The draw for the quarter finals of the Champions League takes place on March the 18th and all the talk is of Barcelona after the way they dispensed with Arsenal on Tuesday.
Both Harry Redknapp and William Gallas have come out and said that they want to avoid the Spanish giants, but what of the other teams left in the hat?
Alongside Spurs and Barca, Schalke 04 and Shakhtar Donetsk are already through, while the second wave of matches next week will decide who joins them.
Schalke have been described as a ‘crisis club’ in Germany both on and off the pitch. Their financial troubles were supposedly going to lead to a mass exit of players including Klaas Jan Huntelaar, who has been linked with Spurs on countless occasions. While they sit in mid-table, Schalke aren’t safe from relegation – maybe the Champions League has been a welcome distraction.
Over in the Ukraine, Shakhtar are runaway leaders and racing certanties to win yet another title. Few people in European football would have been surprised with they way they despatched Roma and they are bound to be a dangerous outfit.
Next week sees four more games to be decided and the balance from the first legs seems to be in favour of Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively.
Barcelona aside, it will be tough whoever we get. As the old cliche goes, there’s no easy games these days, but then we said that when we drew AC Milan…
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
As things stand it looks like all the teams that topped their groups will be going through.
Meaning the quarter final lineup will look like this:
Tottenham, united, chelsea
Barca, bayern , madrid
schalke, shakhtar
My order of preference would probably be:
Schalke
Bayern
Madrid
Shakhtar
Barca
Chelsea
united
If that proves to be the c
Id take Schalke or Shaktar. Would want to avoid Chelsea and Utd as much as possible as I think our progress has been down to as much being an unknown quantity than anything else. Chelsea and Utd know how we play. To be honest if we drew Real or Bayern I wouldn’t be too disappointed. I’d fancy us against anyone at home and we might sneak something at the Allianz as we did Milan. To get something out of Real would take something special but I don’t think there would be the fear factor of lining up against Barce or one the Prem teams.
I can see the reasoning behind wanting Schalke, and to be honest they are probably the “easiest” draw if there is such a thing at this stage. In a crazy way though, I’d like to draw United for several reasons. First, yes they know how we play, but after our exploits, so do the rest of Europe. Second, we know how they play and there would be no surprises for us. Third, they are not playing well. Fourth we owe them one and imagine how sweet would it be to knock them out of the Champions League? Guess we just have to know that there is no easy draw but then, who’s gonna fancy playing us?
Given a choice, I’d want Schalke.
But dammit, we’re Spurs. We damn know we’re drawing Barcelona, so we better just get used to the idea now.
Maybe drawing Manure won’t be such a bad option. After all we normally need a two goal lead to stand any chance in English referreed games. Correct me if I’m wrong but Chief Ref Mike Riley (who gave Manure 11 penalties in a three year period), won’t be in position to let Fergie have his favourite pet refs ie Clattenberg and Webb. If we draw Manure maybe UEFA will change the rules specially so that Mike Riley can give Fergie what he wants!
Don’t want Shakhtar or Barca. Bring on the rest.
I quite fancy us giving Bayern a good going over (or Inter again if they can pull it out o the bag in Munich). They are weaker than most years and struggling to qualify for Champions League in the Bundesliga. A big name club, but we have more than enough to take them on. After that I wouldn’t mind Real, Shakthar or Schalke, but would like to avoid Barca, Chelsea and Man U. My hunch is we’ll get Chelsea.