I plead guilty to the charge of inconsistency and bias when it comes to the midweek Champions League action. I was firmly in the Liverpool camp while watching their impressive performance against "bad guys" Chelski and was mesmerised by the quality and tempo of the game. It was great entertainment and a great advert for the EPL, but again, not for English players. Only three Englishmen took the field out of 22 players.
Last night, I was longing for Porto to do the business against a Man Utd containing two Englishmen. I'm no lover of the Portugese approach to the game - cheating, diving, time-wasting and feigning injury were raised to an art form by Mourinho's Porto team in the UEFA Cup Final of 2003 - but the very idea of three English clubs in the semi-finals for a third successive year was too much to bear. Alas, Porto failed to live up to their first leg performance and, with ultimate irony, a stunning goal from one of their countrymen won the match.
On the other channel, Arsenal, containing one Englishman, were too strong for a workmanlike Villareal.
So from now till May 27th, we can all look forward to a self-congratulatory love-in from SkyTV and all those with their snouts in the EPL trough.
Only Barcelona can save us from the terrible fate of having to listen to the arrogant rantings of the English media from now until May 2010 when someone else gets the chance to win the damn thing.
C'mon Barca!!!!!!