Europa League ignites with open results

This mid-week was filled with fantastic Champions League and Europa League action, not only will we have the second legs next week to check out, but this weekend in the EPL Manchester United are playing Chelsea, and the weekend after El Classico takes place in the Santiago Bernabeu.

And for some important news about two major players for both club and country, Wayne Rooney will be out for an estimated 2-4 weeks, and Cesc Fabregas will be out for about 6 weeks. Both of these are massive blows for their respective clubs, and could affect the Premiership title heavily.

And for all you people wondering where the Champions League is, I've listed the scores below the Europa League wrap up, without a match analysis due to partial laziness and the fact that the Europa League is majority under-covered. So hopefully this will spur all you footy fans to check out some Europa League action as well as all the Champions League action.

Europa League

The first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals ended with some pretty open results, none of the ties seem finished or settled at all.

Fulham got an important 2-1 win against Wolfsburg at Craven Cottage, although they conceded a late away goal to the Germans scored by Madlung, Zamora and Duff scored in the 60th and 63rd, making this tie tip slightly in favor to the Cottagers.

Hamburg are continuing their strong push to the Europa League final which will be held in their stadium thanks to a 2-1 comeback against Standard Liege. Standard took the lead in the 31st with Mbokani, but a Petric penalty in the 42nd and a goal by Ruud Van Nilsterooy in the 44th sealed the comeback.

Liverpool suffered a 2-1 loss against Benfica in the Estadio da Luz, everything seemed fine for the Reds after Agger scored in just 9 minutes, but Ryan Babel was sent off with a straight red changing the match completely. After halftime, two penalties by Cardozo sealed an important comeback for Benfica.

Probably the biggest tie ended with the biggest scoreline, Valencia - Atletico Madrid ended 2-2 after a great match between the two. All of the goals came in the second half with Forlan scoring the first, Manuel Fernandes came up with the equalizer only to have Lopez give the lead to Atletico again. It took a goal by David Villa to equalize the score-line, Atletico will be happy with the result, and hope to make the two away goals count in the return leg.

Champions League results


Olympique Lyon - Bordeaux: 3-1
Bayern Munich - Manchester United: 2-1
Arsenal - Barcelona: 2-2
Inter Milan - CSKA Moscow: 1-0

Champions League Draw sees Arsenal-Barca, Manchester United-Bayern Munich, and more

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The UEFA Champions League draw took place for the quarter finals, and it seems to really be heating up thanks to some fantastic matches that will be played.

Here is the draw in their semi-final brackets:

Lyon - Bordeaux


Bayern Munich - Manchester United 

and

Arsenal - Barcelona


Inter Milan - CSKA Moskva


The semi-finals could look something like Manchester United - Lyon, and Inter Milan - Barcelona, but as we know from European football, anything is possible.

What do you think of the quarter final draw? Who do you think can go all the way to the final? Comment below!

Barca Destroy Stuttgart and Inter Overpower Chelsea

A fantastic end to the Champions league round of 16, and now we finally know all of the quarter finalists, Europa League will be added on tomorrow after the matches, and when the draw happens on friday, you'll know where to find it, right here on SWU.

Chelsea - Inter Milan: Aggregate 1-3

Inter Milan simply overpowered Chelsea throughout the match, of course the blues looked dangerous sometimes, but fantastic resolute defending by Samuel, Lucio (who will miss the next Champions League match), and Maicon stopped Drogba in his tracks. Sneijder was magical, spreading passes which created 4 or 5 great scoring opportunities for Eto'o, Milito, and Pandev, but the magical moment was when Sneijder launched a beautiful ball with his left foot for Eto'o, and Eto'o did what he does best, score. At the end, it seemed that Drogba lost his cool, and kicked Thiago Motta who had fallen over, causing the Ivorian to be sent off in the final minutes of the match. Chelsea had some penalty shouts, but Inter severely overpowered Chelsea, completeing Jose Mourinho's epic return to Stamford Bridge.


Barcelona - Stuttgart: Aggregate 5-1

Barcelona were inspired by a brilliant Messi yet again, the Argentinean decided to take the ball and stroke it into the top left corner of Lehman's net in the 14th minute, and although Stuttgart pressed, it already seemed decided. Messi inspired Pedro's after a brilliant through pass to Toure Yaya who squared the ball to Pedro for the tap in, and Messi scored a third after quickly turning around at the top of the box, and stroking yet another beautiful ball in the bottom right corner this time. Bojan came on in the 88th for a wonderful Iniesta, and scored a minute later after a good pass from Ibrahimovic, Bojan slid it past Lehman to complete a fantastic night at the Camp Nou.


