Draw Is Made For The Champions League Quarter-Finals

Today saw the official draw for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals. Eight names were put into the pot. Everyone crossed their fingers and hoped to get APOEL from Cyprus.

What did happen was that the neutrals got some mouth-watering ties to consider.

APOEL (Cyprus) were first out of the pot and got Real Madrid (Spain).
Marseille(France) drew Bayern Munich (Germany).
Benfica (Portugal) drew Chelsea (England).
AC Milan (Italy) drew FC Barcelona (Spain).

Firstly, it is great for the game that seven nations have been represented in this draw. Secondly, there is no doubting that some of these games will be fantastic. Almost everyone expects Real to crush lowly APOEL and Bayern should be too strong for Marseille, but the other ties are up in the air.

Benfica are a creative soccer side and have a daring front man in Oscar Cardozo. Chelsea scraped through against Napoli in the last round –defending poorly as they went –but they have QF pedigree. They also have players in Ramires and David Luiz who used to play for Benfica. This tie should have bite.

For competition favorites Barcelona it is a case of cursing their luck. Milan have history in the Champions League and they are in rampant form in Italy. They have star quality. They could very well trip up a sprinting Barca side.

According to Richard Aikman via UEFA.com: “Though they will put on a brave face, this will not have been the draw Milan were hoping for, given the obvious strength of the holders. That said, the Rossoneri gave an excellent account of themselves in both group games this season, holding Barcelona to a 2-2 draw in Spain and losing 3-2 on matchday five. Massimiliano Allegri’s side are flying high in Serie A and thumped Arsenal 4-0 in the round of 16 home leg, but they will need to show greater resolve than they did in London, when they lost 3-0 if they are to eliminate Lionel Messi et al.”

Of course what else is interesting is that the semi-finals are drawn in advance, as well. It is broken down so that the winners of tie 1 play the winners of tie 2, and the winners of ties 3 and 4 play each other in the 2^nd semi. So effectively APOEL/Real play Marseille/Bayern in semi 1; Benfica/Chelsea play Milan/Barca in semi 2.

That is right, folks: there is still the chance of a Real Madrid versus FC Barcelona Champions League final.

Soccer is mighty exciting when it coughs up games like these…