Champions League: Round of 16, second leg

March 8, 2010

UEFA Champions League continue on Tuesday and Wednesday with second leg of first knock out round.

Arsenal is hosting FC Porto and will be without Cesc Fabregas who sustained a hamstring injury in a Premier League match on Saturday. The good news is the Gunners’  goalie Manuel Almunia is back replacing his substitute Lukasz Fabianski who was at fault on both goals Porto scored. The Portuguese team is holding a 2-1 lead from two weeks ago, but lets not forget what happened to them last year at Emirates Stadium when they got thrashed by Arsenal 4-0.

Fiorentina will try to overcome their 2-1 deficit against Bayern Munich. The loss came at the Allianz Arena last month in the dying minutes of match by a goal from Miroslav Klose. But it’ll be a difficult task with a team like Bayern and Fiorentina’s  lackluster form of late, evidenced by Saturday’s loss at home to Juventus.

The most anticipated match of the second leg has to be the meeting between Manchester United and AC Milan. Man Utd has a very good chance to advance to the quarter-finals after they beat Milan 3-2 at San Siro. But Wayne Rooney who scored two of those goals won’t play due to the inflammation of his kneecap tendon.

David Beckham is returning to Old Trafford for the first time since he left, back in 2003. It remains to be seen if it will be a happy homecoming.

AC Milan has a mountain to climb and they need to score at least two goals to stay alive.

Real Madrid needs to overturn a 1 – 0 deficit with Lyon to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in five years. With players like Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka the fans in Bernabeu Stadium should see their team make it through. But it would be a mistake for Real to underestimate the seven time Ligue 1 champion.

The matches between  Sevilla FC vs CSKA Moskva,  Inter Milan vs Chelsea, FC Barcelona vs VfB Stuttgart and Bordeaux vs  Olympiacos take place the following week.