The draw for the Champions League Knockout stage is on December 21st. So that gives us plenty of time to speculate on who will face who in the opening round. The advancing teams are:
Group Winners - Porto, Chelsea, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Barca, Man Utd, Inter, Sevilla
Runners Up - Liverpool, Schalke, Olympiacos, Celtic, Lyon, Roma, Fenerbahce, Arsenal
There are a few weird rules for the draw for the purposes of "fostering competition". No group winner can face another group winner (therefore runners up cannot face each other). No teams from the same country or from the same group can meet either.
This means that Man Utd will face one of the following: Schalke, Olympiacos, Celtic, Lyon or Fenerbahce. All things considered, thats a pretty easy draw for Utd. Sir Alex will probably be hoping for Schalke or Olympiacos, but I don't think he'll be kept up at night by Lyon or Celtic. Lyon has been relatively poor this year in comparison to previous years, and United have handled Celtic before.
As for Chelsea, they will get a team from the exact same pool, just replace Schalke with Roma. A Roma Chelsea matchup would be interesting indeed.
In showing why it sucks to finish second in the group, look no further than Liverpool. They will get Real Madrid, AC Milan, Barca, Inter Milan or Sevilla. Ouch, thats a tough road to travel. And as for Arsenal, Wegner won't admit it but he's got his fingers crossed for Porto.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
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