On a soggy night at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea finally prevailed against Liverpool in a Champions League semi-final after failures in 2005 and 2007.

Didier Drogba was immense on the muddy surface and bagged two lightning quick goals at the near post as the Londoners triumphed 3-2 after extra time and 4-3 on aggregate. 

Liverpool battled hard with Fernando Torres scoring yet again but ultimately Chelsea were worthy winners, even if they thought a chance had gone when Michael Essien’s strike was ruled out for offside…probably correctly.

After all the boardroom wrangling at Liverpool, it will be interesting to see what Rafa Benitez does next. Chelsea boss Avram Grant is on his way to Moscow to face Manchester United in the first all-English final, and as he sank to his knees at the end Chelsea fans finally saw the emotion they thought was lacking since Jose Mourinho’s departure.

The night, though, belonged to Frank Lampard, who slotted home an extra time penalty to make it 2-1 for Chelsea after Sami Hyypia’s careless foul on Michael Ballack just inside the box.

Days after the death of his mother, Lampard placed the spotkick perfectly and ran to the corner kissing his black armband and holding it to the sky. She would have been proud of you, Frank.

A great European night following the dull first leg last week but did Manchester United deserve to win over all?

They were negative in the 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp and defended deep for long spells on Tuesday after Paul Scholes’ rocket had given them the lead.

That said, Barca failed to really open up United in either leg despite the silky skills of Lionel Messi. Samuel Eto’o was largely anonymous at Old Trafford and Thierry Henry was poor after he came on.

Was this the last European game for Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona coach?

The first all-English Champions League final beckons….in Moscow. I guess it’s too late to switch it to Wembley.

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Sven-Goran Eriksson’s days as Manchester City coach seem to be numbered after his agent said the Swede was unlikely to still be at the club at the beginning of next season.

After a storming start to the season, defeats started creeping in but the end result is still a very respectable first season in charge and a special one for City fans as it included doing a rare double over city rivals United.

So will it be fair if he is shown the door? His agent said Eriksson would not resign, but perhaps he ought to cut his losses and get out of a club where owner Thaksin Shinawatra seems to air his frustrations to the media before discussing them with his coach.

Bookmakers have installed Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as the favourite to be the next City manager, but would anyone want to take a job working for Thaksin after seeing how Eriksson has been handled?

And where could Eriksson go next?

Sonia Oxley, London

PHOTO: Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson watches the English Premier League match against Bolton Wanderers, Dec 15, 2007. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Alex Ferguson left PFA player of the season Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench for the start of Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat at title rivals Chelsea at the weekend. The Scot was thinking about the Champions League game with Barcelona, but will he live to regret that decision?

Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley are joined by vlogonthepitch debutant Mike Davidson to discuss the importance of Chelsea’s victory and look at the run in. Will West Ham and Wigan trouble United? The beauty of the Premier League is that any side on their day can provide an upset.

Our blog after the game on Saturday received loads of comments so keep them coming. If you fancy having a go at a video response, load it up on youtube or wherever, tag it “vlog on the pitch” and if we like it we’ll put it up here.

A Ballack double, a late disputed penalty, other penalties not given, a calamitous Carvalho error, Rooney and Vidic injured, Ronaldo left on the bench, Drogba arguing with team mates, two late Chelsea clearances off the line, United players in a spat with the ground staff well after full time…

What else would you want from the big match between the top two? Well there was Chelsea’s nice touch of holding up a shirt remembering Frank Lampard’s late mother after the first goal.

The pair are now level on points with United holding a far superior goal difference with two games left. What’s going to happen? Did Alex Ferguson think too much about the Barcelona game this week?

As Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich prepare to wrap up their domestic titles, at least the Premier League will go down to the wire. 

John Arne Riise’s astonishing own goal seems to have given Chelsea the edge in the first Champions League semi-final.

Liverpool’s Norwegian defender bent down to spectacularly head in deep into injury time and leave the scores at 1-1 ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Has their ever been a more important own goal? Liverpool were the better side on the night and looked to be easing to a 1-0 first-leg advantage after Dirk Kuyt’s first-half strike. To have that lead ripped away so late and in such a strange fashion cannot have helped their confidence while it has given Chelsea a boost they barely deserved.

Colombia defender Andres Escobar scored an own goal in the 1994 World Cup which knocked them out. He was later shot dead in his home town. Des Walker and Steven Gerrard beat their own keepers in Cup finals but with the importance of the Champions League these days, Riise’s feat will be long remembered.

It may be important for some, but for many neutrals it is certainly one of the funniest football moments.

PHOTO: Liverpool’s John Arne Riise scores an own goal against Chelsea during their Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield, April 22. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Juventus are to become the first Italian club to have their stadium sponsored.

The concept is so alien to Italians that Juve had to hold a presentation in Milan this week to explain what it was all about, and to look for sponsors. I went along hoping to speak to the directors about potential transfers but most of my Italian colleagues asked question after question about this strange new marketing trend.

Having attended the first game at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton 11 years ago, I’ve become rather used to the idea and don’t think it differs much to sponsored shirts.

Certainly in the case of Bolton Wanderers, the revenue from the sponsorship deal has gone a long way to helping them stay in the Premier League. Several of Germany’s excellent stadiums built ahead of the 2006 World Cup are sponsored, like Munich’s Allianz Arena, and fans there are generally happy.

But should we be worried about where all this is heading? Does every time we mention the name sound like an advert?

The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen sounds better than Arena AufSchalke, but do we really want existing stadiums changing their names? Hamburg’s stadium changed sponsors after just six years.

