UEFA Champions League quarter finals

It’s down to the final eight who are gearing up for the UEFA Champions League quarter finals starting the first week of April.
One of England’s Manchester United, Chelsea or Tottenham, Spain’s Real Madrid or Barcelona, Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, Italy’s Internazionale or Germany’s Schalke 04 will win the championship trophy at Wembley Stadium on May 28th.
Internazionale Milano is coming in defending last year’s championship title. They definitely earned this year’s quarter final spot when they came from behind to score the winning goal in the last two minutes against Bayern. Inter’s Samuel Eto’o is also one of the best forwards in the world and one of the top scorers remaining in the tournament, having notched 8 goals since the group stage.
Internazionale faces off against Schalke 04 on April 5thand 13th, and the German side remembers well the time they stole the UEFA Cup Final from the Italians in 1997. Although Schalke did not win any games last time they were in the UEFA quarter finals (2008), their performance in this year’s tournament has been of good standing, with 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.
Chelsea may be looking for some redemption when they play Manchester United on April 6th and 12th. Back in 2008, they clashed in the Champions League final where Manchester took home the trophy. Manchester also claimed titles in 1999 and 1968 and were runner-ups in 2008. The rivalry between the two English teams is fierce, which will make their quarter final games exhilarating to watch, to say the least.
Tottenham Hotspur are the triumphant underdogs of the group, as they were not expected to make it this far and are the only remaining team to have gone through the qualifying and play-off rounds before entering the 32-team group phase. They take on Real Madrid on April 5th and 13th. Tottenham are Champion League virgins, whereas Real has been the most successful club in the tournament’s history, with nine titles under their belt. Will the Spurs be intimidated by some of the best players in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel di María and more recently Karim Benzema, or will they work some of their darkhorse magic?
Although Barcelona has the highest odds of winning the whole league (at 35.7%), they first have to beat Shakhtar Donetsk before moving on to the semi-finals. Both teams have scored 18 goals and each has only lost one of their eight games during the tournament. But unlike Barcelona’s experience of winning three titles and being runner-ups an additional three times in the Champions League, this is farthest the Ukrainian team has gone in the UEFA tournament. Still, Barcelona must be a little nervous that Shakhtar hasn’t lost a home game since 2008.
Even though a betting man will likely gamble on Barcelona, the UEFA Champions League should continue to show its range of surprises; think Tottenham’s win over AC Milan, the second most successful team in the history of the Champions League, during the round of 16.
Who do you think is going to take home the UEFA Champions League Title? Drop your comments below and let us know.

Think i'm going to have

Real 2 Spurs 1 Van Der Vart first goalscorer

Chelsea 1 Man Utd 1 Nani first goalscorer

Not too much in either of these games for me;

Real 1 Spurs 0, Di Maria.

Chelsea 1 Man Utd 1, Malouda first goal.

As for the tournament as a whole, I still can't see past Barca. Their win at Villarreal last night pretty much put them out of sight to win La Liga again, so they'll be fully focused on the Champions League. They can be beaten, as Arsenal proved at the Emirates, but it's theirs to lose as far as I'm concerned.

Real 3 Spurs 1

Chelsea 2 Man Utd 1

After Real's loss the other day they will be well up to beat Spurs, think Chelsea will beat Man U at home but lose the 2nd leg at OT!

Dan_the_Owl wrote:Not too much in either of these games for me;

Do I know my football, or what?

I think Di Maria scoring was as close as I got!

Tottenham all but out, as are Inter. Wouldn't have fancied them to capitulate the way they did after Stankovic's stunning opener within half a minute;

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/golazo!-dejan-stankovic-schalke-8963239/

Fancy Real as winners with their strength in depth, as for tonight's result ........Chelsea 1 - 2 Manure.
Shame about Spurs though, once Crouch had been sent off any chance of a contest was over. However I do fancy them to win at WHL but Real still to go through relatively comfortably.

The Spurs team still looks really good on paper .