For the first time, UEFA has not paired the quarter finals, meaning that the semi final draw will be made after the quarter final matches are completed & decided.
I got 6 of the 8 results of the round of 16 right. Malaga, the undoubted surprise package of this year's competition stunned my tip Porto, whilst Galatasaray were a different proposition once they brought Drogba & Sneijder to their fold in the January transfer window. They beat Schalke to advance to the quarter finals.
In reality, whilst the Bayern Munich vs Juventus is the peak of the draw, the competition remains as open as it has ever been. In all fairness, the so called favourites all struggled in some way or another & were far from being fully convincing in getting to the quarter finals. In fact the so called underdogs got to the quarter finals more convincingly!
Yes! Barcelona, led by the irreplaceable trio of Messi-Xavi-Iniesta demolished AC Milan 4-0 in Camp Nou in the return leg & in the process announce themselves as the best & clear favourites. However, this was after they were outclassed 2-0 by Milan in the first leg.
Real Madrid only managed a 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United & were by all accounts fortunate to take advantage of a questionable refereeing decision to red card Nani & in the process take the game out of the clutches of Manchester United, who were dominating Real up to that point.
Bayern Munich outclassed Arsenal 1-3 in London but then started to struggle for the past few weeks & finally had to endure some nervy minutes in the return leg before losing 0-2 & only qualifying on the away goal rule.
Juventus, whilst fully in control against Celtic in both legs were hardly troubled by the draw & will have their stern test vs Bayern if they are to prove themselves as serious contenders.
PSG,on the other hand, had difficulty in convincingly disposing of Valencia & will miss Ibrahimovic in the first leg vs Barcelona
In fact Dortmund are undoubtedly the dark horse of this year's competition. They remain unbeaten in their 8 matches so far, whilst Malaga, the romantics' favourites this year & Galatasaray have done extremely well to get this far.
Quarter finals are about experience, depth in squad and also to a lesser extend the advantage of playing the first game away from home (although I don't believe in that last point). So, at least on paper, the predictions are relatively easy:
Barcelona seem to be back at their sublime best after the 4-0 demolition of AC Milan & will most probably take advantage of Ibrahimovic's suspension in the first leg & PSG's relative inexperience at this level.
Real Madrid have the experience & resources to finish Galatasaray's gallant run whilst Dortmund should put an end to Malaga's beautiful game.
But for Bayern's hard core fans such as me, all evidence points to a relatively low level mid season form slump & Bayern should be able to account for a very impressive Juventus side.
Paraphrasing Bayern's President after the shock defeat to Arsenal; "On a good day we are good enough to beat any of the remaining teams in this year's competition....but if we play the way we played in the loss to Arsenal, we will lose no matter which one of the remaining teams we draw!!"
And Bayern have their work cut out! They need to be at their absolute best in both legs in order to account for Juventus, remembering that Italy & Italian teams are generally Germany's & Bayern's boggy teams.
One thing is nevertheless certain: Champions League quarter final & semi finals are undoubtedly the most exciting football encounters anywhere in the world.
