Tony Becca

The Champions League and the UEFA Cup, the showpieces of European football, are now into the semi-final stages.

It's Manchester United versus Barcelona and Liverpool against Chelsea in one, Bayern Munich versus Zenit and Rangers against Fiorentina in the other, and based on the players on show, based on the action so far and despite the presence of the defensive Chelsea, all four matches leading up to the league final on May 21 and the Cup final on May 14 promise to be masterpieces.

In Manchester United's line-up, for example, are Christiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Carlos Tevez of Argentina; in Liverpool's aggregation are Fernando Torres of Spain and Steven Gerrard of England; in Arsenal's line-up are Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo and Aleksandr Hleb of Belarus; in Chelsea's aggregation are Didier Drogba of the Cte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Cesc Fabregas of Spain. And less we forget, in Barcelona's line-up are Thierry Henry of France, Lionel Messi of Argentina, and if he and the club can patch up their differences, so, too, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira - more popularly known as Ronaldinho, the wonder boy of Brazil.

Beautiful game

As far as those who play it and those who love it are concerned, football is a beautiful game and the two matches last week in the second leg of the quarter-finals, Liverpool versus Arsenal at Anfield in the Champions league and Getafe against Bayern Munich at Coliseum Alfonso Perez in the UEFA Cup, were truly beautiful, and especially so, the one at Anfield.

With the teams locked at 1-1 after the first match at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal, led by conductor Adebayor with the likes of Fabregas, Mattheu Flamini and Abiou Diaby following every wave of his baton, running into position and passing the ball sweetly, dominated the first half and after Diaby had shot them into the lead with a powerhouse right-footer, they should have scored another one or two.

Amazing run

After scoring against the run of play, however, Liverpool, with Gerrard and Torres pulling the strings, did unto Arsenal what Arsenal had done onto them in the first half, and despite Theodore Walcott's amazing run and Adebayor's clinical finish to make it 2-2, the home team, justifiably so, ran out 4-2 winners - 5-3 on aggregate - and waltzed into the semi-finals.

As far as beauty is concerned, there was no comparison with the action in Spain and the action in England. As far as drama and excitement were concerned, however, it was superior - and very superior at that.

One-one after the first match, Munich, despite their poor showing at home, were expected to bounce back, win the match and dance into the semi-finals. And with Getafe - first time in a European competition - losing a man in the seventh minute of play, the odds were definitely in favour of the big, bad Munich, a regular in European tournaments and in the more prestigious Champions League at that.

Although Munich did make it to the semi-finals, they scraped on the away-goal rule after a fantastic, fairytale comeback to draw the match, not once, but twice.

In the first match, Cosmin Contra scored in the final minute to hand Getafe a draw. In the second match, he scored in the final minute of the first half to hand Getafe the lead and in the final minute, seconds from the end of the match, Luca Toni of Italy pounced onto a loose ball to tie the match and send it into extra-time.

In the first two minutes of extra-time, Javier Casquero and Braulio scored for Getafe to make it 3-1 on the night and with four minutes to go, with Bayern Munich needing two to tie and to go through, with Getafe looking home and dried, with members of their management team, including coach Michael Laudrup, smiling on the sidelines and congratulating each other, Luca Toni, thanks to goalkeeper Pato, who dropped the ball inches from the goalline, tapped in one goal. Then, with seconds to go, with the whistle in the referee's mouth, Luca Toni rose above the defenders, headed the ball onto the ground, over the goalkeeper's head and into the waiting net.

Clashes

Although both matches produced six goals each, the Bayern Munich/ Getafe clash was not as beautiful a game as the match between arch rivals Liverpool and Arsenal.

It was, however, dramatic and exciting - so much so that instead of crying, Contra, the Romanian who scored the equaliser in the first match, and what appeared the winner until the last minute of regular time in the second match, was moved to say, at the end of it all, that "nights like that make football extra special".