The fourth round of the group stage of the 2012-13 Champions league season confirmed the following:
- Champions League is far more exciting and tactically more superior than international football scene
- Real Madrid & Barcelona are not as formidable as last year's season
- Bayern Munich, the unlucky losing finalists of last year's competition have a lot more depth this season & seem to have learnt from their defeats in finals of 2010 & 2012
- Champions Chelsea remain a threat whilst Manchester United will eventually pay for their leaky defence
- The impressive displays of Malaga, Porto, Celtic & Shaktar & few other teams prove the real romance of the competition is still well & truly alive
- Juventus is on its way back as a European powerhouse whilst Dortmund & Schalke have also impressed
- The usual suspects nevertheless remain the favourites, ie Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern & Manchester United
- AC Milan & Manchester City have been the flops so far, but for different reasons: Milan due to lack of money & new players, City due to typical arrogance (or naivety) of English teams which assume doing well in EPL guarantees success in Europe (Just as England National team & they will tell you all about it!)
For the 2nd time in three years, the final will be held at Wembley once again. There's a long way to go to be able to predict the final, including the luck of the draw during the knockout phase.
nevertheless one thing is certain. We are once again in for many exciting encounters & fistfuls of goals in the coming months on the way to the final in May.
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