The quarter-final line-up is complete and let’s be honest, the last eight teams are not a million miles away from the eight teams we could have predicted months ago before a ball was kicked in the competition. That, of course, is how it should be as the cream should always rise to the top.
After Liverpool, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Villarreal safely made their way into the next round on Tuesday, last night saw two more English clubs, two more Spanish clubs, two more Italian clubs and one from France and Portugal, trying to join them.
Harder
Going into the games they were, on the whole, harder to predict than the ones the night before.
Barcelona were pretty hot favourites to build on the 1-1 draw they had achieved at Lyon, but the other three games were finely balanced.
Porto were favourites to capitalise on their excellent 2-2 draw at Atletico Madrid but the humiliation of their fellow countrymen Sporting the night before could have had a psychological effect on them.
Manchester United were probably favourites against Mourinho’s Inter after achieving a 0-0 draw at The San Siro and Arsenal were just favourites to hang onto their 1-0 lead at Roma.
Croissant
So, did United and Arsenal make it four out of the eight for England and make Platini choke on his croissant?
The answer to that question is yes but it was a lot less emphatic than the previous night.
Manchester United
At Old Trafford the current Champions League holders Manchester United played with nothing like their usual swagger and composure. Inter deserved something from the night as they created at least as much as United and probably more. However, an early Vidic header in the first half and an early Ronaldo header in the second half were enough to see United safely through to the quarter-finals.
I suppose that this game was a warning to the rest as United managed to win fairly comfortably against the best that Italy has to offer without playing within a million miles of their best.
For Mourinho it was another European disappointment as he has failed to build on that one shock victory he had with Porto. Winning Serie A will be great for Inter but they are used to doing that. Mourinho was brought in to achieve European success and on that basis he has failed.
Arsenal
Roma would have harboured dreams of scoring early against Arsenal and levelling the tie as quickly as possible and inside ten minutes a Juan strike had given them what they hoped for.
The next one hundred and ten minutes produced no further goals and in truth, no real quality either. It was no surprise when the game went to a penalty shoot-out.
In the end, Arsenal went through 7-6 in the shoot-out with Eduado missing for Arsenal and Vucinic and Tonetto missing for Roma.
Barcelona
Barcelona are many people’s favourites for this tournament and the message they sent out from the Camp Nou last night did nothing to change their minds.
Lyon are a decent team, make no mistake. The fact that Barcelona absolutely destroyed them in a 5-2 win was pretty significant. Barcelona’s goals came from Messi, Eto’o, Keita and a pair from Henry.
It has to be said that the mention of goals from Henry, Messi and Eto’o does send shivers down the spine of supporters of any other side!
Porto
The reputation of Portuguese football took an absolute hammering with the abject performance of Sporting against Bayern Munich, but it has been somewhat restored by Porto.
The Portuguese champions made full use of the two away goals they managed in Madrid as they held Atletico to a 0-0 draw and made their way to the quarter-finals on the away goal rule.
Although they have done well to get here it is fair to say that every other team left in the tournament will be hoping that they are drawn against Porto.
Exciting
So that leaves four English teams, two Spanish teams, a Portuguese team and a German team in the quarter-finals. It should be good. The rest of the tournament promises to be exciting. I can’t wait.
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