Friday, March 20, 2009

CL Draw complete. Worst fears partially confirmed

It was done way too early for us to pay attention to, but it happened nonetheless. Crazy Europeans and their insistence on doing things in the morning hours. Anyway, we did have one all-England matchup drawn, and, looking back, it's one we should have all predicted.

Chelsea and Liverpool are slated to meet for the fifth straight year in Europe. Five straight. That's pretty ridiculous. Autoglass and the Liverpool lads should have a lot of fun baiting each other before the first week of April.

Arsenal drew Villareal for their quarterfinal. The last time these two clubs met in a knockout round, Arsenal triumphed 1-0 over two legs back in 2006. I'm guessing that if Giuseppe Rossi scores, the Gooner part of UF's heads may explode. I know that I will hurl untold amounts of expletives if it happens.

Manchester United, go figure, got the perceived easy draw. The Red Devils will tangle with FC Porto. Perhaps Porto can bring Mourinho in on a coaching loan to defeat United, a feat he famously pulled of in 2004 when these teams met.

The all-continental meeting is a mouthwatering one. Bayern Munich and Barcelona will see if they can wear out the nets against one another. The likelihood of this tie producing the most goals over two legs: 75%. The likelihood either leg shows up live on ESPN2: 0%. Sad.

In the semis, the winner of Liverpool-Chelsea will take on the winner of Bayern-Barcelona, which leaves the possibility of an Arsenal-United matchup in the semis in the other half of the draw. Or an Iberian one in Villareal-Porto. The quarterfinal matches will start on April 7, with the return matches taking place the following week.

Image from Sky Sports. Ain't it swell and over-dramatic?

6 comments:

Jacob said...

Teeknuts claims to have correctly guessed the draw. He should have played the lottery instead.

We'll get that sorted by the end of the day, I think.

Teeknuts said...

Eh, the lottery takes money. Also, I really didn't want that draw, so you could say I was unlucky.

Barca and Bayern should do this to the goal, although they'll actually put it in the net..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXjCKwBtG0I

Teeknuts said...

I fail at html

EbullientFatalist said...

Bayern-Barca will be phenomenal. I want it to end 13-11 on agg.

Both United and the Arse got fairly easy draws.

Jesse said...

i can't complain because MAN U-BARCA, MAN U-CHELSEA REMATCH, MAN U-LIVERPOOL, ARSENAL-CHELSEA and ARSENAL-LIVERPOOL are all solid final possibilities. Not to mention LIVERPOOL-BARCA and MAN U-ARSENAL as semi finals possibilities. Basically all the great ties are saved for semis and final. Not a bad thing if you ask me.

Spectator said...

I look forward to seeing the Arsenal kick Rossi in his non-American, Italian pants.