Champions League Predictions

Champions League group stages are over and well what can I say? Your webmaster seems to have done pretty well in his predictions of the games played out so far: http://mibfc.blogspot.com/2008/08/champions-league-draw.html

So the remaining teams are:

Roma iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Chelsea
Panathinaikos iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Inter Milan
Barcelona iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Sporting Lisbon
Liverpool iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Atletico Madrid
Man. United iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Villareal
B. Munich iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Lyon
Porto iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Arsenal
Juventus iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Real Madrid


For the next stage, the top placed team takes on a runner up from another group, with the 2nd leg played at the home of the group winner. You cannot play a club from the same country as you, so Liverpool can't play Arsenal, Barca can't play Madrid and Chelsea can't play any Russian team.

From what I see, the teams to avoid for the English clubs are Barcelona, Juventus and Inter Milan. Anything else and I think most of them should be manageable over 2 legs.


It's extremely hard to predict who will play who, but I will make some bold forecasts:

Liverpool will play Real Madrid at some point of the competition. Don't ask me why, I just have this gut feeling. It happened with Inter Milan last year, and Barcelona the year before. Is it a good thing to play Madrid, I really don't know. Forms of the teams in February will decide that outcome.

Chelsea or Manchester United will play Inter Milan at some point of the tournament. Again, a gut feeling, cannot be explained. Jose Mourinho will get the limelight he misses, but don't be surprised to see him arguing his way home after a defeat.

That's all for now.