Best Chance Ever for an English Club to Win Champions League

We were treated to another fabulous week of Champions League matches this week. And out of all of the European club teams that qualified for the quarter-finals, guess which country has the most representation in the next round?

• England: 3 teams (Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United)
• Italy: 2 teams (AC Milan and Roma)
• Germany: 1 team (Bayern Munich)
• Netherlands: 1 team (PSV Eindhoven), and
• Spain: 1 team (Valencia).

With eight teams remaining and three of those being English clubs, it’s very likely that one of the English sides will face another in the next round.

But consider for a moment, the teams that aren’t in the final eight:

• Inter Milan
• Barcelona
• Real Madrid
• Lyon
• Arsenal
• Lille
• Celtic, and
• Porto

Both Inter Milan and Barcelona were many people’s favorites to win the tournament, so with those two teams being knocked, you have to think that one of the English clubs has an excellent chance of winning the Champions League. Looking at the five non-English teams remaining in the tournament, they’re all beatable. In fact, this is the best chance an English club has to win the Champions League in years (who would have predicted Liverpool’s win in 2005?)

We’ll find out on Friday the draw for the quarter-finals. If you had to pick what teams you’d like to see matched up on Friday, who would they be and why? Here are my dream picks:

Liverpool v Valencia (Rafa Benitez faces his old club)
Manchester United v Roma (Ronaldo and Totti on the same pitch)
Chelsea v AC Milan (Shevchenko faces his old club)
PSV Eindhoven v Bayern Munich (the Dutch against German rivalry all over again)