The Impending Clash!!

When Barca take on Benfica this Wednesday they might already be thinking of their opponents in the semis... It could be either Milan or Lyon... Lyon have been underdogs throughout this season's Champions League... But their 4-0 demolition of PSV have made them a team to watchout for... Barca too will not have a walkthrough... Their Portuguese opponent Benfica made short work of defending champs Liverpool in the previous round progressing 3-0 on aggregate... I think that's no fluke...

Both the matches are intriguingly poised... But Milan and Barca will be ruing their inability to score an away goal which might have put the results beyond doubt.. Anyway with both matches finishing 0-0 all that they need is a win in their home stadiums... Which will not be very easy but achieveable nonetheless... But intuition here tells me that Milan might be ousted by Lyon... You know people call it gut feeling... Thats exactly what i feel...

The other 2 quarters are also ones to look out for... Arsenal travel to Italian giants Juventus with a handy 2-0 lead... They will be looking forward to progress to the semis.. If they do this will be their 1st time beyond the quarters for the Gunners... Juventus will be missing some important players in the shape of former Gunner Patrick Vieira, Johnathan Zebina and Mauro Camoranesi... Though they will be boosted by the return of influential midfielder Pavel Nedved who missed the 1st leg and also skipper Alessandro Del Piero who will mostly be benched... Arsenal will be looking for some inspirational performances from much-wanted captain Thierry Henry and youth prodigy Cesc Fabregas who put in a tremendous performance in the 1st leg...

The other match will see Inter Milan taking on Villareal.. Inter won the 1st leg 2-1 despite going down 1-0 in the very 1st minute of the match... Villareal though need just a 1-0 win if they are to progress... Inter will be looking to Adriano to provide the goods after he overcame his goal drought with the 1st goal in the match against Villareal last week... Villareal on the other hand will be looking to Diego Forlan to score their goals... Juan Roman Riquelme will also be a key element in this fixture... Lets see...

Anyway my personal predictions for this week's quarters are as follows:

Barca 2- 1 Benfica
Milan 1-1 Lyon
Juventus 0-0 Arsenal
Villareal 1-1 Inter

Remember to catch the action this tuesday and wednesday nights on ESPN and Star... C ya then...