Champions League last 16

Who do you want us to face?

Our possible rivals are: FC Porto, Arsenal, AC Milan, Shakthar Donetsk, Galatasaray.

For me, give me a Galatasaray. Easiest possible patch to 1/8. Want to avoid Shaktar and Milan, although I'm confident we can handle any of those teams.

Madrid can face: Man Utd, Juve, PSG, Munich and Schalke.

My pick for them would be Man Utd. I think they could kick them out and they haven't faced each other for a long time.

Watch Madrid get Schalke lol.

Anyways I'm down for any of them except Shaktar. 90% chance it's Arsenal though

I dont want Milan nor Shakthar Donetsk.

I think we can beat both, but both would be harder and more challanging than anyone else for different reasons.

By the time the games role around, I think Milan will be stronger than they are now and even now I still see some life in them.

Arsenal I feel wont be as bad as they are now either.

So give me Galatasary. Porto second choice.

Madrid and Man Utd for me. Not because I think Man Utd would win, I think they might, but I also think Juve and Bayern might but because I think its about time those two played each other.

it is difficult to get scared of anyone of them actually....
But i want to avoid only milan just because they are getting rythm, still they are not a big threat...
But to choose from the list, i would definitely prefer Galatasaray...
Both Man U and Juve can compete with Madrid.....others would just surrender i assume.

Am I right saying that Walcott isn't eligible for UCL? If yes then from most preferable to the least:

Arsenal
Galatasaray
FC Porto
Shakthar Donetsk
AC Milan

Why would Walcott not be available? I think he is.

Obviously I'd prefer Galatasaray.

After that it's a toss up between Arsenal and Porto.

I think we can handle any team here though. The team I'm most afraid of is Shakhtar- who I think we would beat, although perhaps not comfortably. After that I think we can comfortably win every game fairly easy.

free_cat wrote:Why would Walcott not be available? I think he is.

Lol nevermind, thought he was injured in the beginning of the season and wasn't named to the squad.

Would like Milan, Porto or Gala though I know that we will play Arsenal. It's gotta happen!

jiopsi wrote:

free_cat wrote:Why would Walcott not be available? I think he is.

Lol nevermind, thought he was injured in the beginning of the season and wasn't named to the squad.

Many rumors of him leaving in January though

Anyone but Shakhtar. Milan doesn't worry me one bit and don't see why they would.

BarcaKizz wrote:Anyone but Shakhtar. Milan doesn't worry me one bit and don't see why they would.

Well perhaps logically they shouldnt, but they shouldnt of last group stages and they did.

The thing is from my experience, when a team with the history of Milan is such an underdog (as they would be) they never play like it and regardless of which players they have the pride in who they play for gives them something extra.

To a lesser degree the same with Arsenal, no chance they will the pushover they appear right now.

Just like many said, dont want Shaktar. In fact Arsenal or Milan would be great.

Arsenal is a it more tricky than Milan but I just love us to whoop their asses for their "masia ethics" and whiny fans.

Milan has no more ibra no more silva no more nesta, but they are a big historic team. A match against them will motivate our players yet give us a great chance of progressing.

Frankly dont want the rest, we need a "big team" to face outside Shaktar

The Franchise wrote:
The thing is from my experience, when a team with the history of Milan is such an underdog (as they would be) they never play like it and regardless of which players they have the pride in who they play for gives them something extra.

To a lesser degree the same with Arsenal, no chance they will the pushover they appear right now.

Excellent comments. I was about to ask this question that why are so many of us rating Milan so high but you already answered. BTW since I am not so much in touch with them who are their key players nowadays? I know El Sharaawy is scoring a lot of goals but who other than him are standing out?

This time the possible match ups seem much more interesting than usual. I think some of the groups have had unexpected group winners leading to these very tricky possibilities.

We have only five possible rivals while every year we have six or even seven. Whats more is almost all of them look tricky in some way or another. Madrid's case seems even worse.

As far as I am concerned I want to avoid Arsenal mainly because of the extreme bitterness that gets generated the minute that happens.

El Sharaawy is a machine and picking up from where Pato left off.

Aside from, Montolivo looks slightly better than I remember but I think he struggles under pressing so we have to see about that.

Prince Boateng has been horrible, he did well vs us previously but he misses Ibra's presence big time.

Bojan is doing decent funny enough, but he isnt a sure fire starter by any means it seems.

New Fullbacks De Sciglio and Constant look decent.

My viewing of Milan hasnt been that much honestly, but I guess I have seen 3, 4 games.

I think if we faced Milan Sergio Buscuit would eat El Sharaawy alive, he shuts people just like him down, i.e Ozil etc.

Except El Sharaawy is nothing like Ozil and doesnt play in the same area of the pitch.

The Franchise wrote:Except El Sharaawy is nothing like Ozil and doesnt play in the same area of the pitch.

People like him who are the center of the plays, or in that area.

He doesnt stay in the center.

History or none, they suck.

They'll have to do a lot of improving until I remotely consider them a threat. There have been not so great Milan teams in the past, but this time its completely different. Their team is hardly worthy of being in this competition let alone a threat.

The Franchise wrote:He doesnt stay in the center.

I'm aware you don't watch many of their games but if you did, you'd notice all his build up plays start from the spot where a DM has to guard. Just check highlight videos, you sure are eager to disagree with everything I say lol

El Shaarawy doesnt play in the center..

Spends most of the time on the flanks be it RW or LW..Mostly LW though as he said he prefers to play in that position.

He is an inside forward in essence and nothing like Oezil tbh.Very different players.

I'm not at all afraid of Milan.

I think we would roll over them tbh. The only thing they have going for them is they can't get much worse than they have been doing and they're...well, Milan.

Other than that they're about as good as some of the better teams in La Liga (*cough* Malaga *cough*) IMO.

Of course, this all changes in time- but we'll see, it could also stay the same as well.

They aren't as good as Malaga...

Malaga are 4th in league. Milan 7th.

Malaga dominated their group, then hit cruise control.