The UEFA Champions League Thread

[Sheik Yerbouti]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/UEFA_Champions_League_logo_2.svg

So the Champions League KO stages are upon us. These are the fixtures that start from next week.

Galatasaray - Schalke 04
Celtic - Juventus
Arsenal - Bayern Munich
Shakhtar Donetsk - Borussia Dortmund
Milan - Barcelona
Real Madrid - Manchester United
Valencia - Paris Saint-Germain
Porto - Málaga

I think other than Porto-Malaga and Valencia-PSG, every fixture is gonna be great. A pity many great teams can go out in this round. But it should all make for an interesting round.

Personally, I've been a dedicated Juventus fan, so tomorrow's match at Celtic Park is gonna be crucial. It's a must win, and the worst we should accept is a 1-1 draw.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

[manu1991]

Weren't Celtic able to beat Barcelona at their home fixture. Juventus would be lucky if they end up with 1-1. Personally, ill watch the Madrid and Arsenal fixtures.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Yea, they beat Barca with a lot of luck and catenaccio-style tactics solely focused on preventing Barca from doing anything. I doubt they'll be so defensive tomorrow, but the odds favour them. They haven't lost in a European cup game at home in decades. So a 1-1 result would be good. But it's tough for me to not be confident of our team. We could just nick a win. We'll see.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Scott Brown: "Juve will keep the ball, create chances and make it hard for us. We need to defend well and break on the counter."Yup, just what I thought.

 

[manu1991]

plus, the Italians familiarization with the defensive style may help them in countering it.Galatasaray will also be good candidates with Sniejder and Drogba now in their ranks.For me, the favorites have to be Bayern, they have been insanely good domestically this season, conceding only 7 goals. Also would love to see a barca-dortmund match-up.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

It may help, but this season, our biggest problems have been in attack. Our forwards have struggled to get shots on target and being clinical in general. That's got to change if we gotta progress through CL.Yea, before January, I thought Schalke would go through. But with Drogba and Sneijder, it's become an interesting fixture.Bayern are such a letdown in the CL. I SO wanted them to beat Chelsea as well as Inter a few years ago, but boy did they not turn up in the finals.

 

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[Sheik Yerbouti]

That turned out to be better than I expected.

Valencia 1-2 PSG
Celtic 0-3 Juventus

 

[Jignesh]

Today's Match the clash of the titansManchester United Vs Real MadridGGMU

 

[manu1991]

AC Milan beat Barcelona 2-0. Italian teams sure are having a good time in the Champions League.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Dortmund and Madrid qualified to the quarter finals. Juventus host Celtic tonight. I expect us to finish the job and go through.