champions leeeeague!!!!

Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atlético Madrid v FC Porto
Lyon v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v AS Roma
Internazionale v Manchester United

my picks are in bold. do the same for your picks.

chels will be the only english team to go through.

barcelona vs villareal will be the final of the champions league this year.
or if that doesn't happen then barcelona vs inter.

barca is gonna get to the final no matter what. the spanish league will be wrapped up for them by feb so they'll only have one place to put their focus on.

if barca vs inter is the final they will lose and inter will be ucl champs.

also roma could do well this year as well since theyll just abandon the crappiness that is their serie a season.

DISCUSSSSS

Chelsea vs Juventus
need I say more. None of the other matches really matter to me, though I would like jose to get one over sir alex. Chelsea are playing awfully and Juventus will put them away, but having said that things could change come february

chels will beat juve

ooohhh its gonna be a chels vs inter final and inters gonna win then joses gonna get pissed he couldnt win the ucl with chels and go back to them but still he will not win the ucl with them

Chelsea vs Juve
I think that Chelsea are, arguably, the most talented squad in the world. And even though they are coming up against another quality side in the form of Juventus, there is no way they are going to loose. Position for Position the quality of Chelsea will shine through in my opinion, even in their managers, Scolari is a far better thinker of the game than Ranieri.

Villarreal vs Panathinaikos
I pick Villarreal in this, in my opinion, very one sided affair. Villarreal, riding high in fourth position in the Spanish league, one point between them and 2nd place Valencia, in comparison to the third place in the far less compeditive Greek league shows the gulf in quality and class. There can be no doubt in the result in this game. However how Villarreal will fare against more quality teams from around the world is yet to be seen.

Sporting Lisbon vs Bayern Munich
I pick an upset in this match. Bayern have looked anything but consistant, solid and quality this season. So I pick that they will fail to perform in this fixture. Besides Lisbon are one of my favourite teams.

Athletico Madrid vs FC Porto
Athletico Madrid will overcome Porto comfortably in my opinion. The quality in Athletico Madrid is of constant surprise to me. With players of Kun Aguero, Simao, Forlan etc, one would expect them to be more of a front runner in the European game. So Porto, without Queresma and all of the players that aided them in their Champions League success with Mourinho have little chance.

Lyon vs Barca
There is no way that anyone other than Barca will win this fixture. Barca are looking unbeatable this year. If I was going to pick the winner of the Champions League i would be hard pressed to say any other team. Barca will cruise through Lyon, the Champions of a much worse league.

Real Madrid vs Liverpool
Liverpool have this one, marginally but in my opinion there is little doubt that Liverpool will qualify. The winner of the Premier league, the top league in the world, in my opinion, against the MASSIVE underperformer of La Liga, second best in the world. 6th place in La Liga against the leaders in the Premier League would, in most cases be a very obvious result. However when the team in Madrid one cannot rule them out entirely. One of the other plus points for Liverpool is their perpetual successes in the European Realm even when they are underperforming locally. This, some would say, overachieving nature in Europe, will in my opinion get the better of a low on confidence Madrid team.

Arsenal vs AS Roma
There is NO way Arsenal can win this match. They are in awful form, they are dropping points against every team imaginable home, and away and their fans are starting to turn on them, look at the incident with Eboue. Roma, as Tim points out, can really concentrate on the Champions League as a result of their poor performance in Seire A.

Inter vs Manchester United
I cannot say that I am certain of this result, and in my opinion this will be the closest game of the lot, however United have such quality, even with their INCREADIBLY rigerous schedule they will overcome the dour, very English Team managed by the best manager in the world in my opinion. This fixuture has so much intrest as it is between two very good teams with similar talent and quality, but even more so, it is a battle of wits between two of the most entertaining, experienced and quality managers who inspire massive amounts of passion in their players. I predict this to be the game to watch, as a result of the quality that will come when two teams of such quality play each other, and also as a result of the passion of the players, who in my opinion will be playing especially hard to win for their club, and manager.

mmm good insight bryn - you woudn't look (or at least sound) out of place sitting alongside tommy and derek.

your reasoning for sporting over bayern is pretty reasonable/logical - it's a pretty hard game to call.

and yeah, atletico have great quality and as long as they keep their heads they should cruise through.

i think by febuary madrid will be in much better shape and i'm picking them to beat liverpool although if they were to play them this week i would definitely fancy madrid to lose.

re arsenal and real madrid, remember these games are over two months away; that's a lot of time to turn around your form...

"...dour, very English squad" - great quote lol. i doubt it will be that much of an entertaining game though... if liverpool go ahead (especially if its in milan) then they're hardly gonna keep attacking a whole lot. the odds do slightly lean in liverpool's favour but i think inter will come through and beat em.

hmmm I revise my opinion on not caring.
Inter will beat Manchester United. Manchester quality cannot contest with the greatest mind in the game at the moment, and Ferguson has only beaten Mourinho once, compared to 6 ties going Mourinho's way.
Real Madrid will beat liverpool because Madrid can only concentrate on cup competitions now, where Liverpool are still contenders in the league. Arsenal and Roma will be closer as both are out of their respective title races and Arsenal are still managed my Arsene Wenger, who is one of the all time greats of managing. Panathinaikos will lose to Villareal and Bayern Munich will wipe the smile of Bryn's face. Atletico Madrid will deal with Porto, but that is the potential upset for me. Barcelona will struggle with Lyon as they will be focusing on their league campaign aswell, but they will still end up winners, depending on the fitness of a few players. And I still back Juventuns to beat Chelsea. Ranieri will get a heroes welcome at the bridge but he will be out to prove a point the way that Chelsea are playing I see him winning, but that doesn't mean I won't be up at 6 supporting Chelsea

I see no evidence there that will make me change my opinions on the according results.

Mourinho is not so much the best footballing mind in the game, but the best motivator. It has always struck me how his players want to win for him, take Porto and Chelsea, the team atmosphere was amazing.

Am I surprised? Bryn picks 3/4 English teams and 1/3 Italian teams