Draw for the last 16 of the Champions League:

Celtic v Barcelona
Lyon v Man Utd
Schalke v Porto
Liverpool v Inter Milan
Roma v Real Madrid
Arsenal v AC Milan
Olympiakos v Chelsea
Fenerbahce v Sevilla

The choice matchup there is of course the Arsenal - AC Milan tie. Two of Europe's best footballing sides, and big teams with great histories. Kaka and Pirlo the keys for Milan, and Hleb and Cesc for Arsenal.

However all the teams in this years knockout stages are quite impressive, and there is going to be some fantastic football on show.

Celtic will have to battle and scrap to get something against Barcelona, but I don't expect them to win, especially with Eto'o back now. Any chance of a result will depend on them effectively resorting to "British" football.

Lyon will be a tricky test for favourites Man United. A lot will depend on Karim Benzema, who is Europe's most in-form young forward. Juninho will be important as well, with his ability from set pieces, and Lyon will look to keep it tight and work through counter-attacks with Benzema and set plays with Juninho.

Schalke v Porto is a group stage rematch from a few years ago. The teams are quite evenly matched, although Porto have more pedigree. This will probably be one of the really unpredictable and potentially entertaining ties of the round.

Liverpool v Inter Milan has "tactical battle" written all over it. Steven Gerrard will come up aganst his old nemesis/inspiration Patrick Vieira, and Crespo will have a chance to get some revenge for the lost final in which he scored (with AC Milan) from 3 years ago. Ibrahimovic, Cruz, Crespo, Figo, Stankovic, and Crespo make up an attack that will have Rafa Benitez sweating.

Roma v Real Madrid sees two attacking teams go up against each other, and will be another great encounter to watch. Both sides have suspect defences, although Roma are slightly more tight-knit than Real at the moment, but lacking in the talent that the Los Merengues have at their disposal.

Chelsea have the easiest matchup, facing "minnows" Olympiakos, who are the first Greek side in history to make the knockout stages. The Greeks don't have much in terms of personnel, although are a very good team. Players like LuaLua, Djordjevic, Kovacevic and Galetti are capable of brilliant moments, but no consistently so. Chelsea meanwhile will probably have brought in 2 or 3 more stars by this time, although it's possible that Didier Drogba might be gone.

Fenerbahce vs Sevilla will see the Spaniards go through. Fener have some talented Brazilians, but not as talented as Sevilla's, and the Andalusians are looking stronger, and stronger.

Liverpool kept their dreams alive with a somewhat fortuitous 4-1 over Porto yesterday. The scoreline was very flattering to Rafa Benitez's men, but they won't complain as they are still in with a chance to go through.  They must now go and win in Marseilles, in what is a very tight group. All 4 teams are still in with a chance of going through, with Porto on 8 points, Marseille and Liverpool on 7, and Beskitas on 6. It won't be an easy task though, as Marseille have already gone to Anfield and taken 3 points, and all they need is a draw to progress.

The other two British teams with clouds hanging over their qualification hopes are Glasgow rivals Rangers and Celtic. Celtic are away to AC Milan, although the Italians are already qualified, and Celtic need just a draw to progress, so we might well see a stalemate. Even if they lost, Shakhtar would still need to overcome Benfica to have a chance, and that won't be easy since Benfica will want a place in the UEFA cup.

Rangers have a slightly more high pressure situation. They play Lyon in what is basically a direct contest for the second spot. Rangers need a draw to advance, and Lyon need to win. It is probably going to be an epic encounter, and the press will not doubt be bringing up the France vs Scotland allusions from the recently concluded Euro 2008 qualifiers. Rangers will be disappointed though by their performance versus Stuttgart, losing 3-2 late on after being 2-1 up.

Well, if everything goes correctly for the three Brit sides, the knockout stage of the Champions League might just see an astonishing 6 out of the 16 teams come from Britain.

The 8 teams qualified thus far are: Chelsea, AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Roma, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Arsenal.

