Mark_Concannon's Blog

Fabulous success or abject failure. There's no middle ground for fans of Manchester United and Chelsea, who in 3 weeks time will enjoy the former or suffer through the latter.

The Red Devils and the Blues are dead even atop the English Premier League standings after Chelsea's home victory over Man U. this past Saturday. But even though the teams are tied, Manchester has a much easier schedule for the last two matches of the season and the Devils also win the tiebreaker on goal differential, a fact that United coach Alex Ferguson seemed to recognize when he rested EPL player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo Saturday.

The coach rested Ronaldo because the Red Devils have bigger football fish to fry this week, hosting the second leg of the two game UEFA Champions League semifinal with Barcelona today. Man U played Barca to a goal-less draw last week in Spain, Barcelona held the ball for 70 percent of the match, stringing together dozens of passes but never looking really dangerous. A United victory today at Old Trafford would mean a berth in the championship game next month in Moscow where the Devils could face....

Chelsea. Yes the Blues dreams of European club supremacy are quite vivid these days. Chelsea hosts Liverpool in the other UEFA semi tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. The Blues escaped with a 1-1 draw in the first leg last week at Anfield when Liverpool's John Arne Riise knocked the ball into his own net in the waning seconds. So even a nil-nil draw on Wedneday(away goals count double in the aggregate tiebreaker) would move Chelsea into the title game. So the Blues, who sacked legendary coach Jose Mourinho in September throwing their program into disarray, now have a chance to take the "double;" both the EPL and Champions League crowns.

So imagine if the Packers played the Bears in the NFC championship game AND Super Bowl. That's the type of angst Chelsea and Man U. supporters are dealing with these days. And considering what those fans are accustomed to, there's no prize for second place here. It is all or nothing.