UEFA Champions, Europa League Brackets Set

On Friday morning, UEFA drew the quarterfinal pairings for its Champions and Europa Leagues, in the process creating the brackets which will guide us to these tournaments' finals.

With the Champions League draw, we moved closer to a Barcelona-Manchester United finals rematch.

Barcelona got one of the tougher teams, drawing Arsenal in a tie which will start at the Emirates.  However, stylistically, this creates a good match-up for Barcelona.  As we saw in last year's final when Manchester United tried to do so, nobody can play with Barcelona.  You have to beat them with tactics (Rubin Kazan, Sevilla) or luck (Atlético Madrid, getting Barça at the right time).  Arsenal doesn't significantly vary how they play, which is a lot like Barcelona.

If they get through, Barça will likely play Internazionale after the Nerazzurri were drawn with CSKA Moscow.  It is not that the Russians are push-overs, but their style is a horrible fit against Inter.  CSKA is great at attacking, fast out of the back, able to get numerous attackers into each charge.  Against an Inter side capable of absorbing and countering, that verve could be disastrous, particularly against a side whose recent trip to Kazan makes the environment of Moscow less daunting.

In the top half of the draw, one French team is guaranteed a semifinal appearance as Bordeaux and Lyon are drawn together.  Lyon lost at Bordeaux earlier this year 1-0, but although that recent history, Bordeaux's Champions League success (7-1-0) record this year, and standing in Ligue 1 may point to Girondins as the favorite, their conservative style will keep this tie close.  That leaves multiple opportunities for a player like Lisandro López to steal this tie, be it through a goal of his own or creating a goal for the likes of Miralem Pjanic.

Then there is Manchester United, who get Bayern Munich in a rematch of the 1999 final.  This is a horrible match-up for Bayern, whose best player (Robben) will have to get with Patrice Evra and Park Ji-Sung, and when he cuts in he'll run into Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic.  Munich's central defenders (Martin Dimechelis, Daniel van Buyten, possible Holder Badstuber) are not great counters for Wayne Rooney, and they don't have the defenders at left and right back to deal with Nani and Antonio Valencia.  

Other than that, things look good for Munich.

More on Europa League after the jump, but first your reaction to the draw and how close we are to another Barcelona-Manchester United final:

Between then, they hold seven European championships, making it a dream Europa League match-up.

On April 1, Benfica will host Liverpool in one Europa League quarterfinal.  Benfica's tendency to attack in waves (much like, but better than, CSKA) with stress Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson, Emiliano Insua and Daniel Agger.  It will be critical Javier Mascherano destroy those attack before they start, just as it will be critical that center half Luisão deals with Liverpool's Fernando Torres.  There is nobody like Torres in Portugal, and as we saw with the Spaniard's Thursday brace against Lille, sometimes El Niño is enough.

Also in that half of the draw is an all-Spain match-up:  Valencia and Atlético Madrid.  Each team got to the quarters on away goals, eliminating Werder Bremen and Sporting CP, respectively.  Valencia is the better team but their inconsistency would make an upset ironically not surprising.  The last time these two teams met, Carlos Marchena picked up two quick cards and Atlético won 4-1 at the Vincente Calderon.

In the top half of the bracket, Hamburg got the team everybody wanted to draw: Standard Liège.  A lot of people have told me Liège is tough, but there memories seem clouded by past performances.  This season's Liège side no longer has Oguchi Onyewu, and Steven Defour has battled injuries all season.  They're seventh in the Juliper League with one week to play, while Hamburg has been in the top five-or-six in Germany all season.  They appear on the verge of another step toward a home field Europa final.

In the four match, Fulham takes on Wolfsburg.  Last year's Bundesliga champions, Wolfsburg has the talent to win this tournament, but they lack consistency, particularly in defense.  That's what makes this a good match-up for a tactically adept Fulham team that can exploit those weaknesses.  

On talent, Fulham may not  be one of the top 5-6 teams left, but having eliminated Shakhtar Donetsk and Juventus, they've proven they can beat anybody.  I like them to exploit Wolfsburg and make the semifinals.