The whole world will be watching when Barca take on Milan at the San Siro in the first leg of the Champions League Semi Final. Check the Sky preview here and the preview from the FCB blog here. Also, check some stats from The Telegraph UK here.

Many of the young players of Barcelona haven’t been to a Champions League semis before. In contrast, as Milan reached the finals last year, the Milan players would be better equipped to handle the situation. Barca has no Larsson, no Messi and no Deco. But Milan will also miss Inzaghi.

I predict a 2-0 Barca win despite the lack of experience and lack of players factors.

Barcelona has seen through the possible Benfica scare winning the second leg 2-0. Not until the injury period goal by Eto’o, though, were Barca completely safe as Benfica could always have scored another one to enforce extra time and penalties. Too bad I sacrificed watching the game as I had work to attend to.

None of remaining Barca games in the Champions League will be missed be me. :) Arsenal too have qualified for the semis holding out in the second leg and thus upsetting Juventus. The semi final line up reads:

• Barcelona vs AC Milan
• Arsenal vs Villareal

Will it be a memorable Champions League for Barca? I am certainly backing Barcelona to go all the way. Go Barca!

Two late goals meant AC Milan stormed into the semis dashing the hopes of Lyon. Inzaghi scored in the 88th minute, Shevchenko in injury time. So they will face the winner of Benfica and Barca in the semis.

A Barca-Milan clash would be a dream considerng the strength of the two sides. You do feel a bit sad for Lyon but such is sport.

Barca missed their chances and in the end the score line read 0-0. It is all down to the Nou Camp now. A dangerous position. Benfica won in Liverpool and would be hoping to repeat the away track record. But certainly playing at the Nou Camp will be a lot different to playing in Liverpool.

The below photograph shows one of the things I enjoy about FCB so much:

Eto’o has missed another chance and is disappointed. Ronaldinho plays the role of the guy who encourages, boosts up the team in the face of this disappointment. Ronaldinho is quite the team man - creating chances, motivating players and always smiling.

Barca have been drawn to face Portuguese club Benfica in the quarters of the Champions League. They will next face AC Milan or French Champions Lyon should they advance to the semis. In the final, they will face any of Juventus, Arsenal, Inter, Ajax or Villarreal.

A revenge for the 1994 Champions League finals loss to Milan in the semis, victory over the superb Juventus in the final. I can see it right now!

I do hope Arsenal does not do any thing extra ordinary in the first game or even comes up with a draw. They have been struggling domestically and are the only English Club left. Any promise would mean all the English newspapers yelling for Arsenal to do a repeat of Liverpool last year. Well every day is not Sunday and it ain’t gonna happen!

I do hope Arsenal crash out as fast as possible also because it could mean they cannot afford Thierry Henry for long and he might come to Barcelona. Certainly mouth watering prospects for me!

Barcelona won the first leg 2-1 after dominating possession and could have scored more than they did. The header from Eto’o sealed it. So that should have been the end of it with all the focus on March 7.

Well this is Barcelona versus Chelsea. The clash which has developed into the biggest game in club football. Of course there was more.

Jose Mourinho, the loudmouth that he is, likes to speak. Mourinho said this on Messi:

How do you say cheating in Catalan? Can Messi be suspended for acting? Barcelona is a cultural city with many great theatres and this boy has learned very well. He’s learned play-acting.

Of course he forgot, as Jonathan Stevenson from the BBC points out:

It is only 17 days since English football widely condemned Blues winger Arjen Robben for theatrically diving to get Liverpool keeper Jose Reina sent off in a key Premiership encounter. There is little doubt that Robben’s acting was greater than Messi’s, yet Mourinho accused Reds boss Rafael Benitez of sour grapes for bringing up the incident in his post-match analysis.

Step back in time at this juncture. Chelsea was down after the first leg similarly. In a few minutes of inspirational football in which they caught Barcelona napping. Chelsea capitalised and took the tie away from Barcelona. Did Barcelona fans cry over the fact that Barcelona dominated possession for much of the two matches last year and still lost?

Step back further now. Mourinho attacked the referee Anders Frisk of talking to Barca coach Frank Rijkaard at half-time in Chelsea’s 2-1 first-leg defeat at the Nou Camp last year. This followed Frisk announcing his decision to retire from the game because he had received death threats, and Mourinho was fined and banned for two games for his comments. So in that light the comments which directly implicate the referee Terge Hauge of wrong doing were unwarranted.

Even if Messi did play act to an extent (if he did - we can never be sure either way) isn’t it a part of football. Players from most teams do it despite the rules hoping not to be caught. I do not see why such a big deal has to be made out of it.

Even if it was a gross error from the referee, aren’t errors part of the game? Isn’t it all about facing adveristy and triumphing or at least trying to triumph in the face of it? I can understand Mourinho making as much of an issue out of this as he can. There is still one match to go. So the more he tries to show the loss was undeserving, the more he can avoid his players from going into a shell or thinking negatively. He did it last year and his players came out triumphant.

What I do not understand is why fans, who act neutral need to do it. Chelsea and English Premier League fans who wanted Chelsea to win have been speaking loudly over the red card since it happened. The attitude will not deny Barcelona any thing. But a better attitude and applauding Barcelona for playing well could have probably meant these fans themselves getting more respect.