In my last post, I mentioned most group winners in this year's Champions League would want to avoid Arsenal.........and the defending Champions, Bayern Munchen ended up drawing Arsenal again, in a rematch of last year's round of 16 clash which Bayern won on away goals rule on the way to winning the final at Wembley.
But I should have also mentioned the fast improving and free scoring Manchester City too. In perhaps the most exciting clash of the round, City have drawn Barcelona.
Whilst I believe Bayern have enough to beat Arsenal again, I can not comfortably predict that in case of Barcelona.
It is quite clear that Barcelona are simply not the same team when the axis of Xavi-Messi-Bosquets-Iniesta is misfiring & on top of this their defence which was totally humbled 7-0 on aggregate by Bayern last year is still vulnerable, specially against the free scoring City side. Manchester City on the other hand will be vulnerable in goal and away from home and would be hoping Aguero will be back in full fitness by February.
Of the other pairings, Atletico Madrid are the dark horses of the tournament & should account for a sorry looking AC Milan who were lucky to account for Ajax , Real Madrid will be too strong for a injury hit & somewhat misfiring Schalke whilst last year's finalists Borussia Dortmund should have enough time to get their injury ravaged team back to shape to beat a disappointing Zenit.
....which brings us to the last three encounters........whilst at least on paper Chelsea, PSG & Manchester United are all favourites to go to the quarter finals, I believe their respective opponents ie Galatasaray, Leverkusen & Olympiakos can all cause huge upsets, but only if they manage to do well at home ie to win their home leg with a comfortable margin.
I say this because I don't think Chelsea & Manchester United are contenders this year & in case of PSG, I believe they, like their "Trophy buying" peers before them (ie Chelsea & Manchester City) need a few more years of CL experience before they can impress beyond the early stages of the knockout phase.
Regardless of all of that, there is one thing that is clear: the eventual outcome of this round of matches will no doubt produce mouth watering quarter final pairings.
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