CHAMPIONS LEAGUE-
Italian giants A.C. Milan were eliminated from the Champions League in a 0-0 draw in Tottenham. Tottenham, who had won the first leg in Milan thanks to a Peter Crouch strike, managed to hold on to the draw despite serious threats from Milan's strikers. This result epitomizes Tottenhams status as an up and coming competitor in all competitions, and will surely add to their reputation. Another Italian side that was eliminated from the Champions League this week was A.S. Roma, who lost 3-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk in a shock result.
REAL MADRID-
Ronaldo was missing in Real Madrid's league match against Racing Santader on Sunday due to an injury he received while scoring his hat trick against Malaga the previous match. Madrid won 3-1 without Ronaldo thanks to two goals from Benzema and one from new signing Adebayor. Although Ronaldo's injury was thought to take weeks to heal and be a major blow to Madrid, Ronaldo is expected to return in the 2nd leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League against Lyon on the 16th of March.
BARCELONA VS ARSENAL
Arsenal and Barcelona faced off at the Camp Nou this week to decide who goes on to the quarter finals in the Champions League. Arsenal came in to the game with a 2-1 lead from the 1st leg, but history was against them as the previous year they were crushed 4-1 at the Camp Nou. Barcelona dominated the match from the start as Arsenal were playing extremely defensively, but before the half ended, Lionel Messi scored from an Andres Iniesta pass to give Barcelona the lead on away goals. In the 52nd minute Sergio Busquets scored an own goal to put Arsenal in the lead on aggregate once again. Busquets was filling in for Carlos Puyol who was out due to a knee problem. The most controversial moment, however, came in the 56th minute when Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie was awarded a 2nd yellow card for shooting the ball after the whistle was blown. Technical assistants measured the total amount of time between the start of the whistle being blown to Van Persie hitting the ball as less than 1 second. Van Persie visibly tried to argue his way out of the card pointing out the tens of thousands of shouting fans in the stadium, but to no avail. From this moment on, Barcelona took back control from Arsenal and scored two more goals in the 68th and 71st minutes thanks to Xavi and Messi. The game ended 3-1, and on aggregate 4-3, in Barcelona's favor.
MANCHESTER UNITED-
Manchester United had only lost one game in the league up until last week, when they lost two games in a row: One to Chelsea and one to Liverpool. Liverpool heavily dominated Manchester United during the highly anticipated fixture, and Ferguson's men could do nothing to stop Liverpool. Dirk Kuyt scored all three goals for Liverpool, and young star Javier Hernandez scored the consolation goal for Manchester in the 90th minute. Kuyt scored his first in the 34th minute before adding his second in the 39th, and finished off the game in the 65th minute. Manchester United are set to face off with Arsenal in the FA cup on the 12th which will be a much contested battle of two teams which have not had very favorable results in the past week.
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