Messi gets another hat-trick and Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1

This week was massive in La Liga and the Premiership, Serie A not so much due to AC Milan's inability to take 1st place, and while Real and Barcelona continue to be tied, Manchester United are looking to get their fourth Premier League title in a row.

Manchester United - Liverpool


A match which could've propelled Liverpool closer towards fourth place, and it seemed like they would be able to after Fernando Torres scored a great header in the 5th minute, helping Liverpool take the lead at Old Trafford. This didn't last long as Valencia tried to dribble around a physical Mascherano, Valencia goes down and Howard Webb sees it as a penalty. Rooney steps up only to have it saved, but the Englishman quickly tucked away the rebound, tying things up for Manchester United. After the interval, Manchester United came out with more attacking conviction, and eventually in the 60th minute, Darren Fletcher was able to strike a cross which Ji-Sung Park performed a Gullitt like diving header for the winner. Giggs makes his return, securing the squad, and while Sir Alex celebrates his two point lead at the top, Rafa Benitez complains about Manchester United's penalty.

In England, Chelsea continue their slump of poor results after a 1-1 draw away against Blackburn Rovers, everything seemed fine when after just 6 minutes Drogba scored, but Chelsea's diamond formation lacked width and eventually led to El-Hadj Diouf score the equalizer. Manchester City find some good form after a 2-1 win over Fulham, City was leading after 7 minutes with Santa Cruz's tap in, and then Tevez doubled the scoreline. Fulham came back with Murphy scoring a penalty, and the final minutes of the match were a bit too tense for a City that should've taken more chances. Tottenham stay in fourth spot after a great win against Stoke City, Gudjohnsen volleyed in the first in the 46th after replacing Pavlyuchenko, Stoke had Whitehead sent off, but they equalized with Etherington's penalty. Gudjohnsen created the winner for Kranjcar who lashed the ball into the back of the net, keeping the Spurs in a Champions League spot by two points. Portsmouth pull of a fantastic 3-2 win over Hull City, being 2-1 down in the 88th, Pompy had O'Hara curl in a fantastic free kick, and a minute later Kanu scored an epic winner for Portsmouth who are bottom with 13 points.

In Spain, Real Madrid came back to win 3-1 against Sporting Gijon, first Barral scored putting Gijon in front, but after Van der Vaart tapped in Ronaldo's saved free kick, and Xabi Alonso headed in the second, and Higuain slotted a good finish in, the match seemed finished. Mallorca keep their bid for Champions League football strong after a 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid, Atleti had Raul Garcia sent off, and Perea scored an own goal, making the match impossible to win. Valencia pulled off a 2-0 win over Almeria thanks to David Silva's genius, first the Spaniard created Mata's goal, then scored from the ground his own, keeping Valencia four points away from Mallorca. Three more fantastic goals came from Lionel Messi in Barcelona's 4-2 win away at Real Zaragoza, Messi has scored 11 in his last 5 matches, but Messi's three goals were almost challenged by Colunga. Colunga scored two in the 85th and the 89th, possibly preparing Zaragoza for a fantastic comeback, but Ibrahimovic netted a penalty in the dying minutes of the match to put the result in the bag for Barca.

In Italy, Cassano returns to his great former self after scoring a fantastic chip over Juventus' keeper Chimenti to allow Sampdoria to defeat Juventus 1-0, and the two revelations of the season, Bari and Parma, played each other and finished 1-1. Inter Milan drew 1-1 against Palermo, giving AC Milan a chance to take the top spot, but the rossoneri were only able to draw 1-1 with Napoli. The team which benefited the most from Inter's slip was Roma which won 4-2 against Udinese, a fantastic Vucinic hat trick along with a goal from Toni helped bring Inter only four points away, and next weekend they could bring the deficit to one as they'll play Inter Milan at the Stadio Olimpico.

What do you think about this weekend's results? Comment below!

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!

Fantastic Fulham Knock Juve out, and Liverpool Pummel Lille

The Europa League has no trouble making itself known, with some fantastic results and upsets, it really seems to be heating up in the race for the cup.

Hamburger get past Anderlecht with a fantastic aggregate scoreline of 6-5 in favour to the Germans.

Wolfsburg are able to go through against Rubin Kazan, a 2-1 win at home in extra time helped clinch the next round.

Atletico Madrid go through on away goals, after a tense 0-0 at home, Atletico were able to get a 2-2 draw in Lisbon and go through on away goals.

Liverpool have no trouble with Lille, after a disappointing 1-0 defeat, the reds unleashed a 3-0 win at Anfield with two from Torres, and one from Gerrard.

Benfica slip through Olympique Marseille with a 3-2 aggregate scoreline, and Standard Liege have little difficulty with Panathinaikos, getting a 4-1 aggregate scoreline.

Fulham pull off a fantastic comeback, after losing 3-1 in Turin, they went back to Craven Cottage and won 4-1, with a beautiful goal by Dempsey who chipped it into the top left corner, helping Fulham go through with 5-4 on aggregate.

Valencia and Werder Bremen fight one of the best games of the season, a 4-4 draw which was preceded by a 1-1 draw let the Spaniards go through on away goals, David Villa got a hat trick, reminding us all that he could be one to look out for in the upcoming World Cup.

What do you think of the Europa League results? 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.