- All four Spanish sides faced first-leg deficits, and three of the four were able to overturn them. Only Valencia fell short. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga took three of the eight quarterfinal berths.
- There are no British sides in the last eight. Manchester United, Arsenal, and Celtic were all dumped out, and the English Premier League must take a look at its self-appointed title of best league in the world.
- Five of the eight ties were decided by a goal or less. Only one tie, Celtic-Juventus, was completely free of drama, as Juve cruised through. Despite facing deficits away from home, Arsenal and Valencia both came close to snatching a place in the next round.
- Six of the eight group winners advanced to the quarterfinals.
- Burak Yilmaz continued his rich vein of scoring with two goals in two games against Schalke, but Cristiano Ronaldo kept up with two against United. Both are atop the scoring charts with eight goals, while Lionel Messi is just one behind.
The talking point of the second leg of Real Madrid-Manchester United was the referee rather than the play, and the decision by referee Cuneyt Cakir to send off Nani is quite debatable. At first glance it looks very harsh, and I must say, I was shocked when the red card came out. In big games, referees must get card, foul, and penalty kick decisions (especially) correct, or it could decide the tie. Whether the decision was right or wrong, it did decide the tie, as Real, who were rocking after United opened the scoring, scored two goals and won the tie more calmly than they would have guessed. It leaves United to wonder what might have been - but there's two particular things fans must look at. One, the decision to start Nani in the first place was an odd one - he had not been in the side as much this year and United have plenty of attacking options. If there was a player in the squad who had the potential to be sent off, would you not think of Nani? His personality has never been defined as tempered. Secondly, Robin Van Persie blew this tie for United. We have seen RVP has one of the Premier League's elite over the past two seasons, but he had at least two clear-cut opportunities (I think a third should certainly be included) over the two games that any striker, not to mention one of his level, should be putting away. Even Torres might have been able to stick one of those in the net. For a player that has been so key to United's domestic dominance, he came up small against Madrid.
The Comeback
Barcelona's comeback against AC Milan was historic, but not very surprising. After watching Chelsea employ the park-the-bus strategy against Barcelona with great success, there are two keys to defending the Catalans. First, you must defend as a team and make Barcelona work hard, and out of their element, to get goals. Second, you must get a stroke of luck. In the second leg, Milan did not defend as a team. Xavi and Messi in particular were allowed far too much space in midfield. For the first goal, Messi was allowed far too much space and he was able to just walk through the front of the box before dispatching his shot in the top left corner. Milan were also caught in possession numerous times when they could have cleared the ball, with the third goal coming as a result of holding the ball too long. As for luck, there was none of it. M'Baye Niang struck the post on a breakaway that would have forced Barca to score three goals in fifty minutes to go through, and Barca's second goal came minutes later on a Messi shot that went just through Philippe Mexes' legs. It was simply not to be for Milan.
The Nearly
Trailing Bayern Munich 3-1 after a drubbing at the Emirates, Arsenal went to Germany looking for a miracle. They almost found it, and with some more ruthless finishing, the Gunners would have secured maybe the most improbable quarterfinal place in the history of the Champions League. Instead it's just another "almost" for Arsene Wenger's men, and while the effort will be applauded by their supporters, Arsenal must now focus on hauling themselves back into the top four. Bayern, who were so impressive in London, now face a daunting task against Juventus, who have hit a solid run of form. This performance was widely criticized by the higher ranks of the club, and while Bayern are surely better than this quality, they can ill-afford that type of result in the first leg against Juve.
Full preview of the quarterfinal round coming next week - stay tuned. The match-ups are:
Malaga vs. Borussia Dortmund
Real Madrid vs. Galatasaray
PSG vs. Barcelona
Bayern vs. Juventus
This week is all international fixtures as the focus goes back to the World Cup next year. Enjoy!
