Giants come to grief

By Paul Simpson

Manchester United FC and Juventus FC bowed out, AC Milan scored as many goals in one game as they have done in the entire competition - this was a week of surprises in the UEFA Champions League.

German disappointment
Only eight teams can now win the Champions League. And, for the second season in a row, none of those eight sides come from the Bundesliga. As Franz Beckenbauer, three-times a European Champion Clubs' Cup winner with Bayern, says in the next issue of Champions magazine, the results for German clubs can no longer be blamed on bad luck - they suggest the standard of football just is simply not good enough.

Unlucky United
Some of the results portrayed as shocks were not really shocks at all. Like United's departure. True, FC Porto had never gained as much as a draw in six previous trips to England but United's record in the Champions League knockout stages is nothing to write home about. Since lifting the trophy in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson's side have won just one knockout tie: the 2001/02 quarter-final against RC Deportivo La Coruña. They were, though, as their old boy David Beckham pointed out in a post-match interview, desperately unlucky against Porto.

Juventus dignity
This week was almost as painful for Ferguson's old friend Marcello Lippi. The Juventus boss, who keeps half-seriously threatening to quit and look after his grandson if his side cannot win club football's biggest trophy, handled his side's departure with real dignity, saying: "We'll get over this. At this club we're used to being able to cope with adulation and also great disappointment." The club is also used to being ruthless in the transfer market and this summer Lippi will have to start rebuilding an ageing, vulnerable, defence.

Classy Milan
Milan are the only Italian side in the last eight. Clearly, those triumphalists who saw last season's results - when three Serie A sides reached the semi-finals - as proof of an Italian renaissance got it wrong. That said, Milan's form is looking ominous. They have a real chance of being the first team to retain the Champions League, especially now that Andriy Shevchenko has got his scoring boots on again.

Hollywood decision
If this tournament was made in Hollywood, there would only be one final: Madrid against Arsène Wenger's fluent attacking Arsenal FC. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer used to boast that it had more stars on its books than there were in heaven. Something of that philosophy seems to have rubbed off on Madrid's president Florentino Perez. Yet he will have been delighted with the sheer effort his icons put in against Bayern at the Santiago Bernabéu. Madrid's 1-0 victory over Bayern was not pretty - apart from some graceful footwork by Zinedine Zidane - but it was effective.

Fearsome Arsenal
Arsenal's expected victory over RC Celta de Vigo was pretty - mainly because the Galician side were so ineffective. In England, the expectation that Wenger's team will prove their greatness by winning the tournament has reached fever pitch. Yet in recent seasons, a dark horse has often emerged to challenge the publicly fancied teams (Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002, Valencia CF in 2001) and this season's surprise package could be Olympique Lyonnais.

Paul Simpson is editor of Champions, the official magazine of the UEFA Champions League. Click here to subscribe now.

The views expressed in this article are of the individual contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of UEFA.