Majestic, Magnificent, Mysterious Mourinho Gives Sun Headline writers an Easy Day at the Office. Bayern versus Lyon is Dull

Yes, it's the Champions League Semi-Finals in review! The following piece will be short and as sweet as the current media views on Jose. Will it last?

Firstly, thank you Europe for keeping the English out of the semi-finals for the first time since 2003. I have no problem with having English teams progress to this stage, but I for one was certainly sick of the cagey, all-English affairs that seemed to be inevitable. Not because they were bad games, but purely because I'm a traditionalist in that I actually remember that there are other good teams outside of England or the Nou Camp. I appreciate the flavour that each continental league gives the tournament. It is called the European Cup after all (Editorial. The Beyond the Cliche legal team has since advised me that it is actually called the UEFA Champions League, brought to you be executive partners McDonalds, Carlsburg, and other exciting brands. Otherwise Sepp Blatter will come over and force me to watch the Swiss League until it kills me).

Firstly, to Milano, and the San Siro witnessed a stunning event completely unknown to the world: a home win. The media wank-fest over Barcelona would have led you to believe that Inter would simply be passed off the park by the only team in Europe capable of winning the Cup. Sarcasm aside, considering that this game proved to be only Pep Guardiola's third loss in this competition, Barcelona did come into the game looking formidable.

What we witnessed, most importantly, was an exciting game. Barcelona in general won the possession battle but failed to capitalise on it; Inter proved dangerous every time they attacked, and were the more efficient of the two teams at moving the ball into the final third. On the whole, the home side were upbeat and up for the challenge. How the Sky Sports commentators managed to justify slipping in a reference to the 'traditional Italian negative defensive mentality' I have no idea.

Inter, unlike Arsenal in the round beforehand, combined a strong defensive showing throughout the full 90 minutes with an ability to trouble the Barca defense on a regular basis. And when troubled on a regular basis, the Barca defense proved shakier than at any time this season, and subsequently shipped some goals.

Barcelona struggled to move the ball past Inter's well marshalled defensive banks of 4, and Javier Zanetti was able to contain Messi on his ownsome for the most part, allowing Motta and Cambiasso to close Iniesta and Xavi down quickly. Barca's most meaningful attacks therefore had to come from the less heralded attackers on the team, and Maxwell and in particular Dani Alves could not rise to the occasion.

Sergio Busquets again proved to be ineffective and spent most of the day flopping on the ground. Surely Yaya Toure would have better contained the impressive Wesley Sneijder, who was able to run Inter's show with relative impunity.

Obviously, Mourinho drilled the appropriate tactics into his team well, and deserves the credit that he is currently receiving. The tactics Inter used to foil Barca are well known to other teams, but at the end of the day it took one of Europe's top four teams to be able to pull them off for the full game. So, we've learned that one Semi finalist and domestic champion is able to beat another. Surprising eh?

Bayern verus Lyon was dull. It ended in the way that many predicted; a narrow home victory. The means to the end, with Bayern recovering from Frank Ribery's red card (perhaps he did it deliberately to visit a red light.....too soon?) to deservedly go ahead. Lyon proved negative and short-sighted when possessing a man advantage, and justice prevailed. They failed to score, and when Toulalan received his own marching orders, taking l'OL down to 10 also, they hadn't a hope of getting anything out of the game. At least this leaves the second leg nicely poised.

After all that, I'm definately looking forward to the second legs. If you're not, then you're probably a Man U or Liverpool fan (Enjoy Madrid, a couple of weeks before you hoped you'd be there!).

GM