UEFA Champions League Draw - Benfica

16/03/2012

Benfica v Chelsea
Just as the dust was settling on an incredible result in the worlds most prestigious club tournament, the draw was made for the quarter finals. The draw also lays out the path to the final for each of the final 8 teams. The draw has been somewhat favourable with majoritively top quality sides left in the competition. In order from easiest to hardest, I would rank the teams: Apoel, Benfica, Marseille, Milan, Bayern, Real Madrid and finally Barcelona. To draw - in my opinion, the second easiest side in the draw is fantastic news. Furthermore, we must travel to Portugal first which is often perceived to be the preferred route to the next round. The first leg lays the foundations for a decisive second leg which in our case will be at home. The tie can't be won or lost in the first leg - we found that out in the last round. To visually understand the route to the final - the draw was as follows:

As a result of being on the left side of the second bracket of games, it means that if we were to progress, we would play the first leg of the Semi's at home and have to travel (probably to the Nou Camp) for the decisive second. The draw has been favourable and should see us through to the semi's but I'm afraid that is as far as we will go this season. With the present squad, I believe we don't have the strength to take on and beat Barcelona. But you never know, I hear people say that you'd rather play Barca over two legs than just one in the final. We have certainly done it before and we could do it again. Although the whole draw looks favourable for a tasty 'El Clasico' final between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Predictions
I had planned to release a prediction for the 4th spot in the recent future. Having made the predictions last week, I have already got the first week spot on. I have decided to release it now before it becomes too out of date. My probably biased predictions see Chelsea gain the 4th Champions League spot to the expense of Arsenal. Do you think I will be right?

Tables and predictions made on the 8/03/2012