It’s been decreed: Chelsea will play Liverpool in the Champions League this year, as they have every year since the breaching of the Weald–Artois anticline unleashed the catastrophic floods that destroyed the isthmus connecting the island of Great Britain to mainland Europe between 450,000 and 170,000 years ago. “We probably know the inside leg measurements of Rafa’s trousers,” Chelsea secretary David Barnard said today.
Part of me thinks that this ancient and enduring rivalry won’t be the same without John Arne Riise, whose heedless leaping about and own-goal scoring seemed to capture some of the spirit of the peasant fertility rites that sprang up around this fixture in medieval times, but those are the breaks. There will probably be some complaints about the lack of variety, but seriously, this has the potential to be a really exciting matchup. Both teams are in the middle of periods that completely confuse the traditional distinctions between a collapse and a resurgence—they both somehow seem to be doing both at once, and in the process, finding new ways to turn the act of falling apart or caving in into a way of destroying their opponents. This could be like watching a black hole take on a slowly exploding star.
The draw in full:
This seems pretty great to me. I assume Manchester United will crush Porto to complete their revenge on 2004, but Villarreal (feat. Robert Pirès!) might be just good enough to make Arsenal think (always the situation in which they either go out with a whimper or overwhelm the world with goals), and Barcelona-Bayern should be intriguing while saving the big “Barça vs. the Premier League” storyline (the major outstanding question in this year’s tournament) for the last two rounds. The matches are April 7-8 and 14-15. Liverpool won’t have to play on the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough.
I don’t know. I’m excited. What do you think?
Read More: Champions League
by Brian Phillips · March 20, 2009
Villarreal and Arsenal play a similar style. Should be very entertaining.
This Liverpool – Chelsea draw is going to be tough. Very decent chance that the winner of that game will have to then beat Barca and Manchester to lift. Very tough.
I think Manchester gets the best draw, with the three weakest teams IMO out of the eight on their side of the bracket. Bayern gets the three best.
This is the ideal draw for ManU to win how ever many titles there are for them to win.
It’s like a pro wrestling plot line, where after a steel cage match between the two challengers the champion suddenly emerges, defeats the tired cage match victor, and leaves the crowd in an unsatisfied exhaustion. “And Liverpool have emerged from the cage! But wait, who’s that comming out of the dressing room! No, it can’t be! It is! It’s Dimitar Berbatov!”
I’m actually kind of happy about Man Utd’s easy draw, because it means that all the conspiracy theorists who are normally convinced that Platini has it in for English soccer and is plotting to destroy its dominance will now also be convinced that he’s fixed the draw to help out the English champion. Should lead to some fun contortions.
Chelsea again. You know I’m getting really sick and tired of watching us play them every year for the right to advance in the CL…
Everyone’s going on about Man U’s easy draw, but Arsenal always play them tough, so don’t count your chickens…
Chelsea-Liverpool is turning into the NY-Boston baseball rivalry in the states. Aging ex-champions with one last gasp before going under vs….aging ex champions with a few more gasps before going under.
I am rooting for Scousers because the Hicks have kept their fingers out of the grinder (aside from the Keane signing), while Abramovich breathes down Hiddink’s neck.
I’d like to know the odds of two teams being drawn to play each other five years running, cause this draw stinks to high heaven of connivance. Barca-Bayern should be terribly entertaining though, for both sides seem so caught up in scoring goals that they forget the pitch is symmetric and will end up with 5-3 victories (like what Arsenal-Roma was touted to be).
Also, UEFA Cup draw:
Shakthar – Marseille
PSG – Dynamo Kiev
Bremen – Udinese
Hamburg – Man City
Good one, AC Milan. God damn yellow brick road to the trophy and they couldn’t even find it.
Barca v. Bayern might be the tie I want to watch the most. That one has the most potential to be wildly entertaining. Why, Luca Toni might actually score a goal!
j — They actually weren’t drawn to play each other most of those years; they were drawn on the same side of the bracket and then ran into each other in the semifinals. It’s still long odds, but I’d say this is less a sign of conspiracy than of the fact that not many other teams are capable of knocking these two out of the tournament at the moment.
I hate to be the conspiracy theorist here; I loathe that guy and his accusations at every draw. But I know when I saw the final eight, four of them Anglo, it was pretty obvious that all four wouldn’t be playing in separate games, for an all-English semis would have Platini rabidly foaming at the mouth and proclaiming England must convert to the Euro to keep place in UEFA. I also know that I immediately said to my friend, a Chelsea fan, that Liverpool and Chelsea were going to draw each other, now a phenomenon only equaled in bizarre determinism by Tupac’s posthumously releasing new material every two or three years.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, why not Arsenal-Chelsea or Arsenal-Liverpool for the all English tie? Or, god forbid, Man Utd be involved? Just hard for me to believe this all happened by chance.
j, Arsenal-Liverpool was the first all-English tie last season; Liverpool won, so they went on to play Chelsea. Had Arsenal won, they would have played Chelsea, and we’d be talking about a totally different streak. When teams win their games in a knockout tournament, the odds of them facing one another rapidly increase.
It’s a weird coincidence, but I can’t see any evidence of a conspiracy here at all.
totally forgot there was only a draw for the first two knockouts. my bad.
I think J is onto something about the pound and the rise of the anglo game. Maybe if instead of a 6 + 5 rule, Sepp Blatter should singlehandedly peg the pound to the chinese yen which is pegged to the US dollar.
I could afford to buy Kaka in Zimbabwe dollars …
i just think that, somehow, historically, ever since the Champions league format came about, there has been a lot of ties that became common. I remember, a few years back, when a ECL season had to have a Man Utd – Bayern, a Real Madrid – Bayern, and a Chelsea – Barcelona, a Dortmund – Juventus, Bayern – Lyon or a Chelsea – Liverpool tie (oh, wait…)
as for a EPL domination, i guess it reflects just how badly the Spanish and Italian Leagues are run…
The Spanish league has 2 teams to the EPL’s 3. I’m not sure I follow that claim. United won the title last year, but before that? Milan beat Liverpool. And before that? Barcelona beat Arsenal.
Its wonderful that EPL teams consistently make the final, but I would only bet on a british team winning the final if it were pit against another English team.
Whoops forgot about Arsenal. Yeah 2:1 is a pretty good ratio, but I’m still not sold on EPL domination as a historical fact or recent occurence
in the UEFA cup history, the latin vs Northern periods of domination are very well documented (latins clubs 55 – 66; Northern clubs 67 – 82; Latin 82 – 98; mixed 98 – 04; Northern 04 – present). Also, for all the number of clubs that have played, there has been a surprisingly low number of winners.
As regards the EPL Vs Serie A Vs La Liga debate, it just seems to me that the EPL has the more professional approach to the structure of the league. Given the same level of organization, both the continental main leagues would wipe the floor with the EPL clubs, mainly because there homegrown players are better.
I definitely agree that Italy and Spain produce more talented homegrown players, but their leagues are also flooded with South American talent. The biggest difference is sovereign wealth funds: they tend to stay away from the continent where the line between politics and sport and money can blur a bit too uncomfortably. The Brits may be a bit stuffy, but they keep their hands pretty clean by comparison