Sevilla - CSKA Moskva: Aggregate 2-3

This match was decided thanks to some horrendous goalkeeping by Palop, Necid quickly grabbed a goal in the first half, but Perotti quickly equalized after some great work by Navas on the right wing. Then came the goal which marked Palop's game, Keisuke Honda shot a good free kick which Palop punched right into his own net. Sevilla were unable to get the needed goals to go through after the mess-up from their keeper in the 55th minute, letting CSKA Moskva go through


Olympiakos - Bordeaux:  Aggregate 1 -3

Bordeaux were led by a fantastic Gourcuff away from home, the young frenchman inspired his side with a free kick which looped over the keeper giving his side a crucial goal in the 5th minute of the match. Derbyshire was ssent off for Olympiakos, but they equalized soon after in the second half after a great volley by Mitroglou, seemingly restoring things for the Greek champions. Diarra was sent off for the French champions, and eventually Chamakh grabbed an important goal, a powerful header in the 88th which assured Bordeaux a spot among the quarter finalists.

Inter Milan Win against Chelsea and Liverpool knocks out Unirea Urziceni

With Jose returning to his former club and all the Champions League action, many forget that an extremely entertaining Europa League is going on, and SWU is here to bring you all the action.

Here are the teams that go through to the next round of the Europa League:
Sporting Lisbon
Rubin Kazan
Juventus
Valencia
Wolfsburg
Standard Liege
Werder Bremen
Lille
Benfica
Anderlecht
Olympique Marseille
Panathinaikos
Atletico Madrid
Fulham
Hamburg
Liverpool (for more info on Liverpool vs Unirea Urziceni, be sure to visit http://romania1909.blogspot.com/ for all the Romanian football news)

Inter Milan - Chelsea


What can only be described as a match of the ages, Inter started with a bang, it took them just 3 minutes to set up Diego Milito in the box, Milito turned Terry inside out, striking it past Cech and put Inter in front. Chelsea had an immediate reaction, they kept possession and stopped any of Inter's advances up the field quickly, many good shots on goal, and Drogba hit the crossbar with a rocket free kick, but the two teams went in 1-0 at halftime. Right after the half, Chelsea wanted a penalty after Samuel tripped up Kalou in the box, but the Ivorian made theatrics of it and that could be the reason that the referee saw it as a dive. As Chelsea pushed, the goal eventually came, a long range effort by Kalou snuck past a distracted Julio Cesar into the bottom corner. But Jose Mourinho's team reacted immediately, Inter pushed up the field and Cambiasso drilled a shot past Cech to make sure that Inter stayed ahead. Inter have the win, but Chelsea have a crucial away goal.
Final score: 2-1

Stuttgart - Barcelona


Barcelona were unable to put their stamp on this match, the European champions were slow to start and lucky to get the away goal, Cacau started the scoring in the 25th minute with a fantastic header over Valdes. Barcelona eventually woke up and started to create some scoring chances, eventually Ibrahimovic was 1 on 1 with Lehmann, the goalie made a fantastic save, but the Swede was able to get the rebound which he promptly tucked into the net. Barcelona will be rueing their injuries and will be trying to make a bigger bang at the Camp Nou.
Final score: 1-1

Olympiakos Piraeus - Bordeaux


A match where Bordeaux will be glad to have gotten the away goal, but unhappy to not have put the tie away with a couple more. Ciani's goal was at the end of the first half, after a controversial free kick awarded by referee Howard Webb, the Frenchman headed the ball into the net. At the final minutes, Olympiakos were disallowed a goal because Howard Webb claims to have seen the young Englishman Derbyshire impeding Carasso from challenging Lua Lua who's goal was disallowed.
Final score: 0-1

CSKA Moskva - Sevilla


This match was very similar to the Stuttgart vs Barcelona match and the Olympiakos vs Bordeaux match, Sevilla pushed, but wasted chances to take more than one crucial away goal against a strong CSKA Moskva side. It seemed like everything was perfect after Alvaro Negredo scored in the 25th minute, but Gonzalo scored a fantastic rocket goal to keep Moskva in the tie. A rocket shot that was unstoppable for the Sevilla goalkeeper Palop, and Sevilla will be disappointed with the wasted chances.

Juande Ramos replaces Zico at CSKA Moscow

Juande Ramos has replaced Brazilian legend Zico as head coach at the russian club, CSKA Moscow. Juande Ramos has been the head coach at great clubs like Seville, and Real Madrid.