Despite having little to play for, Manchester United collected a point at the Emirates.

Without Olivier Giroud, Arsene Wenger used Lukas Podolski as his main forward. Jack Wilshere was only on the bench.

Sir Alex Ferguson named a strong starting line-up, with Rio Ferdinand returning to the defence alongside Jonny Evans.

This was all about Arsenal’s strategy – Manchester United weren’t as uninterested as some predicted, but one suspects Ferguson didn’t spend too long working on specific tactics for a relatively meaningless game. Read more »

Robert Lewandowski scored all four goals as Dortmund thrashed Real Madrid.

Jurgen Klopp used right-winger Jakub Blaszczykowski rather than left-winger Kevin Grosskreutz, so Marco Reus started from the left.

Jose Mourinho decided to play Luka Modric, with Angel Di Maria on the bench. The birth of Di Maria’s baby girl was supposedly a factor, but considering how Real lost last year’s semi-final to Bayern – which was part of the reason for recruiting Modric – the selection made sense tactically too. Mesut Ozil moved right.

Dortmund were dominant for the majority of the game, constantly winning the ball quickly and putting pressure upon the Real back four. Read more »

Dortmund have already defeated Real Madrid in this season’s Champions League – the problem is that Jose Mourinho so often learns lessons from these setbacks, and doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

Most obviously, there was Inter’s 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in 2010, when Mourinho’s side were thoroughly outplayed but had the last laugh in that season’s semi-final. The previous performance should give Dortmund great confidence, but the history might play into Real’s hands ahead of this clash. Read more »

Bayern Munich didn’t try to outpass Barcelona, and instead ruthlessly exposed their traditional weaknesses.

Jupp Heynckes selected Mario Gomez rather than Claudio Pizarro as Mario Mandzukic’s replacement, and decided Jerome Boateng was a better option than Daniel van Buyten because of his extra speed.

Tito Vilanova’s side was as expected: Lionel Messi was fit, and Alexis Sanchez started as wide forward on the left, with Pedro Rodriguez on the right.

Barcelona enjoyed a decent opening ten minutes, but Bayern were strategically perfect and fully deserved to win by such a convincing scoreline. Read more »

The draw for the Champions League semi-finals produced two fascinating ties.

Germany and Spain are the leading two nations in European football at the moment – Italian football is going through a transition period, while the Premier League has declined suddenly, but not irreversibly, from the latter part of the last decade.

The ties are perfectly set up – one based around transitions, the other based around possession. 2011/12 champions against each other, and 2012/13 champions against each other. Read more »

Liverpool trailed for long periods, but Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez combined very effectively in the second half.

Brendan Rodgers left out Sturridge, favouring Stewart Downing in the only change from last week’s 0-0 draw at Reading.

Rafael Benitez’s side was fairly predictable, although he selected Fernando Torres upfront against his former club, despite the fact Demba Ba is cup-tied for Thursday’s Europa League game in Basel, meaning Torres will have to start in Switzerland too.

Chelsea dominated – and were ahead – for long periods, but eventually Liverpool clawed them back. Read more »

A reverse of the previous meeting between the sides – the only goal came from the penalty spot in another disappointing contest.

Antonio Conte continued with the 3-5-1-1 that worked excellently away at Lazio, with Giorgio Chiellini returningin place of Federico Peluso.

Max Allegri was still without Mario Balotelli, and Mathieu Flamini was also banned. Massimo Ambrosini played the deep midfield role, with Riccardo Montolivo to the right and Kevin-Prince Boateng to the left.

This was a slow-paced, attritional contest with little technical quality – most shots were from long-range. Read more »

Manchester City dominated the first half, but some clever substitutions from Andre Villas-Boas meant Tottenham had a storming final 20 minutes.

Villas-Boas was able to select Gareth Bale from the start, although Aaron Lennon is still unavailable. Emmanuel Adebayor was favoured over Jermain Defoe.

Roberto Mancini was without David Silva and Sergio Aguero wasn’t 100% fit, so Edin Dzeko started upfront.

This was a game of two halves – Spurs eventually recorded a fine victory, but City had been very impressive before half-time. Read more »

Valencia thrashed Malaga thanks to four goals in an amazing eight-minute first half period.

Ernesto Valverde brought in Adil Rami and David Albelda for the two Costas, Ricardo and Tino.

Manuel Pellegrini was still without Jeremy Toulalan, so named an unchanged side from the 1-0 win over Osasuna.

The eight-minute spell was a freak period of play that decided the game – but it was an exaggerated reflection of Valencia’s dominance, rather than a false one. Read more »