The Champion’s League is back with us again. Last night’s action gave us plenty of incident and it’s clear the Lille Vs. Manchester United game will give the media plenty to talk about for the next two weeks.
The one goal lead Man United take back to Old Trafford with them should be enough after seeing Lille struggle in the final third of the pitch last night. Lille deserved more out of the game, but United were clearly the better team. I’d expect Man United to win the second leg too and be in the draw for the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals on the 9th of March.
Real Madrid’s 3-2 home victory over Bayern Munich won’t be enough to see them through. The 2 away goals and home advantage give Bayern a great chance of going through but neither team are as good as they should be at the moment.
For Arsenal, loosing away to PSV was a bad blow but they are more than good enough to turn the tie around. You never know what you’re going to get from Arsenal, but on their day they are one of the best footballing sides in the World. 1-0 is not a major disaster and the return leg is poised to be the most entertaining game of the round. This one could well need extra-time.
Celtic have to pleased with the 0-0 home draw they secured last night. When you’re playing AC Milan you’d take a draw in the first leg. Any goal Celtic can score in the second leg will be an away goal so a score draw will do them. It’s still hard to see them knocking Milan out though.
Tonight’s fixtures promise plenty more talking points with Jose Mourinho taking his Chelsea side back to Porto, in a tie that shouldn’t pose Chelsea many problems; Inter Milan hosting Valencia, in an evenly matched tie that I feel the Spaniards will edge; Lyon going to Roma to show Europe that they are a force to be reckoned with this season; and in the tie of the round Barcelona host Liverpool.
The visit of Liverpool to Barcelona has already filled many column inches. Both clubs have had problems with their players; Samuel Eto’o refusing to come on as a substitute in a recent game, and a few of the Liverpool players enjoying a lively boys night out during a training camp visit to Portugal last week.
To add to the similarities both teams come into this game on the back of league defeats, and lets not forget that it’s the 2006 winners against the 2005 Champions!
Since the draw was first announced people have been very quick to write off Liverpool’s chances. The statistics however, suggest otherwise…
In three visits to the Nou Camp Liverpool are yet to concede a goal. They won 1-0 in 1976 on their way to winning the UEFA Cup, drew 0-0 in the UEFA Cup during their trebble winning campaign of 2001, and again in the Champion’s League group stage of 2002. Rafael Benitez also has an excellent track record there winning twice and drawing once in his time as Valencia manager. With defensive linchpin, Jamie Carragher, going for a hat-trick of shut outs tonight it’s hard to see any result other than 0-0. That would set up another memorable European night in Anfield on the 6th of March.
The official Barcelona squad is Valdés, Jorquera, Belletti, Oleguer, Puyol, Thuram, Márquez, Gio, Zambrotta, Motta, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Saviola, Ronaldinho, Messi, Giuly.
Liverpool have traveled over with Reina, Dudek, Finnan, Arbeloa, Carragher, Agger, Hyypia, Riise, Pennant, Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko, Mascherano, Gonzalez, Zenden, Crouch, Kuyt, Bellamy and Fowler.
I expect that Barca will play their usual 4-3-3 and Liverpool with revert back to the 4-5-1 that helped win so many vital games in Europe in 2005.
Valdés
Marquez Puyol Edmilson Oleguer
Xavi Deco Zambrotta
Guily Gudjohnson Ronaldinho
Jorquera, Belletti, Thuram, Gio, Motta, Saviola, Messi and Iniesta on the bench.
Reina
Arbeloa Carragher Agger Riise
Finnan Sissoko Alonso Gonzalez
Gerrard
Crouch
Dudek, Hyypia, Zenden, Kuyt, Bellamy, Mascherano and Pennant on the bench.
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