Champions League round-up – Benitez strengthens his position as rumours grow

Last night’s Champions League games were dominated by the return of the old boys. Claudio Ranieri went back to Stamford Bridge with his Juventus side. The success of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea somewhat hid the excellent job that the ‘Tinker man’ had done before the ‘special one’ arrived.

Ranieri had taken Chelsea from nowhere to second place in the Premier League and the Champions League semi-final before he was relieved of his duties.

Bookmakers

In the other game involving an English club Rafa Benitez took his Liverpool side to Real Madrid where he had spent over twenty years as a player and a coach. Many people believe he will be taking over from Juande Ramos at the end of this season as rumours of him leaving Anfield yesterday led to bookmakers refusing to take any more bets about his departure.

Prior to last night’s game, Ramos had achieved nine straight wins and taken Real to within seven points of Barcelona at the top of La Liga. He has certainly been making a case for his contract to be extended beyond the end of the season.

Seven points behind

So one game saw the team third in the Premier League ten points behind the leaders take on the team second in Serie A, nine points behind the leaders and the other game saw two teams in second place, both seven points behind the leaders in La Liga and the Premier League respectively.

The outcome of the two games was depressingly predictable for supporters of any football other than the Premier League.

Enough

At Stamford Bridge a Didier Drogba strike in the thirteenth minute was enough to see Chelsea through to a 1-0 win over Juventus. Chelsea were the better side in the first half but Juventus came back strongly after the break. Nedved and Del Piero both went close to finding that crucial equaliser.

Chelsea will be very happy to have kept a clean sheet at home, but Ranieri will have seen enough from his men in the second half to give him a fair amount of optimism for the second leg.

Showed very little

At The Bernabeu, a late header from Yossi Benayoun following a free-kick needlessly given away by Gabriel Heinze, was enough to see Liverpool through to a 1-0 win over Real Madrid. In truth, Liverpool showed very little in the game, but that was a whole lot more than Real Madrid showed!!

I was looking forward to watching Real Madrid who have been in great form, winning nine in a row and scoring ten in their last two games. What a disappointment they turned out to be. Real looked like a very average side indeed whilst a below par Liverpool looked totally comfortable.

Amazing

In the other games last night, Bayern Munich effectively guaranteed their quarter-final place with an amazing 5-0 win at Sporting. Back to back defeats in a disappointing Bundesliga campaign have left Jurgen Klinsmann feeling the pressure. That pressure was largely lifted in a wonderful performance that saw goals coming from Klose and two each for Ribery and Toni.

The fourth game saw Greek side Panathinaikos earning a great 1-1 draw at Villarreal. Karagounis put the Athens club ahead on the hour but a penalty from Rossi some seven minutes later rescued a draw for the Spaniards.

Super sixteen

So this ‘super sixteen’ round was billed as a chance to see if La Liga and Serie A could make a serious challenge to the dominance of the Premier League. At the halfway stage of the ties the answer would seem to be a resounding no.

Of course there is still a lot of football to be played but all four of the English teams must be at least slight favourites to go through.

Away goal

Although Manchester United didn’t manage to get an away goal, going to Old Trafford all square must make them favourites. Arsenal go to Rome with a one goal lead, a clean sheet and the knowledge that they outplayed their opponents. Chelsea take a one goal lead and a clean sheet to Juventus and Liverpool have a goal lead and an away goal to take back to Anfield.

It is difficult to see any of the English teams, none of whom have conceded a goal, not making it to the quarter-finals.

Likely

The other four quarter-finalists seem likely to be Bayern Munich, Panathinaikos, Porto and Barcelona. Despite the excellent performance of Bayern Munich, can anyone really see any team other than Barcelona stopping another English success?