This week sees a champions league tie between manchester united and Schalke 04. This should be an entertaining tie and sir alex ferguson expects it to be a close game. The first leg is an away game for united and as always it will be important that they grab that vital away goal. As it has been in recent weeks i think that the Hernandez and Rooney pair up front for united will be expected and with the Berbatov injury it is even more likely that the two will start together, the other option is Rooney up top on his own with Giggs or nani just behind him. Hernandez has had a brilliant season for united and could well be the difference not only in the semis but also in the final in Wembly.In defence united will hope to have rio and vida back together and i think it will be john O’shea and evra in the full back positions. Moving into midfield united have a few options, They could go with Giggs wide left and nani wide right and carrick and Sholes in th centre whilst the injured fletcher watches on or they could use the strength of anderson in midfield. Another alternative would be to put Giggs into the centre and Valencia shifted out wide. Schalke will have to try and press united and at the same time try and score a goal, they do not want to chase united at Od Trafford. The Schalke team that played on the weekend was Neuer - Hao, Matip, Metzelder, Escudero - Pliatsikas (Jurado, 46), Avelar - Farfan (Baumjohann, 46), Draxler - Edu (Karimi, 62), Raul it will be a challenging task for Schalke but champions league veteran Raul will hope to add to his impressive record.
The day after is the big one el Classico. Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona in the league madrid in the cup in europe its completely different. Ronaldo will hope to score early and lead his team from the front quality midfielder in Alonso, Ozil and Kaka will provide the quality but can madrid get past pique, Puyol and Valdes. Barcelona will provide their own threats up front with Messi, villa and if Bojan but it will be a very tough battle in midfield. Busquetes, Alves, Xavi will all have to b at their best if Barcelona are going to win.
Onto Cricket now and the county games have started. Several games currently being played, Lancashire pass 115 without a wicket being lost against sussex, Warwickshire play durham in what will be a very close game and Warwickshire already 2 down for 1o3, kent play Gloucestershire who also pass 90 without loss and Worcs play notts who have them 92/3.
Cook, Bopara, Panesar, Patel, Woakes, Onions are the players to watch when it come to the test series this summer. I think that Lancashire, Warwickshire and Durham will be fighting for the championship this year and it will certainly be close. England will need to focus on finding ODI players after such a inconsistent world cup. The test match squad is very strong and should beat Sri Lanka and give India a very close series. We haven’t seen much of Graeme Onions this year but he had a good ashes series in 2009. Will he get back in the squad? Who knows. At this stage of the season my team to face Sri Lanka is: Strauss (c)
Cook (vc) Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Bresnan,Broad, Swann, Anderson. Bresnan beats tremlett, Shazad, onions,
and Finn after a good ashes test and also a good world cup, he also adds batting depth.
The IPL in short- Tendulkar starts of well and has the orange cap and Malinga with an impressive 15 wickets has the purple cap. Lots to look forward too. England's T20 king Eoin Morgan is yet too have an impact, he has had no time in the middle so far. Kallis has also impressed so far. For the team they have Pune are yet to impress and it will be interesting to see who qualifies.
Tennis, Is Murray peaking before Wimbledon? is his poor form behind him, not long left but i think Nadal is still the more likely to win.
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