Champions League quarter final preview

The Champions League returns for the quarter finals next week with four exciting match ups to be played. On Tuesday Liverpool will host Porto, which is a repeat of last year’s round of 16 match. The first game was played in Porto and Liverpool crushed them 0-5 and then in the second leg did not need to put in barely any effort and the game ended 0-0. Even though Liverpool were probably the happiest with the draw, they should not expect the match to be as easy as it was last season. Liverpool also have to play in a must-win game against Chelsea in between their two-leg with Porto which will be very tiring both mentally and physically.

The second game on Tuesday will be between Spurs and Manchester City at Spurs’ new stadium. This is will be a tricky game for Guardiola’s men who probably would have liked to avoid another English team. They were knocked out last year at the same stage by Liverpool and Guardiola will be hoping that there is not be a repeat this year. They face each other three days after their second leg in the Premier League and there could be phycological damage for either team if they are defeated in an embarrassing style.

On Wednesday Barcelona will take on Manchester United in a repeat of the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals, which Barcelona won both. The two teams have not faced each other since the 2011 final and a lot has changed since then. Barcelona will be feeling confident that they can overcome United, especially with the form that Messi is in. However, Solskjaer has had a magical night at the Camp Nou already when he scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final and he will be hoping his team can replicate some of this magic.

The final match next week will be between Ajax and Juventus which will be at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Ajax are the underdogs coming into this match but will take encouragement from the fact that they beat the reigning champions, Real Madrid, 1-4 in the Bernabeu. They will have to produce the same sort of performance if they want to have any chance of beating Ronaldo as co. With that being said they will also look at Juventus’ weakness that were exposed in the first leg against Atletico last round.