United Faces Roma In Grudge Match

I was out most of the day (and night) and a good friend (thanks Lengmen) had to sms me the results for the quarter finals draw.

Quarter Finals
AS Roma - Manchester United
Schalke - Barcelona
Arsenal - Liverpool
Fenerbahce - Chelsea

Semi Finals
AS Roma/Manchester United - Schalke/Barcelona
Arsenal/Liverpool - Fenerbache/Chelsea

Looks like we've got a pretty tough draw. We face Roma whom we convincingly thrashed at the same stage last season. This time round it's probably going to be much more difficult. Barring that classic game which we scored 7, we've faced them 3 other times in the past year and have won 1, drew 1 and lost the other. No doubt Roma's going to be ultra motivated to avenge that humilating loss. To add to that, Roma's chances of winning the Serie A is all but numerically over, so they are going to throw everything at us.

To make matters worse, our fans (those brave/foolish enough to travel to Rome) are going to have to face the prospect of those buttock-stabbing ultras in the capital city. As much as I think we'd not win the cup, I really do hope we dump these bunch of Italians. The thought of the scenes from last season just leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Should we navigate past the buttock-stabbers, we're probably going to have to face the most potent attack in the competition, Barcelona. They are currently struggling in La Liga and by the time we face them, if we face them, chances are the Champions League is all they have left for silverware.

The good thing here is that if we do get to the finals, the odds are that we'd face English opposition. I have no doubts we would win it if we get to that stage. None of the 3 English sides scares me.

Derby
But let's not get ahead of ourselves, we still have an important game against Derby tomorrow. They are dead and buried, and we should soundly thrash them.

Unfortunately, things are not that straight forward. It was just a couple of seasons ago we faced a Sunderland team that was on a run of 13 or so consecutive defeats before they faced us. And we somehow drew that game, and were out of the running for the league in the process.