The Round So Far

Pretty entertaining set of matches we had this week. I got some right some wrong. Here are some thoughts on how it shook out:

Arsenal 5-0 Porto
I picked Porto to advance from this matchup and could not have been more wrong. It was not even close. No Cesc was not a problem for Arsenal. Bendtner's hat trick was fantastic for Arsenal but the fact that it came less than a week after he squandered 3 legitimate scoring opportunities shows he has the mindset to be a world class striker. Absolute gulf in class here.

Fiorentina 3-2 Bayern Munich
Fiorentina put up more of a fight than I thought, in fact they won the game but were done in on away goals. I didn't see the whole game but what I did catch I thought Bayern played a little below their potential. They now have some extra time to get ready for their next opponent. Their back line should be back to health by the time the quarter final round begins and the always fragile Ribery and Robben may be in better shape.

Manchester United 4-0 AC Milan
There was never a doubt in my mind United were moving on, but I didn't think it would be such a blow out. The fact that the second place team in Serie A lost 7-2 on aggregate I think says a lot about the balance of power in Europe these days. It really is Spain and England then everybody else.

Real Madrid 1-1 Lyon
On Monday night I accurately predicted the score of this game. Genius, genius, genius. When The Greasy One put Madrid up in the opening minutes I thought they were probably heading to the quarters, but the game settled into the pattern I expected in the second half. Madrid have themselves to blame as they squandered at least 3 clear opportunities. Lyon did a good job of containing Madrid. Not terribly exciting to watch and a bit cynical at times, but they had a plan and stuck to it. As a result they are among the 8 teams left standing and Real Madrid are out of Europe in the first knock out round for the sixth time in a row. All of the doomsdaying you would expect is in full swing in the Spanish press and this game is sure to be the reference point for an avalanche of changes going forward. I am going to enjoy this for now and will probably write a longer post about it in the days to come.

Thoughts:
All in all 4 pretty cool games. Each one interesting in its own way. This might be a snobbish thing to say but I think of the 4 teams who made their way into the next round this week only Manchester United has a strong chance of being Champions of Europe this year. For me the other real contenders are playing next week. Still, any one of the other three teams is capable of ending a campaign for one of the heavies. Look forward to the reshuffling.

Real Madrid, Liverpool, and AC Milan are the three most accomplished clubs in European competition and none of them are still alive. Probably doesn't mean anything in itself, but I find it interesting.