My picks for the remaining eight are: Porto, Marseille, Schalke, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Celtic, Rangers and Fenerbhace.

Spare a thought for the once great Dynamo Kyiv, who have 0 points, and for Valencia... they're not even in contention for a UEFA Cup spot at the moment.

Group A
Liverpool
Porto
Marseilles
Besiktas

Group B
Chelsea
Valencia
Schalke
Rosenborg

Group C
Real Madrid
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiakos

Group D
AC Milan
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group E
Barcelona
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers

Group F
Manchester United
Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kyiv

Group G
Inter Milan
PSV
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce

Group H
Arsenal
Sevilla/AEK Athens
Steaua Bucharest
Slavia Praha

About 6 years ago, Spartak Moscow playmaker Yegor (Egor/Yeghor/Igor/etc) Titov was one of Europe's hottest properties. He was impressive in the Champions League, and for the national team. They were narrowly eliminated from the Champions League in a tough group that featured Arsenal, Lyon and Bayern Munich, and it was widely thought that Titov would move on to greener pastures and settle in Serie A or La Liga where he could pull the strings from midfield. He was a gifted player, and at 6'1", was no pushover either. Certainly one could imagine him gracefully constructing play on the Spanish pitches where his compatriots Valery Karpin and Alexandr Mostovoi had excelled not too long ago.

Instead, he's now 30 years old, still playing for Spartak and very unlikely to make an impact on any kind of larger scale. The emergence of CSKA Moscow has seen Spartak lose control of the league, and as a result their effect on the Champions League has been minimised. Russia beat Andorra 4-0 today in the Euro 2008 Qualifiers, but there was no sign of Titov. He will probably finish his career as a club hero at Spartak, but no doubt he will have a deep sense of unfulfillment at the way his career has panned out.

Umm... I should also mention that he was tested positive for Nandrolone after a Euro 2004 qualifier and banned for 12 months, but talent is still talent. Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids, Frank de Boer, Abel Xavier, Adrian Mutu and a few others have all had lengthy drug bans, but come back to excel again. It's not THAT big a deal! Or is it? Who knows? I don't. Do you?

Anyways, i'm sure he still had a fantastic career and won many European and World Cups on Championship Manager. That's always something to fall back on.

Well... ticket sales for this years Champions League Final (Athens 2007) seem to have ended up in a right old mess. I'm watching it on TV at the moment (as the poor and distant are wont to do), and things seem noisy enough so i'd hope that most of the loyal fans who tried their best to go have managed to, but there has been an unhappy sinister note to the way the whole thing has been handled.

* WHAT A ROULETTE FROM KAKA! *

Anyways, sorry... back to the business. The first big problem, is that forged tickets have flooded the market - there are said to be in excess of 1500 tickets, and arrests have already been made, although the number in circulation is thought to be huge. Many fans had bought tickets in advance, and some are concerned that these might now be fake , which is heartbreaking considering that the minimum paid was probably about €400.

* TYPICAL OPPORTUNISM FROM PIPP INZAGHI, MILAN 1-0 UP. STUPID HALF-TIME PANELISTS SAY HANDBALL, I SAY WATCH THE REPLAYS PROPERLY *

Fans have also been sadly let down by the system in this case. The Spiros Louis Stadium holds only 63,000, so the per club allocation of roughly 17,000 tickets was never that large to begin with. Fans have thus had to go around to all manner of touts and ticket agencies to try and find those golden tickets, and have these been very vulnerable to trouble. Many ticket agencies sold packages to clients without having the requisite number of tickets in hand, and they did so in anticipation of ticket prices falling, and subsequently making huge profits. Unfortunately that never happened, and so several hopeful fans have been left in the lurch. The majority of these agencies simply took the money and ran, and obviously since the deals were dodgy to begin with, the clients could do nothing.

Travel & sports travel companies weren't much better - most of them refunded the ticket cost (face values) to the fans, but kept the travel expenses portion of it - presumably under the argument that said fans could still have gone and had a holiday and stay in some hotel.

