The CL draw

The easiest is to be pessimistic......

Originally Posted by MIRZA

The easiest is to be pessimistic......

this has nothing to do with pessimism, optimism, or realism or whatever ... it's just being respectful to your opponent and taking him seriously because if we don't, the sale of HDTVs in Milan will go up

were the 8 teams separated into 2 pots? if yes, how did UEFA decide which team go to which pot?

Al teams were in one pot.

@ Zlatanov, I understand that, but our only 'job' is to support our team and to expect that the best things will hapen....

what is the reason of separating teams into 2 pots at this stage since there is no seedings and country protection restriction? why dont all teams be located in one pot and drawn from it?

Can anyone tell me the best place to get tickets for the quarter final?

Mirza, why then were all right hand teams list facing the teams on left hand list? or it was just coincidence?
left hand:
milan
manutd
liverpool
valencia

right hand:
psv
roma
bayern
chelsea

Originally Posted by Rando

Mirza, why then were all right hand teams list facing the teams on left hand list? or it was just coincidence?
left hand:
milan
manutd
liverpool
valencia

right hand:
psv
roma
bayern
chelsea

because the "left-hand" teams were draw first from that pot and their opponents were drawn immediately after that.
Basically, all teams were drawn one after the other from one pot and the places in the quarterfinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) were filled up sequentially as the teams were drawn.
For instance:
1) QF1: Milan vs _______ (Milan first team drawn)
2) QF1: Milan vs Bayern (Bayern was 2nd team drawn)
3) QF2: PSV vs _______ (Psv - 3rd team drawn)
4) QF2: PSV vs 'Pool (Poll was 4th team drawn)

and so on ...

A I've seen, al temas were in one pot

Originally Posted by MIRZA

@ Zlatanov, I understand that, but our only 'job' is to support our team and to expect that the best things will hapen....

true, it doesn't matter what we think but how the players and coaches approach this but it won't hurt anyone to keep our feet on the ground a little bit because if we don't eliminate bayern, it will be Galliani this, Galliani that, Ancelotti this and that ... and why, because we fans only assumed that all we have to do in order to play Roma or ManU in the SF is just show up for the bayern games.

I also believe that Milan has every chance to eliminate and if we stay concentrated and determined, we will, but can't say that it will be a walk in the park because it won't be - we will have to be at our best or close to it in order to take them out.

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bayern will further improve because Hitzfeld will have more time to influence the team he just recently took charge of from magat ... but even in their current form, I think bayern is much stronger team than Celtic ... and we all know how close we were of not making it vs the scotish team despite our obvious superiority to them ... all in all, it's a round ball and anything can happen.

Originally Posted by zlatanov

true, it doesn't matter what we think but how the players and coaches approach this but it won't hurt anyone to keep our feet on the ground a little bit because if we don't eliminate bayern, it will be Galliani this, Galliani that, Ancelotti this and that ... and why, because we fans only assumed that all we have to do in order to play Roma or ManU in the SF is just show up for the bayern games.

I also believe that Milan has every chance to eliminate and if we stay concentrated and determined, we will, but can't say that it will be a walk in the park because it won't be - we will have to be at our best or close to it in order to take them out.

------------------------------

bayern will further improve because Hitzfeld will have more time to influence the team he just recently took charge of from magat ... but even in their current form, I think bayern is much stronger team than Celtic ... and we all know how close we were of not making it vs the scotish team despite our obvious superiority to them ... all in all, it's a round ball and anything can happen.

I agree with you

As I've seen, we always play better against big clubs, than against smaller clubs..

We got Bayern

Originally Posted by zlatanov

because the "left-hand" teams were draw first from that pot and their opponents were drawn immediately after that.
Basically, all teams were drawn one after the other from one pot and the places in the quarterfinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) were filled up sequentially as the teams were drawn.
For instance:
1) QF1: Milan vs _______ (Milan first team drawn)
2) QF1: Milan vs Bayern (Bayern was 2nd team drawn)
3) QF2: PSV vs _______ (Psv - 3rd team drawn)
4) QF2: PSV vs 'Pool (Poll was 4th team drawn)

and so on ...

Exaxctly as Zlatanov said, i sawthe draw live on Greek TV, the teams were selected by Thodoris Zagorakis the Captain of Greek national team, MVP of Euro 2004 and captain of the team of his heart, my team PAOK Thessaloniki .

so is Bayern Munich, I know they had a crisis earlier in the season, their coach got fired or something, but Milan is not really on top of the world either, we had a crisis just like they did, hopefully we'll have Nesta back by then and let's cross fingers and hope no one important gets injured, the pressure is on Milan first since we play them at the San Siro on the first leg and we play Roma the weekend before Bayern but I think we'll manage, everyone should be back by then

So many similarities between Milan and Bayern this year.
They're both living their worst seasons in last 3 or 4 years domestically. Milan is still fighting to get the so much wanted 4th CLQ place while Bayern is doing the same in Bundesliga, trying to get the 3rd place ( only 3 German teams play in CL) from Stuttgart, and at the same time trying to win the league ( 1st placed Schalke is only 6 pts ahead).

Both teams have shown weaknesses in attack, with Bayern not managing to score on 1/4 of Bundesliga matches ( the worst result for them in last 20 years) , and Milan not scoring on 8 serie A matches ( out of 26). Also,Milan didn't score on 4 CL matches in a row ( including the 90 minutes against Celtic).

Both teams didn't have problems winning their CL groups and both had problems eliminating their opponents in 1/8 finals, with Bayern going through with an away goal while Milan needed overtime.

And also, both teams have shown an improvement lately. Not that Milan and Bayern now play some spectacular football, but at least Milan is winning it's matches, while Bayern is doing the same in last month under Hitzfeld.

Important for Milan is the suspension of Van Bommel on the first match. He would have been Kaka's guard and, imo, he would have stopped Kaka from doing what he did against Celtic. Demichelis will play instead, and Bayern will have the same situation Inter had when they were forced to replace Vieira with Dacourt.

Milan is imo a small favourite, but it has nothing to do with past results and don't let these results fool you. When Milan won the CL in 2002/03 season Bayern had it's worst season in last 10 years and Milan had a fantastic and inform team.
Last year Milan humiliated Bayern again, but i believe you'll agree that Shevchenko and an inform Inzaghi were the main Milan players, while now neather Sheva is in Milan neather Inzaghi is in goalscoring form.
Plus, past results mustn't neceserally mean Milan is the favourite and Valencia-Inter duel has shown why.Inter was "killing" Valencia all the time but now they were the losers.

At the end, i'd like to show you what teams do both Milan and Bayern have to play against in their league before their duel in CL.

Milan
April 1 ------- Away at Roma
April 3/4 -------- Home vs Bayern
April 8 ------- Home vs Empoli , your direct opponents for the 4th place.
April 10/11 ----- Away at Bayern

Bayern
March 30 ------- Home vs Schalke , league leaders and their rivals for Bundesliga tittle.
April 3/4 -------- Away at Milan
April 7 ---------- Away at Hannover ( relatively easy match)
April 10/11 ----- Home vs Milan