Champions League quarter-final draw has been held on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland.
The draws produced two arguably one-sided ties and a potentially exciting duel ruined a bit by the fact it would feature two clubs from the same country and one very intriguing one.
FC Barcelona of Spain was the first team out of the pot with fellow Spanish team and current La-Liga rival, Atletico Madrid as their opponent. This crushes the chances of all 3 in-form Spanish teams in the competition making it to the Semi Final.
Fellow Spanish giants, Real Madrid have been offered an opportunity for revenge as they would face Borussia Dortmund of Germany. It is a re-run of last year’s semi-final in which Real Madrid were outclassed.
PSG Coach, Laurent Blanc, had said that he was hoping to get Man United in the draw: “It would be nice to face Manchester. Their qualification I am sincerely pleased for because they live in difficult moments, they were able to re-group and there should certainly be an amazing atmosphere. It would make me happy to visit Old Trafford as it would make me happy to visit other stadia.”
However, he is up against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, although he still gets his wish for a trip to England.
The final tie, and the hardest possible draw for David Moyes and Manchester United would have been going up against Defending Champions, Bayern Munich and that is exactly the reward they got for their courageous comeback against Olympiakos.
This is expected to be seen as a potential one-sided duel, owing to the current form of the Premier League Champions and the suspension of Team Captain, Patrice Evra for the first leg. How his potential replacement, Alex Buttner would cope against pacy Arjen Robben is not what many Man United fans would wish to imagine.
Bayern Munich Captain, Philipp Lahm, has reacted to the draw: “We can’t allow Manchester United’s current position in the Premier League table to affect our mindset for this game. We will travel to Manchester in order to play attacking football and score goals.”
Find the pairings below:
- Barcelona v Atlético Madrid
- Real Madrid v Dortmund
- Paris Saint-Germain v Chelsea
- Bayern Munich v Manchester United