* SECOND HALF AND LIVERPOOL ARE 2-0 DOWN. PERFECT FINISHING FROM PIPPO INZAGHI AGAIN, AND MILAN HAVE SHOWN THEIR PEDIGREE *

Adriano Galliani didn't help things this with his statements saying that only season ticket holders should receive tickets to the final (not sure how much this affected things, especially because Italian fans are the most notorious sellers of their tickets). When you consider the fact that Liverpool and Milan are two of the world's biggest and most popular clubs, it becomes obvious that the ex-pat and international fans would probably be travelling in numbers rivalling those of the local fans.

There is also the great story of the one Italian tour operator who was selling close to 3,000 ticket packages for the final, but actually had 0 tickets. He had anticipated receiving these tickets directly from Milan, and that never materialised. I'm not sure whether the fans eventually received any money back, but I hope they did. So much for the beautiful game eh?

* MILAN WIN. 2-1 AT FULLTIME WITH A CONSOLATION GOAL FROM KUYT. HE WAS OFFSIDE WHEN CROUCH FLICKED IT ON, BUT IT TOUCHED MALDINI ON THE WAY THROUGH AND SO IT STANDS. IT WAS A SCARE FOR MILAN, BUT THEY COMFORTABLY WRAP THE GAME UP, AND IT WAS MEN vs BOYS REALLY *

You know how the saying goes.

Milan teased and tormented a pedestrian United side tonight. When it came down to the crunch, they basically lacked the requisite quality. United are back to where they were when they signed the Juan Sebastian Veron back in 2001, in an attempt to add some class and composure to their midfield because they were so often found wanting when faced up to the continent's best.

The hustle and bustle, and charge and energy of Rooneys and Ronaldos might be enough to storm the Premiership and the meeker of Europe's top contenders, but when faced by the true class of a possession game with high levels of technique, they can't contend. In 2000, Fernando Redondo pulled the strings and bewitched United's midfield into submission as Real Madrid marched on to win the cup. Three years later Zidane and Figo were also present as Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to knock them out. And in between there was their elimination by Deportivo La Coruna, when playmaker Juan Valeron was arguably the best in Europe.

Manchester United play swashbuckling, dynamic, entertaining, attacking football, but they most often pummell opponents into submission, as opposed to carving them open with guile and cunning. That's where they lose out -  they've never had that player in the middle of the park who can control games. Maybe Ferguson made the mistake of thinking that Carrick could/would be that player, but as fantastic of a passer as he is, he doesn't dominate teams with his movement of the ball.

And they were outclassed tonight. Gattuso ran and ran and ran and tackled and kicked everything and gave 100% to never let United's players rest. And in Kaka, Pirlo and Seedorf, Milan had three of Europe's most accomplished passers and thinkers.

Kaka has been a revelation this year with his finishing and general attacking play. He's been the best Brazilian for about a year and a half now, and hopefully he will receive his due credit and emerge from the shadow of Ronaldinho. Sometimes wide, sometimes central, he glides around the pitch, finding enormous amounts of space and plays the game with subtle endeavour using every possible angle to pass and move in. 

Pirlo was Italy's best player at the World Cup, and is one of the most consistent in Europe. He moves the ball perfectly at any distance to any player on the field, intelligently reads the game to fill in gaps, and most importantly he understands situations very well, and adapts to them.

As for Seedorf, he may be a bit older now, but he's won the European Cup thrice - with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan. This will be his sixth final, and third with Milan. He can shoot, pass and run, and his movement and adaptability mean that he can take control when he needs to, or play the supporting role to either Kaka or Pirlo.

Don't forget Ambrosini as well - essentially a defensive midfielder, but with good all-round ability, he supported everyone in their efforts tonight, forming a central core with Pirlo and Gattuso, and allowing Seedorf and Kaka to run around and do their thing.

