So the draw has been made to see who faces who in the first knockout round of the Champions League. There was guaranteed to be some mouth watering clashes in this round as English heavyweights Manchester City and Arsenal only managed runner-up spots in their groups behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund respectively. This meant both would have to face one of the strong group winners in the first knockout round and the draw did not disappoint.
The tie of the round is surely Manchester City v Barcelona. This will be a great spectacle over the two legs as the small, agile and highly technical players of Barcelona come up against the huge, physical players in the Manchester City team. Players like Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, and "The Beast" Alvaro Negredo base their game on the physicality they bring and this approach will be in stark contrast to how Barcelona will aim to play.
In the group stages, Barcelona were brilliant at home, scoring 13 goals in their three games. However, they were less impressive on the road, losing to Ajax, drawing with AC Milan and just scraping a single goal victory over Celtic. Manchester City should take heart from this, and look to take hold of the tie in the first leg at the Etihad. Manchester City have been so strong at home this season. scoring for fun and there is no reason they should not believe they can score a few against Barcelona in the first leg. Confidence should be high for the City squad after that great victory in the Allianz against the European Champions, however it is a long time to February and who knows what form the two teams will be in come then.
Arsenal also got a difficult draw, facing the current champions Bayern Munich. This will be a rematch from last year when Arsenal came so close to knocking out the Germans in the second leg as they won 2-0 in Germany. But Munich scraped by thanks to their impressive win at the Emirates and then went all the way to bring home the trophy. Arsenal do appear to be stronger this season, reflected in their position in the premier league however the odds are surely on Bayern Munich to progress. They have so many players who can hurt the opposition - Ribery, Robben, and Muller, with the likes of Kroos, Gotze and Shaqiri coming off the bench. And bearing in mind all these players will play behind the menacing Mario Mandzukic who always manages to find himself in the right place in the box. Arsenal will no doubt give this one their all, trying to go that one step further than last year and qualify at the expense of Bayern Munich. However, just like last year, I believe they will ultimately be disappointed.
Those are probably the most high profile of the ties but now lets take a look at how the other English teams fared. The fairy tale of the round is surely the return of Didier Drogba to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea have been drawn against the Turkish outfit Galatasaray. Jose Mourinho stated before the draw that he would love to get this tie and give Drogba his glorious return, and fate has appeared to grant him his wish. This could prove a more difficult assignment than some would believe it to be as Galatasaray were impressive in the group stage qualifying ahead of Italian champions Juventus. They done well to recover from match day 1 when they were thumped 6-1 at home to Real Madrid and there are few who could say they have not earned their place in the first knockout round. They managed a draw in Turin and then beat Juventus in the home tie in the final match day fixture which was controversially delayed until the following day due to heavy snow. However, Drogba's heroic return to the club which he helped win the ultimate prize in European football is likely to be in vain as the Chelsea squad should be strong enough over two legs to qualify. When you get past the star players such as Drogba and Wesley Sneijder, the Galatasaray team is not littered with quality and although they achieved a great deal in qualifying from a group with Real Madrid and Juventus, this is surely where their Champions League adventure ends.
The last of the four English teams is Manchester United and they must be fairly content after being drawn with the Greek outfit Olympiakos. Despite their domestic troubles, United have been getting the results in this years Champions League and finished top of their group with minimal fuss and indeed have an impressive 5-0 away win over the organised German side Bayer Leverkusen to their name. Olympiakos finished runners up in group C, joint on 10 points with Benfica but sneaking through thanks to the head to head results. The main threat posed to Manchester United will be the attacking link up between journeyman striker Javier Saviola who now operates in a deeper no. 10 role, and Greek forward Kostas Mitroglou who has impressed in this years competition and scored a great hat trick away to Anderlecht. However, they should be no match for a much stronger Manchester United and much like their group success, they should expect to progress to the quarter-finals with consummate ease.
So finally to take a quick glance at the other ties in the round. There are some intriguing match ups and AC Milan v Atletico Madrid should be interesting. I believe Atletico are going to be the surprise packages of this year's competition and if luck is on their side they could go far. Diego Simeone has set his team up to be tight at the back and devastating on the counter, with Diego Costa in the form of his career this season and the club having a strong season in La Liga. Milan on the other hand are simply not the team they used to be. The star names have long gone and despite the return of Kaka and Robinho, the sale of Kevin-Prince Boateng to Schalke speaks volumes about where the club is going as they struggle economically like almost all Italians clubs at the minute.. They are under-performing domestically and are certainly there for the taking if Atlectico can perform.
The last 16 also sees Bayer Leverkusen take on Paris St-Germain. PSG have spent millions in the past few seasons with Champions League glory being the end result they hope to achieve, and although I don't feel this will be the year for that to happen, they should manage to qualify for the quarter-finals at the expense of Leverkusen. Manchester United made them look ordinary in both games during the group stages and with the likes of Zlatan, Cavani and Lucas Moura at their disposal PSG should comfortably put the Germans to the sword.
Schalke meet Real Madrid in another tie where the gap between group winners and runners-up is evident. Schalke came second to Chelsea in the group stages but were hugely unimpressive in the two defeats to the London club and are having a very indifferent domestic campaign, so it is to be expected that a Real Madrid side who are much stronger than Chelsea should have no difficulty in overcoming Schalke.
And finally, Zenit St- Petersburg will face Borussia Dortmund. This has the potential to be an interesting tie as Dortmund are not performing anywhere near the level they did last year en route to the final, and Zenit should never be ruled out with match winners such as Hulk in their side. However, Dortmund appear at face value to be a much stronger side, and considering this tie takes place in February when the Bundesliga will be in full flow compared to the pre season period in Russia, it should be a Borussia Dortmund victory.
Check out my other blog posts or follow me on Twitter for regular updates and my views on the latest stories hitting the world of football.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/quinners2
No comments:
Post a Comment