How to Win the Champions League

I was just thinking about this the other day, as a distraction from the weather.

The one key ingredient to having any sniff of a chance in the Champions League, and especially in the knock-out rounds, is defending. Obvious, you would say. But not just any sort of defending - the sort of defending that makes your home your fortress, that makes your defence the stuff of legends. Keep a clean sheet at home, and you're more than half-way through a job well done.

So I cast my mind back to our run to the final in 2006. My, was that a thing of beauty. How many goals did we conceded enroute to the final? Two. Yes. Two. In twelve games. And what did that entail? A record 10 successive clean sheets too.

Thinking about it now makes my head ache. We're through the group stages, and we've aready let in two to the bottomest of bottom teams - Partizan Belgrade - who couldn't score squat against any other team. The nett result of conceding stupid goals against Shakhtar and Braga? A date with Barca.

Just thinking about it - and the clean sheets we kept against Madrid (twice), Juve (twice) and Villareal (twice) - and you start getting the shivers when you consider coming up against Barca again. How the world has changed. We entertained Madrid at home, travelled to Turin, and went to Villareal knowing that a clean sheet would put us through, and that was exactly what we did on all three occasions.

Of course, it's not just a case of our defenders - but the entire balance of the team.

Ah, but I'm flogging dead horses here, so I'll just stop. You get the drift.

OK elsewhere: First, Denilson on the way out? Reports here and there about him going to Wolfsburg or even Barca. Ha ha. That'd be a good one. Can't afford the 2010 Model X2, v. 2.2, settle for the 2008 No-Frills model. Shit. You could still take Cesc, you know? What? Not enough dinero from your new shirt deals??

Second, looks like ole Jack Wilshere's got himself the real makings of an All-England hero now. You know what I blame? All these British teenagers drinking too much, behaving like louts, getting pregnant at 13? I blame the damn weather. Stupid weather. 2 inches of snow, and the entire country goes chaotic for the rest of the year...

That's why Barca's so good. No snow there.