Seriously, this draw sucks.
In the last five years, Liverpool and Chelsea have met four times in the Champions League knockout stages…including this year. These games are known for being awful, incidentally; pretty much every podcast I listened to didn’t care who played whom as long as Liverpool and Chelsea didn’t play each other. And yet, here they are…playing each other. Again. Ugh. It’s probably worth mentioning that Liverpool have already beaten Chelsea twice this season, although that was under Scolari, not Hiddink.
Manchester United, of course, drew weak sister Porto, probably so Fergie can exact some revenge on the Portuguese side from 2004. I see no way that Porto can really advance past this round…I mean, yeah, that’s why they play the games, but if we’re all being honest you don’t see much of a way past Manchester United either.
Barcelona will be facing Bayern Munich. Bayern set records for scoring in the last round, but will be without Miroslav Klose for the semifinals. They’re also without Landon Donovan, who theoretically could’ve helped them at least put a warm body who sort of understands how to play striker into the game.
The best tie of the round will probably be Villareal-Arsenal; Arsenal have been starting to hit their form lately, and should have Fabregas and Adebayor back from injury for this tie. I think Villareal are underrated, but that might just be because I haven’t seen them play much and I’m attracted to bright colors.
Let me know what you think about the draw in the comments.
As a satan-worshipping assbag, I love the draw. Porto shouldn’t be much of a challenge, either Liverpool or Spartek is getting bounced, and there are two potentially great matchups in the other matchups.
I’ll grant you that the semifinals will be pretty great (it’s ManU/Porto vs. Arsenal/Villareal and Liverpool/Chelsea vs. Barcelona/Bayern). But another Liverpool/Chelsea matchup sounds awful. The two games they’ve already played were awful, too.
On the plus side, I think I found a new game for a first timer to try and sit through. No more fun Liverpool thrashings of Real Madrid; we’ve gotta get somebody to sit through the first leg of a defensive slugfest where both teams are playing just to get to the second game.
Figures. Liverpool v. Chelsea again. Greeeeat. I actually would have taken United over the Reds. It’s going to be a slugfest. I just hope Mike Riley is no where near Anfield or the Bridge on those two days.
Villareal v. Arsenal could be great depending on which Arsenal shows up…
Manchester are through to the next round.
Bayern v. Barca looks to be a cracker of a match.
Chelsea v. Liverpool- is there anyway that both of these teams can lose?
It’s really a shame Arshavin’s cup tied; I think he’d make that tie a lot more interesting.
And since Liverpool can’t play Arsenal until the final, I’m pulling for them in the Champions League from now until Liverpool plays them.
Blues-How do you like your chances against Liverpool? We did the double in the league, but neither game was convincing (although winning 1-0 at Stamford Bridge without Torres or Gerrard was pretty nice) and both were under Scolari and without Essien.
To be perfectly honest- the tie makes me really nervous. More nervous then playing Juve. We’ve had terrible form against the rest of the Big Four (1 out of a possible 15 pts) this season. The first match at the Bridge ruined our unbeaten in 86 home matches record. Plus it started our run of bad form. The second one, well everyone knows what a disaster that was. We were never going to win based on the way we’d been playing, but Mike Riley’s calls got rid of any slim chance we had- Frank’s sending off, not carding Stevie G for the slam ball into Bosingwa’s stomach after play had stopped, and not calling Bosingwa on the stamp on Benayoun. Not that I’m holding a grudge against Riley or anything. Haha.
Looking at our past form, plus taking into account the run you guys are on (4-0 over Real and 4-1 over Utd)… like I said I’m nervous, but I like our chances better than they were earlier this season. Like you said, we’ve got Essien back, hopefully Carvalho will be back for the first leg too. They’re going to make a big difference. Drogba’s actually started playing and is in good form, so that helps too. If Anelka can get out of whatever slump he’s been in, I think we have a decent shot. The guys have been training better, they’ve been playing better, and they’ve been fighting for the late equalizers and wins.
Both teams are tired of playing each other. There’s going to be Alonso/Lampard tension like usual, so hopefully Lamps can keep it together. There’s going to be a lot of bad tackles, a lot of free kicks, and likely a lot of cards. There’s never any real quality, they both tend to play dirty and reckless against each other. I really would have rather gotten United. Unfortunately, fate likes to bring our teams together, so I guess we’ll just have to wait until April to see how it plays out.
anybody remember that awful Arsenal – Villarreal tie from a few years back?
I think there’s a pretty steep quality difference in the two “sides” of the draw. Liverpool, Chelsea, Barca and Bayern is a lot rougher than Man U, Porto, Arsenal and Villarreal.
Didn’t that end with a 1-0 win to Arsenal over both legs?
I noticed the quality differential, too; I guess if it’s truly random, you can’t do anything about that, but I’d agree that getting out of the Liverpool/Chelsea group is going to take a whole lot more than getting out of the ManU/Arsenal group.