Friday 20 March 2009

Quarter finals

There's some teams I'd rather avoid in the hat for the quarter-finals.

The big result of the night must be Shakhtar Donetsk beating a very good CSKA Moscow side 2-0 at home to put them out. The other big name casualty was the other Russian side, Zenit St. Petersburg who could only beat Udinese 1-0 on the night thus going out 2-1 on aggregate.

The team I'm most worried about, Martin Jol's Hamburg, were 3-1 down on aggregate at half time, away at Galatasary. But they came back with three second half goals to go through 4-3.

Other results went predictably. Paris Saint Germain beat Braga 1-0 to go through, and Dinamo Kiev beat fellow Ukrainians Metalist Kharkiv on away goals.

Of course, it's easier now that Valencia and Milan are out - but it's still quite tough. I suppose in order of preference, from easiest to hardest, this is how I view the draw:

Dinamo Kiev
Shakhtar Donetsk
Udinese
Werder Bremen
Paris Saint Germain
Marseille
Hamburg

Basically I really want one of the Ukraine sides, wouldn't mind Werder or Udinese, but am very keen on avoiding PSG, HSV or l'OM. But we'll know soon enough.
at

4 comments:

Gary said...

There is no team I want to avoid, like I said on bitter and blue earlier you have to beat the best to be the best. If there is a preference I have about a team I would want to play, it would probably be one of the Ukraine teams for me as well. I watched Shakhtar earlier and they were poor, but I am not really fussed there is no team I am frightened of, I think we can beat any of them if we play to the best of our ability.

20 March 2009 at 02:45
Unknown said...

PSG were bobbins at COMS in the group stages. Wouldn't mind playing them again.

20 March 2009 at 03:48
jackblue said...

I don't care now Galatasary are out. I wouldn't have liked to see our fans in Istanbul - their fans are evil b@stards.

20 March 2009 at 10:11
tom goulding said...

Donetsk and Udinese are very average - Donetsk only just squeezed past us (spurs) when we fielded a B team (and a real B team; not a Arsenal in the Carling cup B team which includes Eduardo, Gallas, Hleb, Fabregas and Flamini. We actually had 11 better players than those on the pitch, in the right positions when we played donetsk). And Udinese played us in our nadir (ramos' last game in charge) and won a scrappy game largely down to Gomes throwing the ball in the net.

I can safely say that you should ease past both of those should you draw them.

20 March 2009 at 12:11

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