Champions League Draw Isn’t Too Bad…

By: Wayne Farry | March 20th, 2009

Today at roughly 11am the draw for the Champions League Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals took place in Switzerland. Here’s how the draw looks:

Villarreal vs Arsenal
Man Utd vs FC Porto
Liverpool vs Chelsea
Barcelona vs Bayern Munich

So, in the general swing of things it’s not a great draw for either Chelsea or Liverpool who once again face each other in the Champions League. It’s kinda getting ridiculous now really. Elsewhere, the Yellow Submarine drew Arsenal and Barcelona drew Bayern Munich. Villarreal’s tie with Arsenal will be interesting, they faced each other in the CL Semi-Final back in 2005/06 and it was a very, very close game. Barca against Bayern should be a cracking match between two European heavyweights. Lots o goals, me thinks.

So onto the main issue here. We have drawn FC Porto in the Quarter-Final, with the possibility of facing Arsenal or Villarreal. I am really quite pleased with the draw. We’re on a different side of the draw to Barca, ‘Pool and Chelsea, who are arguably the other three strongest teams left in the draw. We can only face any of those three if/when we reach the Champions League Final, where by that stage one or both of Chelsea and Liverpool will be out of the tournament. So not too bad at all.

Porto faced Atletico Madrid in the last round of the competition. They’re matches finished 2-2 at the Vicente Calderon whereas it finished 0-0 during the return leg at the Estádio do Dragao. Porto were okay away to Madrid but got sort of lucky after some absolutely horrible defending from Atletico. Lisandro Lopez scored both their goals and he, to me at least, really is their main threat. He’s got a nice turn of pace, is strong and has a real, genuine eye for goal. So we’ll have to watch out for him.

Since the draw was only just made I’m gonna end this here as we’ll want to go into more detail shortly before the games. So that’s it, a good draw for us and some tasty looking ties for the other teams. It’ll be interesting to hear comments from officials from the club about the draw, I’m sure they’ll be happy enough. Check back here for the club’s quotes when they’re available.

Just one thing, are you guys happy with the draw or would you have preferred another team? Perhaps to get one of the big boys out of the way early? Let us know by commenting..

UPDATE: Some quotes from Fergie regarding the Champions League draw after he spoke to the Man Utd official website:

“This is a good draw for us. You sometimes wonder if being at home first is a good or a bad thing but I think in this modern-day competition there’s no indication of what is better.

“The only thing you hope is that you don’t lose a goal in the home tie.

“We’ve met Porto before and obviously we respect any Portuguese team. We have had a huge Portuguese influence in the club, firstly with Carlos Quieroz but now with Cristiano and Nani. So we understand Portuguese football.

“We’re happy with the draw and we’re looking forward to the tie.”

(Photos of FC Porto vs A. Madrid by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)