Newcastle gave their hopes of a top four finish a massive impetus as they trounced Stoke at home by a three goal margin. The in-form Magpies dominated most of the game and broke the deadlock after just 14 minutes, courtesy of Yohan Cabaye, who headed from close range after Papiss Cisse’s header had hit the bar and fallen kindly to him. Just four minutes later Cisse doubled the tally and Cabaye put the result beyond doubt 12 minutes after the restart with his second of the game from just outside the box. Stoke had no answer to Newcastle’s slick passing and the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa and Cisse ran circles around their defence.
The result sees the Magpies temporarily climb to 4th in the table, with Tottenham still to play QPR in the late kick off. However, Alan Pardew’s men have opened up a 4 point gap over Chelsea, who were earlier held to a draw by Arsenal, and will move down to 5th spot ahead of the Blues if Tottenham secure a win against the Hoops. Stoke on the other hand remain in 14th place, with 42 points.
The Emirates played host to a surprisingly drab London derby between giants Arsenal and Chelsea as the early kick-off finished goal-less. Chelsea came into the game needing a positive result in their fight for Champions League qualification while Arsenal would have taken a draw as a positive result. And, they seemed to play that way as the Gunners lacked their usual passing rhythm and played at a slow tempo. But they did come the closest to scoring on the evening as they twice struck the woodwork in the 1st half. Chelsea looked dangerous on the counter-attack but they never really tested Wojciech Szczesny a great deal apart from a few half-chances. The game did pick up pace in the last final 15 minutes but Chelsea were resolute at the back to keep Arsenal at bay as the game ended goalless.
For the 2nd night in a row, a Spanish giant suffered a surprise defeat in the Champions League as Chelsea secured a massive 1-0 victory against Barcelona in the 1st leg of the semi-final at a rain-soaked Stamford Bridge. Didier Drogba scored the solitary goal of the game in first half added time as Chelsea took full advantage from a quick counter-attack. It was a smash-and-grab for the team in blue as the Catalans dominated the game and created a host of chances. But they were poor with their finishing, with Cesc Fabregas in particular spurning numerous opportunities. Barca even hit the woodwork twice during the course of the 90 minutes as Chelsea desperately held-on to deny Barca an away goal whilst taking a vital lead to the Nou Camp for the 2nd leg next week as Robert Di Matteo's great cup-run continues.
The first of the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League saw two old foes, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid go head to head at the Allianz Arena and the Germans emerged on top with the scoreline reading 2-1 in what was a closely fought match.