If you're expecting an anti-climatic game when Chelsea meet Manchester United during Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final, you're not alone. The two sides are too evenly matched to produced the kind of slaughter we saw on Tuesdays games, which ended 4-0 and 5-2, and with Inter Milan out of the picture the road to the final for whoever ends up winning the clash will be wide open.
Expect A Dull Game - The Busby Babe
Therefore, each team will be doing their gosh-darned best not to lose, a feat which Manchester United haven't really managed too often at Stamford Bridge over the last few years. Although Gene Um of SB Nation's Manchester United blog The Busby Babe has done his best to highlight most of the key battles in his excellent tactical preview of the match, he too thinks that it will ultimately be a fairly boring affair - although he'd quite like to come away from London with a draw if that also meant United emerged with an away goal or two.
I expect a relatively dull game. I think Chelsea will be focused on preventing as many away goals as possible and I think United will be very happy if they can leave the Bridge with a draw. Chelsea likely would be content with a 0-0 draw and United would likely be thrilled if they earned a 2-2 draw.
He probably isn’t wrong. The last time these two sides met in Europe was a tense encounter that ended at 1-1 after ninety minutes and extra time, ultimately going to penalties where United won after a famous slip by Chelsea captain John Terry, and although there’ve been some famous shootouts between English sides in the Champions League over the years, it’s not very often that such evenly matched teams produce memorable games. If you’re expecting a classic, you may want to look elsewhere.
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