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Quality offsets fatigue;Football
Gianluca Vialli
30 April 2007


Gianluca Vialli : United and Chelsea have defied the odds despite hectic run-ins.

IF YOU HAD ASKED ME before the semi-finals, I would have told you that Chelsea and Manchester United deserved to meet in Athens, mostly for the amazing consistency they have displayed all season. If you are chasing a treble (or, in Chelsea's case, a quadruple), you have proved that your semi-final status is not a fluke, rather you are one of the best around.

Yet, at the same time, I had a hunch that it would be AC Milan and Liverpool who would advance. Given everything that United and Chelsea have been through - particularly fixture pile-ups and injuries - I thought they could falter at the penultimate hurdle.

And yet, United and Chelsea proved me wrong in the first leg. Chelsea matched Liverpool mentally and physically and, if anything, United looked fresher than Milan. This does not mean, however, that United and Chelsea are not fatigued.

Rather, they are handling the exhaustion well.

I have been fortunate to play for teams who went all the way domestically and in Europe and I know how tough it can be when the fixtures come thick and fast. In my opinion, if you put in the hard work ahead of time and came into the season with a solid fitness base, you can weather the rapid succession of big games.

Part of it is psychosomatic. As long as you keep winning and are confident, you don't feel the fatigue as much. But a big part of it is what happens off the pitch and what came before, during pre-season. Most clubs realise that, come the spring, it is impossible to work on fitness training. So you try to maintain - and even top up - the players' fitness levels on the pitch, during matches. It is really the only time when they can push themselves. It can work, as long as they complement this by doing the right things in terms of diet and, particularly, rest.

Indeed, I would suggest that there is only one significant downside to playing so many matches in such a short period of time: when you rush back players from injury and they are less than 100 per cent fit. I have been in that situation and it can be very difficult. On the one hand you're trying to find your match rhythm; on the other you don't have your fitness back, so every game is twice as exhausting.

At this stage of the season, managers also have to worry about the mental side. In this sense, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez have an easier job because they have far less at stake in the league. However, Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson have to deal with the title race every day. True, there is a five-point gap after Saturday's matches, but, given the head-to-head clash at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday week, I am convinced that there will be a few twists and turns. And I think the players on both teams know this all too well.

Yet, right now, both sides need to force themselves not to think about the league and focus exclusively on Europe, at least until the semi-finals are decided. You cannot let the disappointment or elation (depending on where you stand) of the weekend affect your preparation. Both managers have been in these situations before, so they will have the experience of knowing what to tell their players.

Whether or not they respond in the right way is a different matter. We will find out in the next few days.

Looking at the match-ups, clearly the one at Old Trafford was more entertaining, reflecting the philosophy of the managers. Both teams simply went for it, believing that the best defence is attack, which, not coincidentally, means that both teams were playing to their strengths. I expect the return leg will be no different and, frankly, it is impossible to make any kind of prediction on the outcome.

Solidity is etched in the DNA of Liverpool and Chelsea, so perhaps it is not surprising that things played out the way they did at Stamford Bridge. We were never going to see the swashbuckling entertainment of the night before. Still, I think that perhaps Liverpool - had they shown a bit more creativity and enterprise on the night - could have done a bit more, given Chelsea's numerous absences.

Speaking of absences, I am sure that many Chelsea fans held their breath when Ricardo Carvalho picked up an injury against Bolton Wanderers. I think he has been an unsung hero this season and his partnership with John Terry is one of the best around. If he is not ready tomorrow, Mourinho will have a difficult decision to make. Regardless of whether he moves Michael Essien into the back four or whether he goes with Khalid Boulahrouz, he will be forced to play a 6ft central defender (and a makeshift one in Essien's case) against Peter Crouch, who is 7in taller. It could be one of the tactical keys to the game. Stay tuned.