QUARTER BITTER, SEMI SWEET

Nine years ago, one sunny May morning in London, a Russian man sauntered into the offices of a posh London club and tossed a few roubles across to a certain Mr Bates. The posh, average outfit then transformed itself over time into a disciplined, fighting outfit with genuine title ambitions and achievements. Somehow, though, the Champions League always flirted with Chelsea Football Club, seduced it with its charms, and then disappeared in puff of dust raised by John Terry’s pathetic slip and crash. It remains the sole reason why CFC has spent more money on aggregate than any other Premier League club in the past ten years, and also why they’ve gone through eight managers in the same period. On Wednesday night, Chelsea found themselves in with a 25 per cent shout for the elusive grand prize as they overcame Benfica 3- 1 on aggregate with a hard- fought win at Stamford Bridge. They now face Barcelona, automatically reducing their chances to 0.001%. Having had a pretty easy run so far, Roberto di Matteo’s men could find that things can get pretty ugly in pretty Barca. Barcelona, on their part, defeated AC Milan 3- 1 with a brace from Messi and a goal from Iniesta. The referee and result left former Barca and current Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic ‘ disgusted’, and also apparently unable to digest that Barcelona, playing a unique and flexible 3- 1- 4- 11 formation, played them off the pitch for a majority of the game.

The other quarters were disappointing affairs, with Bayern and Real Madrid easily overcoming Marseille and APOEL Nicosia, respectively. Madrid served up a goal fest, with an aggregate 8- 2 victory, and Bayern were equally dominant with a 4- 0 aggregate scoreline. Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, along with Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain, are a front line capable of challenging any defence in the world, even the obdurate Bayern backline. At the same time, Arjen Robben, Ivica Olic, Franck Ribery and Mario Gomez have enough firepower to knock Sergio Ramos and Co. off their feet.