The Champions League semi finals kicked off today (April 28th) with Barcelona and Chelsea playing to a rather uneventful 0-0 draw in front of 95,000 fans at the Camp Nou in the Spanish port city. Barcelona had the best chances, especially in the last 10 minutes, but Chelsea held on. It was actually the first time all season that Barcelona failed to score in a home game. Chelsea didn’t really seem interested in trying to score and that shows in the statistics. Barcelona had 71 per cent of possession and had 19 attempts on goal compared to three by the Londoners. For some reason Nicolas Anelka was kept on the Chelsea bench until about the 93rd minute. It’s Man United vs Arsenal up next (April 29th) and let’s hope it’s a much better match than this one was.

Mexican striker Carlos Vela has rejoined Arsenal for the game after being quarantined for a day due to fears over the swine flu outbreak in Mexico. Vela was told to stay away from training after some friends from Mexico came to visit him. Over 150 people have died from the virus so far and some Mexican teams have taken to playing in empty stadiums with no fans to help control the disease. The CONCACAF Under 17 championships and a beach soccer championship have also been scrapped due to the flu.

Newcastle United took a step closer to relegation yesterday (April 27th) with a 0-0 draw at home with equally unimpressive Portsmouth. Newcastle sit in with games to go and it looks like they’re going to end up in the Championship Division next season unless they realize the desperate situation they’re in and start playing like they’re actually trying to win a game.

Thirty-five-year-old Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was voted English Premier League player of the year by his fellow pros. It’s about the only trophy Giggs hadn’t won yet in his career by the way. So far, Giggs has lifted 10 Premier League titles, two Champions League sups, four FA Cups and two League Cups.

Giggs received the award on April 26th and is still waiting to make his 800th appearance for United during Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal first leg against Arsenal. Giggs didn’t play in the win over Spurs on the weekend.

While Giggs is and has been a great player, there’s no way he deserves the award on his play this season though. He has only started 12 games for United and it seems the award is basically being awarded to him to honour his excellent career. But even so, the players voted on it and that’s good enough for me.

The players also voted on the English Premier League team of the year and it looks like this:

Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar (Man Utd), defenders Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd), Patrice Evra (Man Utd), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), winger Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), midfielder Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), striker Fernando Torres (Liverpool), striker Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) and Aston Villa winger Ashley Young.

Young, 23 was also fittingly named young player of the year.