spain.

Elsewhere the Champions Leagues’ younger less attractive sibling the Uefa Cup provided some good football. An ever improving Everton side were able to thrash SK Braan 6-1. The return of Yakabu from AFCON duty signaled a great attacking display and the Nigerian striker bagged his second hat-trick of the season. Bolton also continued to show positive signs overcoming Spanish heavyweights Atletico Madrid with a 1-0 aggregate after holding them to a 0-0 draw in Spain.

Spanish giants Real Madrid will not look back on this week favorably after losing to both Real Betis and Roma away. The two losses give others hope after Ronaldinho sealed a victory for Barcelona on Saturday leaving Barca 5 points adrift of the summit. Manchester United are in the same position with 5 points separating them and Arsenal with 12 games left. The premiership returns this weekend and the drama rolls on!

After a weekend of European folklore and amazing results, football is about to kick into overdrive.

Whilst the British are divided on whether to start taking the Premiership into International stardom, All eyes will tonight be on Europe and the return of Champions league football and a welcome return it is! The draw was made last year and teams must be licking their lips in anticipation of one of the strongest knockout stage draws in recent memory.

Champions league football is at times unrivaled, there is nothing like watching your club destroy a European powerhouse. The competition reaches new levels every year and spectacular goals can at times seem like a given. As for pure emotion there are sights which make you believe that destiny may after all exist, just ask Kaka after his thrilling, field traversing extra time winner against Celtic last year.

No team will be feeling the heat quite like a certain Liverpool team who after so much promise could be out of their only major title hope. A loss to Barnsley will not be seen as ideal preparation for a game against Serie A topping Inter Milan. Liverpool do however have a good European history against Italian clubs, although an Italian club beat them in the finals last year.

Inter’s red twins AC Milan play Arsenal in what could be some salivating football. Arsenal are not going to dwell on their weekend defeat and have a point to prove. Milan are a European powerhouse plain and simple and much like Liverpool will feel that the Champions league is the only light at the end of a disappointing season. Kaka should return in a match that both teams will feel they can win.

Roma take on mighty Madrid after a weekend where both teams dropped points in their respective leagues. Roma lying 11 points off Inter while Madrid top Barcelona by 5. Roma will be hoping for a return to form of the amazing Francesco Totti. A player who has carried the team through many games. Madrid welcome back the highly prolific forward pairing of Ruud van Nistlerooy and Raul.

Barcelona seem to be struggling at this point given that on paper there are few teams who come close to them. They will be buoyed by the goal scoring return of Ronaldinho on Saturday, The Brazilian has been on thin ice and one wonders if he can truly come back and silence the extremely harsh media. They face a Celtic side improving their European pedigree every year and will do well to pick up a result in Scotland.

Sir Alex Ferguson has been hinting at Lyon’s French pair of Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa closely. The 2 players are young and lighting Europe up with some talented displays. Manchester will be looking to build on an excellent weekend performance that stunned most football fans. Ferguson will be torn between fielding young stars Anderson and Nani over the amazingly experienced Scholes and Giggs.

So tonight the war starts all over again, players all know how big this stage is and it will take everything they have to outshine a vastly talented assortment of players.

Bring on the champions, European glory lies in wait!

The draw for the knockout stages of this seasons’ champions league has just taken place. Some mouthwatering fixtures have been thrown our way

Celtic vs Barcelona

Lyon vs Man united

Schalke vs Porto

Liverpool vs Inter Milan

Roma vs Real Madrid

Arsenal vs AC Milan

Olympiacos vs Chelski

Fenerbache vs Sevilla

The Stand out fixtures have to be the gunners taking on current champions AC Milan, Liverpool taking on High flying Inter and Roma facing the uphill battle that is Real Madrid. Bring on the goals!

Matches to be played – first round on February 19/20 and return leg on March 4/5

(Image credit : Wikipedia)

“Pipo” Inzaghi sent AC Milan through to the next round of the champion’s league after beating Celtic on Wednesday night. Celtic rode their luck to qualify in second spot thanks to an unfancied away win for Benfica at Shakhtar Donetsk.

In a match that might not be remembered for its display of breath taking football, Fillipo Inzaghi struck from a close range effort after some magical interplay between Brazilians Kaka and Cafu . The Italian etched his name into the record book with that goal taking his personal European tally to 63, Making Inzaghi the all time leading goal scorer in all European competitions.

The Home win was a big positive for European giants Milan who have failed to record a league win in the San Siro. It was not plain sailing for the Italians however as Celtic put up a Fight typical of the Scottish champions reputation. In a surprise move Celtic coach Gordon Strachan relegated powerful Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink to the bench. With Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti Replacing his controversial keeper Dida with Zeljko Kalac.

Celtic Looked jittery in the opening stages of the match and made unforced errors which Milan failed to capitalize on the first being an early free kick which Clarence Seedorf could only slam into the wall on 15 minutes. Kaka served notice as to why he is Front runner for the world player of the year award when he narrowly missed the outside of the post on 25 minutes.

In a quiet match where scoring opportunities were a rarity It took Milan 70 minutes to score the decisive Goal and the Italian spoke of his joy at beating the record previously held by Gerd Mueller saying “It was a strange feeling, like inner peace,”

Milan could well have doubled their lead but for Celtic Keeper Artur Boruc making excellent saves to deny Christian Brocchi and Inzaghi. Kaka also threatened to add to his remarkable European tally but was denied thanks to a goal line clearance in optional time.

Both sets of fans greeted the final whistle with cheers, knowing the next round of Europe’s top competition beckons