Four-cornered Dilemma

Of course I was heart-broken. And of course I was bummed out. I couldn't sleep after the highly-exciting, action-filled second-leg quarterfinal match between Liverpool and Chelsea last night, which saw to the Liverpool's defeat of 5-7 in aggregate goals.

I started watching with just a sliver of hope for a Liverpool's win after being down 1-3 in the first-leg match at Anfield. I read in BBC Sports that 97 percent of teams in the Champions League that won their first-leg matches by three or more goals went on to the next round. A very razor-thin chance indeed for the mighty Reds to buck the overwhelming odds.

But when the Reds raced to a 2-0 lead in the first-half courtesy of a stupendously-executed freekick by Fabio Aurelio and a confidently-taken penalty by Xabi Alonso there was suddenly a bright glimmer of hope on the horizon. One more goal to tie the series and two more goals to win it, and there was still the second-half of the match to be played. Well, that was the curse of it. Both teams came out of the half-time with guns blazing and traded goals until the dying minutes of the match, much to the disappointment of Reds fans everywhere. It's next to impossible to score that many goals at Stamford Bridge to begin with but Chelsea went toe-to-toe with Liverpool in this unexpected goal-fest. There are, of course, many mind-boggling puzzles and shoulda coulda woulda in the post-mortem analysis of the match but I'll leave the dissection to other pundits. I just want to forget about the match for now and move to, in my opinion, a more worthwhile pursuit: the Premier League championship.

Seeing that Man Utd is Liverpool's closest rival in contending for this season's domestic supremacy, it is only relevant that whatever Man Utd is engaged in right now will be in the interest of Liverpool. This brings me to tonight's match between Man Utd and Porto at the Dragao stadium. In thinking about this match I'm presented with a four-cornered dilemma: support Man Utd because of English football comradeship; support Porto because, like the wise Sun-tzu used to say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend; support Porto because I have a weak-spot for underdogs; or support Man Utd because I want them to get tired out for domestic matches as they go deeper in the European stage.

I still haven't made up my mind yet in choosing which team to support tonight. More likely it'll be Man Utd as I cannot see myself rooting for a team I don't know much and couldn't care less about. As much as I don't like Man Utd for reasons that only Reds fans understand, I still think the Red Devil is a much better team than Porto and deserves to move on to the semifinals of the Champions League. Whether Man Utd can pull it off at Porto tonight is a whole different matter. And as to the reason why I might be supporting Man Utd tonight, that I have yet to decide and it might have to wait until match time before I can be finally sure of the true reason behind my support.