This was a top, top class midfield, with intelligence, experience, and class, and quite simply Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick are nearly men, who were not upto the task tonight. Ryan Giggs is rejuvenated in his roving role, but is still essentially a 33 year old left-winger with much diminished pace. Scholes is still bright, still classy, but he's always been a reflex player - one touch passes, hammered shots and volleys, and quick interplay.

There was no one to take charge today, no one to control things. In the first leg they escaped through an inspired performance from the team at home in front of a roaring Old Trafford. But at the San Siro, it was men versus boys.

And as for that whole best player in the world debate? Kaka showed today that Cristiano Ronaldo is a million miles away. Kaka is real, true class, a kid who arrived from Sao Paulo and immediately started to control games and make things happen. He can pass, he can move, he can finish. Ronaldo is a trickster who has after three unproductive seasons has hit great form. He is as good of a dribbler as anyone, and has improved his shooting and crossing, but he doesn't play with composure and intelligence in the way that a Kaka, Henry or Ronaldinho does. The Portuguese "kid" has failed to score against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool this season, and I would say that all the celebrations over his talent are more than a little bit pre-mature. 

Good Luck Milan.

Last night was my first ever time at Stamford Bridge, and I have to say that I was underwhelmed. Most of the fans didn't know the songs (most of which were quite uninspired), some were audibly saying stuff like "how does that one go?" and "what are they saying?", and all the shirts were from this season or the one before - no history eh?

They also have some ridiculous anthem, and silly flags that they wave about, and it gave the general impression that I was in some bizarre kind of football Disneyland. I don't really mean to slag them off at Chelski, but it was seriously uninspiring stuff - there were chants of "Chewwseaaa", "Champeeeeyuns" and one or two others that are quite generic and which i'm fairly sure have been nicked off others. Ditto for the player songs. And their support mostly seemed to be in the form of vitriol and abuse at opposition players and fans, and maybe that is just emblematic of the Chelsea/Mourinho mentality of "Us Against The World". Anyways, enough of that, on to the football...

...which as you might expect in a Champions League semi-final was a very tense, cagey affair. I personally don't think that 1 goal is enough for Chelsea up at Anfield, and Fat Frankie Lampard had a chance from which he really should have scored. Shevchenko came close a few times (but was a passenger for the rest of the game), and Joe Cole and Didier Drogba were generally a dangerous duo for most of the game, although Drogba was heavily marked and didn't really have too many shooting opportunities (but he created chances for others, including the goal).

Seeing Drogba play in the flesh really gave me an idea of just how difficult an opponent he is - he's absolutely massive and a good athlete as well. Tall, very well built, and quite quick, time-and-time again he was first to long balls, and/or easily able to get the upper-hand at balls played into the channels. He works hard and really organises the game from the front (and on more than one occassion he lectured Shevchenko, whose timid personality doesn't do him any favours in this team).

Carragher dealt with him decently, but Agger was at his wit's end, and Drogba mostly operated in his area. In the second-half they dealt with him by having Mascherano/Xabi track him and pick-up the second ball when Agger challenged him in the air, but he had already done the damage with his contribution to the goal in the first half. He charged past Agger on the right-flank and put in a low cross to Joe Cole who neatly steered the ball in. Cole was influential all game and he finally gives Chelsea that bit of attacking flair and intelligence that they've missed this season.

Mamamamakekekekelelele was solid, Mikel was decent, and I finally saw Lampard for the overrated "lucky" player that many claim he is - he did nothing all game, doesn't beat players, and thumps long (/diagonal) balls up for the winger or Drogba to get to. But he does pick up scraps in front of goal, and if it wasn't for a super save from Reina, he would have volleyed in for 2-0 and more or less killed the tie. Ashley Cole might as well not have been there - at Arsenal he was an exciting, tenacious, attacking fullback; at Chelsea he is a slightly confused, reasonably steady left-back who just thumps 50-60 yard curling balls into the box for Drogba, and occassionally makes forays and crosses into the box. Chelsea really isn't the place for footballing fullbacks, and on the night Paulo Ferreira didn't seem like fullback who even knew how to play football - he was beaten time and time again by Boudewijn Zenden of all people, and he's just lucky that Zenden couldn't shoot, cross or pass to save his life.