Many basketball and cycling teams in Europe even have sponsors in their name. I don’t think fans will want major soccer clubs to go that far, but it has already been tried with TNS in Wales and others will definitely follow.

Mark Meadows, Reuters Sports Correspondent in Milan

It was with more than the usual haste that I strode off from the Nou Camp after Frank Rijkaard’s customary non-committal news conference on the eve of Barcelona’s Champions League match against Schalke on Tuesday. Liverpool against Arsenal was being shown on terrestrial TV here in Spain and it was one of those games that you didn’t want to miss.

So I settled down to my usual Reuters expenses supper of a bottle of beer and a Kit Kat from the hotel minibar and wasn’t disappointed. For sheer breathless excitement, intensity and entertainment the match couldn’t be beaten. The game had the Spanish commentators gasping with delight at the football being played by both sides, the commitment from the players and the non-stop support from the fans.

The next day the Spanish media was awash with tributes to the English game, with sports daily AS even managing to bring in an unexpected reference to Nelson and Trafalgar in their editorial on the match.

The Admiral’s famous “England expects every man to do his duty,” was the motto of English football, said the paper’s director Alfredo Relaño.

“There may have been almost no English players on the pitch, but this was pure English football,” he said. “It was open, attacking football, full of commitment, enthusiasm, risk and nobility.

“The fact that there were few English players involved showed that this sort of football has nothing to do with genetics but with the atmosphere in the English game, one of respect, fair play, solidarity and a job well done. Players who in other leagues are cheats, moaners and defensive turn into exemplary competitors in England. This is how football should be played.”

Now Alfredo may have got a little carried away with his purple prose but there is little doubt that with three sides in the Champions League semi-finals for the second year in a row England is without doubt the dominant force in European club football (See Mike Collett’s analysis and lots of other stuff on our main soccer site).

The contrast with Spanish football at the moment couldn’t be sharper. Admittedly they still have two sides in European competitions, but the quality in La Liga has undergone a worrying downturn in the last two seasons.

The patient, short-passing game favoured by so many Spanish sides is past its sell-by date. The stop-start nature of matches in the Primera Liga does little to prepare teams for the intensity of European encounters, while the players are struggling to match with the sheer physicality of English-based players.

Where the best players were once clamouring to join Spanish sides, an increasing number are now looking to England first and it isn’t just because of the money on offer. Being part of a top English club now appears to offer the best chance of success in the continent’s elite competition.

I get the impression it is the same story in other European leagues. Is there anything they can do to stop the English domination?

Simon Baskett

PHOTO: Carlos Tevez scores with a diving header to give Manchester United a 1-0 win on the night and a 3-0 aggregate victory over AS Roma in their Champions League quarter-final. Roma were Italy’s last representatives in this year’s competition, April 9. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Liverpool’s rivalry with Arsenal now involves 202 matches dating back to 1893 and Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final will, for the neutral, forever rank among the greatest of them all.

Arsenal fans will never forget Michael Thomas’s last kick of the season goal at Anfield in 1989 which gave them, and not Liverpool, the title.

They’ve never forgotten Charlie George’s blistering shot and celebratory lie-down at Wembley which secured the FA Cup and League double in 1971 either.

Likewise Liverpool fans will always remember Michael Owen’s two late goals that transformed the 2001 FA Cup final and gave Liverpool a 2-1 win over the Gunners at Cardiff when all seemed lost.

But although there was no prize at stake — apart from a place in the Champions League semi-finals of course — I have rarely witnessed such UNRELENTING tension as there was at Anfield for 90 minutes which helped turn Tuesday’s match into an instant classic.

With the teams tied at 1-1 from the first leg — and with Saturday’s 1-1 Premier League draw at the Emirates merely adding to the occasion — there had to be a winner on Tuesday and the away goals rule played a huge part in the agony and ecstacy.

Arsenal set the tone from the kick off playing some brilliantly inspired football which led to three scoring chances inside the first nine minutes — all of which were annulled by the offside flag. That didn’t phase them. They carried on looking for the goal they had to score and once they got it after 13 minutes, the stakes were raised.

Liverpool had to score and did but even when they were 2-1 ahead on the night and 3-2 up on aggregate, they could not relax because another Arsenal goal would put the Londoners ahead on aways goals.

When it came Anfield was silenced. Arsenal were almost through. The Kop was stunned. It took a lot of nerve for Steven Gerrard to take and score the penalty that put Liverpool back in front a minute later … but even then Liverpool were not safe.

Another Arsenal goal meant they would be on top again. At that stage, with more than five minutes still to play, Liverpool fans were literally screaming in agony at Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt to blow for time.

It wasn’t until substitute Ryan Babel scored in the 90th minute to end all of Arsenal’s hopes that the issue was beyond doubt. Ninety minutes of unrelenting drama and tension were over. The football wasn’t bad either.

Mike Collett, Reuters soccer correspondent

PHOTO: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger gestures as Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez watches their Champions League quarter-final second leg match. April 8 REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito

For a change this week, vlogmeister Owen Wyatt and Deputy Sports Editor Jon Bramley decided to discuss the bottom end of the Premier League. 

Jon thinks Fulham should have stuck with coach Lawrie Sanchez for longer but Owen disagrees. What do you think? Little has improved under Roy Hodgson and the west London club look poised to follow Derby County through the Premier League trapdoor.

Bolton Wanderers, who qualified for the UEFA Cup under former boss Sam Allardyce last season, are next in line to go down. Their troubles can surely be linked to the decison to sell Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea without buying a suitable replacement. 

Leave us your thoughts in the comments below, or better still record your own video musings, post them up to youtube or wherever tagged “vlog on the pitch” and if we like them we’ll put them up here.