SoccerBlogs

Liverpool and West Ham culminated in a stalemate, but the scoreline may not have been indicative of the final result. Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho and Steven Gerrard all provided the creative punch to pin back West Ham in their own end forcing last-ditch efforts from James Tomkins, Jack Collison and Gary O'Neil.

Manchester City's inability to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League continues to haunt them, as it looks like City will be once again seeded as a number 3 seed for next season's Champions League draw.

After failing to pick up a win and finishing bottom of Group D below Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Ajax, Man City have dropped to 22nd in UEFA's coefficient rankings and will be seeded in the third pot in the draw for the group stages on August 29.

Mario Goetze of Borussia Dortmund (Google Creative Commons)

Friday's Champions League semifinal draw will have been particularly pleasurable for those symmetrically inclined.

The 2011-12 Bundesliga winners (Borussia Dortmund) are taking on the same season's La Liga champions (Real Madrid) in one match, with each division's runners-up (Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively) of that campaign contesting the other.

I have to laugh at the hubris of FC Barcelona, who have filed a formal complaint with UEFA about the refereeing of Wolfgang Stark in Tuesday's 2-2 Champions League draw at Paris St Germain.

Barca were incensed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic's goal to make it 1-1 in the 79th minute of the quarter-final first leg in Paris was allowed to stand when the Swede was clearly in an offside position.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho has a knack of fielding solid Champions League sides, and this years Real Madrid side are no different. As Mourinho's men came into the first leg of their quarterfinal clash against the Turkish club, the Spanish side handled matters fairly calmly at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening.

Both sides will be meeting for the first time in history this week. Malaga are the new team in this competition, taking the 1st place ahead of AC Milan and knocking out FC Porto two teams that have already achieved glory in UCL in the Group Stage. The last time Borussia Dortmund reached the quarterfinals, in 1997, they won the competition.

BVB attacking power vs Malaga's defensive end
Think about the offensive threat presented by Borussia Dortmund: Lewandowski, Reus and Gotze. These three have the ability to shatter any defense, making them the 6th team in goals scored (16), only two behind the best scoring team in the competition, Bayern Munich with 18 goals.

By Alan Duffy

Frankie Lamps' infamous 'goal that never was' against Germany in the 2010 World Cup.

Never used 'pooh-pooh' in anything before. Feel proud of myself. And I got a 'big-wig' in there too!

Anyway, UEFA President Michel Platini has come out against the introduction of goal-line technology in the Champions League on the basis of its pretty hefty cost.

UEFA has proposed a new minimum 10-game ban for racist abuse.

UEFA General SecretaryGianni Infantino outlined the plans at this week's SoccerEx conference. "We have to have sanctions and they must have a deterrent effect," said Infantino. "What we are proposing is if a player or official is convicted of racism they should receive a 10-match suspension at least.