That was it really, there were more poor performances on show than good ones, and Liverpool were really bad. I can't believe why Rafa Benitez put out the side that he did, but i'm sure that we'll see a completely different Liverpool at Anfield. Resting Peter Crouch was strange, and omitting Pennant (who has been in good form of late) was a sign that they were willing to play for a draw and maybe steal one on the break with Bellamy's pace. As it were, Bellamy was just awful - Chelsea defended deep, and never pushed up so he never had anywhere to run into. Kuyt can't quiyt act as the proper foil for him, and Liverpool generally looked like a side that didn't know what they were doing.

Gerrard was excellent, and influential, but had nothing happening in front of him (constant comments from the Chelsea fans all night along the lines of "ee should of come to Chewww-seee", which was also what they said in reference to any other good player that someone decided to talk about... amazing what a bit of money does to people eh?). He had one fantastic volley saved by Cech, which was the only real save that he made all game. This was in stark contrast to Pepe Reina at the other hand who made a series of breath-taking saves at the other end. He was Drogba's rival for Man of the Match, and if Liverpool go on to salvage anything in the second leg, they have him to thank for keeping the scores level.

Finally, a quick mention about the "ghost penalty" that Mourinho keeps going on about - I haven't seen the incident on TV, but I was seated directly in line with it, and to me it seemed that the ball bounced up off Arbeloa's knee or thigh onto his hand (which was by his side). Ball-to-hand if there ever was one and I think the referee made the right decision, although Mourinho being Mourinho, the Special One with Special Needs, no decision will ever satisy him.

Anyways though, it's all just fuel for the fire that is the game at Anfield. There will be the Kop and all the fans to deal with, as well as (i'm hoping) a more attacking line-up. Steve Finnan was badly missed, and Pennant and Crouch will play in the second-leg, maybe even Mark Gonzalez. The attack in London was completely void of any guile or invention, and Luis Garcia, inconsistent as he is, is a big loss in this department.

Anyhow, next week should be quite the game, and the atmosphere will be something special up there... let's see if Chelsea can handle it.

AC Milan 2 - 2 Bayern Munchen

Bayern Munich came away from Milan with 2 valuable away goals to set up an exciting contest in the 2nd leg.

Andrea Pirlo scored first for Milan, showing great reactions and technique to loop a header over the onrushing Michael Rensing from an awkward position. There were definite questions about offsides when the ball was played through, but Pirlo looked to be just on.

The lead didn't last too long however - from a set piece, a misdirected header fell to Daniel Van Buyten about 7 yards in front of goal, and he steered it past the keeper with his left. A neat finish, especially from a giant right-footed central defender, and Bayern were level with about 15 minutes to go.

Milan then regained the lead with some very questionable refereeing. Kaka glided into the box with his usual elegan style, went past a few players, and then headed for the byline. But Van Buyten muscled in and won the ball with a fantastic challenge that looked to have eased the pressure so close to the end. But the referee gave a penalty, cue furious protests from the Bayern players.

Kaka took a long, long time over the penalty, perhaps deciding whether he should miss it or not, but eventually he slotted low to the right, with Rensing going in the absolute opposite direction. You can't blame Kaka at all, he fell over when he was tackled, bounced straight up, and never onced appealed to the referee for anything, and honestly looked quite embarassed when the penalty was given. But he was professional, and scored his 7th goal of this year's Champions League.

Justice was to prevail though, especially for Van Buyten, and in the 93rd minute of the game, the ball once again broke to him in Milan's penalty area, and he took a touch and blasted home a left-footed volley at the near post. It was the last action of the game, and it ended there, 2-2. A very entertaining encounter, and two great left-footed finishes from the big Belgian, Van Buyten, the second of which any striker in the world would have been proud of.