With Madrid crashing out in the hands of Roma, Barcelona suddenly has become the lone flag bearer of Spain in the most prestigious tournament in Europe. Madrid's defeat at Barnebeu came as a surprise but a bigger one was that of Sevilla. Both looks like paid for the complacency and indeed was a bit tough on the fans of both the club. Real Madrid now remains in only one competition and should be more motivated than before. This makes Barcelona's job much harder, especially considering Messi is out for six weeks or so. There are already three teams from England and if Liverpool can see off Inter then they can make that count to four. There might be a repeat of last year semi final scenario with three English teams qualifying for it. Honestly speaking I never expected Manchester United and Arsenal to go through, especially considering the kind of results they had in the first Leg. Lyon is always a tough place to visit and Ferguson's boys came out victorious. Much tougher was the job assigned to Arsenal, everybody including me never expected Arsenal to overcome Milan at San Siro. They exactly just did that and that too with some style. Liverpool should join the other three on the back of a great performance towards the end in first leg.
Now it looks almost certain that Barcelona might face any of the English sides. With Ronaldinho getting better day by day, Barcelona has nothing to worry. But as the fate of Madrid, Milan and Sevilla shows, Complacency would be the greatest enemy for these teams moving into the Quarterfinals.
With the help of an early Xavi goal Barcelona now are through to the quaterfinals of Champions League. On a night which saw the defending champions crashing out, Barcelona could only muster up only one goal inspite of having the majority of possession. But all was not good for Barcelona in the night which saw Messi getting injured. The extent of his injury will be known today only when he undergoes scan. Barcelona was forced to sit out Milito as he was down with fever, Thuram partnered Puyol in the centre of defense. Sylvinho came in place of Abidal, Deco in place fo Iniesta nd the forward line up was restored to Ronaldinho, Eto and Messi.
As Barcelona prepares to host Celtic at Camp Nou, the biggest question on every bodies mind will be "What will Rijkaard be unto this evening?” Anyway Rijkaard has included Yaya and Bojan in the squad. We can expect Yaya to start the game since edmilson is excluded from the squad along with Giovanni. Marquez still hasn't recovered from his injury so he joins the injured list along with Ezquerra. The back four does not leave too much for Rijkaard for experimenting as Sylvinho is expected to start on the bench. But we might see Deco starting the lineup ahead of Iniesta. Deco has been Rijkaard's favorite even though his current form should place him automatically on the bench. I would love to see Gudjonsen in the starting line up as i thought he looked ok in the last match. But the biggest headache for Rijkaard will be to decide the front three. On current form it should be Ronaldinho, Eto and Messi who should be starting.
