Mike's Blog

With the second legs of the Champions League quarter finals coming up, I thought I should spend a few minutes opining on the matches, and what will happen. Part of this comes from an email I sent to Mr Flavell last week.

I have to start with the tie of the round, Milan-Lyon. Many of you will already know that I have a bit of a fetish for Lyon, particularly their Rather Good midfield playmaker Juninho Pernambucano, who has been known to hit one or two half decent free kicks in his time. The tie stands at 0-0, and Lyon do have a tendency to score in their away matches. I think they will score tomorrow, and honestly believe they will either beat or draw with Milan, both of which would put them through. At 4/1 for the Lyon win, it's got to be worth a couple of quid.

Internazionale vs Villarreal is a tie which bores me. There's great examples of why the expansion of the Champions League has been a good thing, and why it's been a bad thing. For me, this is one of the latter. Inter shouldn't even be in Europe this season after the way their fans behaved, and Mr Collina cost Everton their place in the competition, allowing Villarreal to make it through. And the less said about the farcical offside decision at Ibrox in the last round to favour VIllarreal, the better. I don't like either team, and I hope both go out as soon as possible. Inter will make it through though after their first leg win, that's almost certain.

Barcelona vs Benfica is a tie everyone seems to think is over, but I disagree. Barcelona play wonderful football on an aesthetic level, but from what I've seen of them they don't actually seem to do as much with their possession as they should. For a team with as much talent as they have, frequently converting their 60+% of possession in a match into a narrow win or a draw defies belief, and Benfica are the kind of team who might just capitalise on it. They're rugged, determined, and have some talented players. I still fancy Barça to make it through, but rumours that this tie is already over have been greatly overstated…

And Juventus-Arsenal. Enough superlatives have been used to describe Arsenal's performance last week against a below-par and frankly disinterested Juventus team. We still have a very young and inexperienced Arsenal team travelling to play Italy's runaway leaders, and while the two goal cushion is of comfort, you can't help but feel that Arsenal should have finished the tie off once and for all in the first leg. If Juve can get one in the first half hour, then only a vintage Henry performance will save the Arse. I hope they make it through, because when they play well they are the most irresistible team to watch in European club football. My heart says Arsenal to make it through, my head says Juve to take it to extra time and nick it then.