Match of the Dave

12.05pm Just the pre-amble to begin with and the dates of the first legs announced - 1st & 2nd April, with the 2nd leg on 8th & 9th April. Who will play who? Will the four English clubs manage to stay apart in the Quarter-finals, setting up the possibility of an all-English semi- and/or final?

12.07pm An overview and promo video now for the host city of the 2008 final, Moscow. The stadium looks very impressive both inside and out…

12.10pm The draw begins, with the first team out of the bowl… Arsenal who will start at home to Liverpool.

12.11pm Next out, AS Roma who will play Manchester United - they won’t want that after last year’s 7-1 drubbing!

12.12pm Schalke 04 are next, who will host FC Barcelona.

12.13pm Fenerbache are the last home team drawn, therefore hosting Chelsea.

12.15pm Now the semi-finals… QF1 winner (Arsenal or Liverpool) will play QF4 (Fenerbache or Chelsea)

12.16pm and the other semi-final- QF3 (Schalke 04 or FC Barcelona) vs QF2 (AS Roma or Manchester United)

12.17pm The final will be held on 21st May in Moscow and the designated home team, for operational purposes only, will be the winners of Semi-Final 2.

So in one quick round up:

Quarter-finals:

1st leg, 1st & 2nd April

Arsenal vs Liverpool
AS Roma vs Manchester Utd
Schalke 04 vs FC Barcelona
Fenerbache vs Chelsea

2nd leg, 8th & 9th April

Liverpool vs Arsenal
Manchester Utd vs AS Roma
FC Barcelona vs Schalke 04
Chelsea vs Fenerbache

Semi-finals:

Arsenal or Liverpool vs Fenerbache or Chelsea
Schalke 04 or FC Barcelona vs AS Roma or Manchester Utd

Final:

Schalke 04/FC Barcelona/AS Roma/Manchester Utd vs Arsenal/Liverpool/Fenerbache/Chelsea

Not a bad draw for the English sides, though Arsenal and Liverpool would probably have preferred to avoid each other at this stage, especially as they meet in the league on 5th April - so 3 fixtures in one week between the sides!

Manchester Utd will probably be happy to meet Roma after last year’s strong result, though it was a different story in the group stages this year and they will be well advised not to be complacent.

Schalke 04’s first attempt at this stage of the competition hasn’t handed them an easy chance of progressing further, though they were resilient against Porto so maybe they can hold out for something against Barcelona.

As for Fenerbache/Chelsea, the English side won’t relish a trip to Turkey but I would expect them to progress nonetheless, even with their off and on again performances over the course of the season, Chelsea are still a much stronger side than Fenerbache.

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