Barça, Bordeaux Look to Join Inter, CSKA

Today, we have two prohibitive favorites trying to complete their Round of 16 UEFA Champions League ties.

Barcelona carries a 1-1 score into their home leg at the Nou Camp, and while there is still the general feeling that Barça is the team-to-beat until proven otherwise, impressive Champions League performances from Manchester United, Arsenal, and Internazionale are starting to make the case.  Today, Barcelona needs to start finding their best form, because they will need it if they draw United in the next round.  And that's if they get past Stuttgart today.

Bordeaux may have even greater problems, though those problems are less discussed.  Girondins is so steady in what they do - using great defending and timely goals to accumulate the tournament's best record.  But they have yet to be tested (in Ligue 1 or Champions League) yet they continue engaging in a series of coin-flip matches.  While their 1-0 lead makes it unlikely that approach bites them today against Olympiacos, this talented time needs to be given room to excel.  There is no reason for Laurent Blanc to continue his stranglehold of this team's potential by constricting Marouane Chamakh, Yoann Gourcuff, Wendel, Jaroslav Plansil, and Fernando.  

This team has one of the best back lines in the world, but that does not mean you need to lean on it.  If anything, that should afford you more opportunities to be aggressive.

Barcelona and Bordeaux are favored to be the seventh and eighth teams in the quarterfinals, with the draw defining the rest of the tournament's bracket to be held later this week.  At this point in the competition, there are no restrictions.  You could see teams from the same group or country drawn together.

The same country caveat is less of an issue this season.  If Barcelona and Olympiacos win, England will be the only country that has two representatives in the final eight.  If Bordeaux wins, France joins England with that distinction.  It's an incredible amount of diversity considering we are used to seeing four English teams and a couple of Spanish sides alive at this point of the tournament.  If Barcelona somehow loses today, Spain will be completely out.

The diversity was greatly aided by CSKA Moscow's upset of Sevilla on Tuesday.  Only garnering a 1-1 back in Moscow, CSKA was a long shot to win in Seville.  However, a great match from Keisuke Honda (goal, assist) and another lack-luster performance from Sevilla allowed CSKA to get a 2-1 result and become the first Russian Premier League team to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament.  And they did so without their best player, Alan Dzagoev, who was injured for the duration of the tie.

CSKA's historic achievement was overshadowed by José Mourinho and Internazionale.  The special coach will always be associated with Chelsea final steps to becoming one of world football's elite, thus the deserved attention afforded his return to Stamford Bridge.  With the exception of Wesley Sneijder, who had an exceptional game in midfield for Inter, nobody shined brighter than Mourinho, who got his formation, tactics, substitutions and (apparently) his motivation correct.  Inter wins 1-0 and knocks Chelsea out of Champions League.

Inter was a bad match-up for Chelsea, over whom they held a number of tactical advantages (as I wrote, before the first leg).  People are now going to talk about whether Chelsea is on the decline, and while I can see arguments both ways, know that Chelsea got a tough draw in the Round of 16.  There are a number of teams who will survive to the quarters who Chelsea would be favored to beat:  Arsenal, Lyon, Bordeaux, Bayern Munich.  Chelsea may still be one of the four best clubs in the world, but they happened to draw one of the top three.

But we will have to wait to see, over the next couple of weeks, whether "may still be one of the four best clubs in the world" holds up.

For England, in general, this Champions League is turning into a reality check.  The league went almost two years without losing to another in the tournament's knock-out stages.  Even then, it took a historically good Barcelona team to do so.  Now Liverpool doesn't make it out of group and Chelsea loses two matches after doing so.

It's time to reassess.