Manchester United and Barcelona have pretty much booked their places in the UEFA Champions League final after their wins over Schalke and Real Madrid respectively this week.Both sides came out with the intention of going back home for the second leg in a favourable position next week.United played well but it was more of a case of Schalke being scared of them in Germany. Watching the match, I found that baffling.When you are at home and know you are going to England for the return leg, you must take the initiative and attack the opposition in order to get the result needed to put yourself in a good position.Schalke’s goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, had an outstanding game and his team could have been buried if he hadn’t been up to his very best.Ryan Giggs could have had a few goals along with others in the team but in the end United got the win and will fancy their chances of advancing at Old Trafford where they will defend a 2-0 lead.Barcelona deserved their 2-0 victory over Real Madrid, although the game was clouded by the sending off of Pepe and then there were Jose Mourinho’s comments about the diving and play acting going on.Mourinho, sent to the stands, was a bit over the top in my mind.For the first time in his career, he has come up against a club that is better than the club he coaches right now.Barcelona are just that. When you look at the way they play and hold the ball, it is unbelievable to watch.Mourinho was very defensive and didn’t want to open his team up. We all saw what happened when they played at Barcelone the last time, they got thrashed 5-0 so it was a lose-lose situation for him.To his credit, his side played well for 70 minutes or so and were heading towards the draw they wanted but the Pepe tackle deserved a red card. He came over the ball and it was the intent of the player, not the fact that he didn’t get the player.He couldn’t accept the decision.What he needs to do is take his licks like a man . . accept that Barcelona were the better side and now go build something that can compete with them.The sending off reminded me of Peter Crouch’s red card against Madrid. It was needless at a point when the game was still in the balance.Pepe was doing a great job of kicking Lionel Messi when he needed to, disrupting things for Barca. But once he got sent off it was like running into a tsunami.It was all over after that red card.West Ham lost to Chelsea last week and I didn’t expect them to win. Now we play Manchester City and I don’t expect much from that game either.But we play Blackburn, Wigan and Sunderland, all games that we can win.I’d l like to see Robbie Keane get more game time. I like Carlton Cole’s work ethic but Keane is a natural finisher and if you look at his record it justifies itself.We have a few players set to return so it will be an important set of games for us.We have to believe we can avoid relegation. The players have to realise exactly what has to be done. They’ve got to go out with a game plan than they simply have to execute.Chelsea and Tottenham play this weekend as well as Arsenal and Manchester United and these should be fascinating games.Chelsea have Didier Drogba in fine form and it will take some handling to keep him quiet. I would play him and Fernando Torres together because good players need time to play together to form a partnership.Nicolas Anelka is more of a luxury when he plays and the other pair need to play in order to get the required result.Add to this that Frank Lampard is coming back into his own, they should pull this one out.I also have to go with United in the other game because I have seen Arsenal throw so many matches away this year.United are on a crash course to get their 19th title and no one will deny them that at the moment.What better person to get it than Sir Alex Ferguson. When you look at what he has done for English football, he deserves another title.