After the UEFA Champions League Group Stage ended today, Liverpool and 15 other teams enter the knockout stage. The draw to determine who plays who in the February 19/20 and March 4/5 knock out matches will take place December 21st (5am central time). The conditions governing the draw could lead to some interesting ties for Liverpool:
-clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. So we can’t play Manchester United, Arsenal, or Chelsea, but we’ll probably play one of them later on. We matched up against Chelsea in the semi-finals in both 2005 and 2007. Both ended in shoot-outs, which we won.
-the winners and runners-up of the same group cannot be drawn against each other. So long FC Porto.
-Group winners cannot be drawn against each other. Nothing here…we were second.
-Group runners-up cannot be drawn against each other. No Schalke, Olympiacos, Celtic, Lyon, Roma, or Fenerbahce (good thing. I support the Turks when I’m not routing for the Reds).
That leaves Real Madrid, AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, and Sevilla as possible opponents. While we’re glad to have qualified for the knock-out round, we see the value of having started out strong enough to win our group. Clubs from Spain, Italy or England won all of the eight groups except one, Group A, which was our group and won by FC Porto (Portugal). Arsenal qualified but did not win Group H. Spain had a strong showing as three of their four teams qualified by winning their group. Italy qualified three of their four and two won their group. So by being the runners-up of Group A, we signed up to face a team from Italy or Spain.
Liverpool supporters are crying for a rematch vs. AC Milan, who we lost to last year in the Champions League Final in Istanbul. But www.liverpoolfc.tv reports that Fernando Torres, a childhood fan and former player for Atletico Madrid, would like to match up against Real Madrid. Last year we drew Barca in this round and beat them on aggregate goals. Barca didn’t have Thierry Henry, but we didn’t have Fernando Torres. Drawing the Catalans would be risky for us and might prove to be close like last year (Away: 2-1. Home: 0-1). If we draw any team from Spain, Sevilla would be my preference. They beat Real Madrid at home in early November, but since have had 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses in the Spanish play. With our experience in this tournament, I think we’d be likely to win.
Inter has been hot lately, and our players would come out with a vengeance against AC Milan. All of these teams, if they played good football, would be difficult to beat. I say, if we play for payback: AC Milan. If we play for a good shot to beat the other team: Sevilla. To beat one of the hot teams: Inter Milan. To give another team a rematch: Barcelona. For Torres: Real Madrid. And if Torres gets pumped for the match, then that’s what we need.
