UEFA CL is heating up

Mar 24, 2012 - Abhishek Parameswaran

Tags:

It would take a brave man — one willing to part with an arm or leg as punishment for sticking it out so callously; a brave man, to predict the outcome of the quarter finals of the Champions League.

The draw for the quarters served up a couple of mouth-watering clashes,and a couple of potentially heart racing fixtures in the semis. Chelsea were drawn against Portuguese heavyweights Benfica, a club their newer signings David Luiz and Ramires arrived from. Chelsea scraped through their Round of 16 tie against Napoli, winning in extra time at Stamford Bridge after going down 3-1 in the first leg in Naples. Benfica proved to be lions at home too, as they clinched their tie at the Estadio da Luz. This quarters tie could be decided by who manages to play better away from home.

Chelsea, going through their bleakest season in years, cling to hope of major silverware, but the shadow of Barca and Messi looks ominous, although AC Milan,their opponents in the quarters shouldn’t be discounted just yet. A creditable showing in the league stage at the Nou Camp makes them the very kind who could lose you an arm or leg.

Real Madrid face outsiders APOEL, who could realise that they are slightly out of their depth, and Bay-ern face a tricky Marseille. The dream remains alive for these teams, but one would have to say that Chelsea, Barca, Real and Bayern look set to chase it further.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/136771" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-fd887f94c417bf9a9371ae6c4a468671" value="form-fd887f94c417bf9a9371ae6c4a468671" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="87564319" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>