after an enjoyable opening week to the new, extended champions league knockout phase, fans and broadcasters alike will be hoping for more of the same on tuesday and wednesday night. the tie of the round is happening on wednesday, but before we get ahead of ourselves...
olympiakos v bordeaux, 7.45pm tuesday.
perhaps not surprisingly, this tie has been given the least attention of the 8 second-round matches from the UK-based press, but you can bet that the rest of the teams will be paying close attention, particularly to bordeaux. laurent blanc caught the attention of europe when he broke the dominance of lyon in ligue 1 last season, and there's no sign of fatigue- bordeaux remain 3 points clear domestically, and look most likely to break the hold of the english and spanish clubs on the champions league. led by the outstanding yoann gourcuff (inexplicably let go by ac milan) and the premier league-bound chamakh, they'd trouble anyone on their day. with a kind quarter-final draw, they look more than capable of emulating psv eindhoven's unlikely run to the semis a few years back.
i'm assuming that olympiakos will fall, but much depends on this tie in athens. sky's coverage will no doubt make much of matt derbyshire, who has been a hit since signing from blackburn, but olympiakos are much more dependant on their promising forward mitroglou, who has the pace to worry bordeaux's centre-halves.
stuttgart v barcelona, 7.45pm tuesday.
when the draw was made, most predicted walkover for barcelona. they still should go through, but don't be surprised if stuttgart enter the 2nd leg with a narrow advantage. coming off a 5-1 victory over cologne at the weekend, stuttgart have recently been performing better than their league position (9th) suggests.
of more importance to this tie is the ongoing injury issues (i refuse to use the word crisis, the world needs some fucking perspective) hampering barcelona. seydou keita and eric abidal aren't the first names everyone thinks of when they think of barca, but they are crucial counterweights to the gung-ho forward play of andres iniesta and dani alves. the loss of those 2, and possibly xavias well, will undoubtedly affect barca's ability to build in their gradual way, and dictate the rhythm of the game. guardiola won't admit it, especially after their dominant display against racing this weekend, but right now, he'd probably take a draw.
enjoy the games, and look for my wednesday preview in the next couple of days.
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