champions league

Champion league Quarter final fixtures out.

MESSI, RONALDO, ROBBEN and  IBRAHIMOVIC.goal.com

Mar 20, 2015 12:02:00

Friday's quarter final draw in Nyon has paired Pep Guardiola's side with Porto while Los Blancos will contest a repeat of the 2014 final with Diego Simeone's men in the next round. (Jim Knight; 20 March 2015)

With no English representation in the quarter finals of the Champions League, punters will have to turn their attention to the remaining European heavyweights in the search to find a winner.Barcelona disposed of Manchester City with relative ease in the previous round, with the 1-0 scoreline in Wednesday's second leg flattering the English side.

 Real Madrid is  currently going through a  tough time and  mind  you if they do not improve come April, they will be  knocked  out of  the prestigious european competition by their neighbour Atletico Madrid who they failed to beat in the last six meetings.

EPL VS LALIGA

In Comparison

England's Barclays Premier League vs Spain's Laliga.
Football has become  a  major sport that has  managed to gather large  and broad fan base around the GLOBE. OF all soccer legends world wide the present soccer fans are expressing a blessing to watch the  most talented footballers on the pitch and  very few would want to  miss the two when they are delivering.

Portugal international and Real Madrid forward , Christiano Ronaldo and the Argentine international and  Barcelona  forward, Lionel Messi are the two football gods  that have  dominated the  talk on all communication mediums.

Whilst, the  two extra ordinary players dominate  the  world football market , a new comparison is just surfacing  attracting a lot of debates globally. Some soccer fanatics express that the England Premier League is  more  superior to Laliga or  any other leagues that exist world wide.

This comparative  analysis  is  however  informed  by the performance of EPL clubs in UEFA Champions League. The most boastful EPL club, Chelsea, has just suffered a  huge shock exit from the  most valuable trophy in the European competition by the French club, PSG. Jose Mourinho who is  well known for being a fountain of football tactics but was  however last night left with  no words from a  French club that was reduced  to 10 men when their talisman Ibrahimovic was  controversial sent off in the half hour play.

 Other England  clubs  to  follow  suit are  Arsenal which has already suffered a loss at home in the  first leg  to a  French club; Monaco. and  Manchester City which also got damaged by Barcelona's triumvirate composed of  Messi, Neymar and Suarez. Liverpool and  Tottenham have  just suffered the  same  fate  in the Europa league as  they  were knocked  off by Turkey's Besiktas and Italy's Fiorentina respectively.

IN contrast , Spain's Laliga has three teams, with Real Madrid  already successfully booked its position in the  quarter finals of  the  prestigious  trophy in Europe after seeing  off the Germany's Shalke 04. Atletico Madrid, although suffered a  1: 0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen the tie is  still  open for them to progrees to the next stage, Barcelona at the  same  time  will  go  on the  second  leg  already with  a  cutting  edge after devastating City at Etihad. Sevilla also is  still in the Europa competition after  defeating the German side , Borrusia Monchengladbach
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As a matter of  fact, the Spanish clubs have  been so consistent in the Uefa champions league competition
Given these facts  above, it is  logical to infer that the EPL needs extra miles to catch up with laliga.

Comparative Soccer

MUTASA I N ACTION

     SUAREZ IMPACT  Getty Images                                                              


MANDAVA STADIUM VS   ETIHAD STADIUM

 A look at  the  past  two different competitions  at  continental  level. On Tuesday the  24th of  February Manchester City FC hosted Barcelona  in a  very thrilling Uefa champions league  tie that saw   the Catalans emerging as victors  with all goals fired by the Uruguayan striker  Luis  Suarez. Then on Saturday the  very week, in CAF competition  Platinum FC emerged victors  against Kenyan club Sofapaka and  of  course Wisdom Mutasa hitting the the back of  the  net twice.  Score  line  2:1  Platinum FC vs  Sofapaka match  and  Manchester city vs  Barcelona  tie ended with the same  score line in favor  of  Barcelona. The results of  all these  matches tempts logical thinking to deduce  that African football is  also at  the  same level with the European soccer, YET a soccer perspective will dismiss that standpoint mentioning many factors to  dispute it.

In attendance, at Mandava Stadium attendance was  less  than 5000 when Platinum FC hosted Sofapaka in their second leg encounter.  The  assumption that  can  be  drawn from  is  that  number  of  fans  who attended  this  match were outnumbered  by the  fans  who were watching  Barclays Premier  League  matches on  televison in  Zimbabwe alone.

In contrast, at Etihad Stadium over 65000 flooded the stadium to watch entertaining and  competitive match between Barcelona and  Manchester City. The match lured high profile  people such as Sir Alex Ferguson and  many others. On social media predictions flooded, interesting to  note, very few people gave their  predictions about Platinum Sofapaka tie including the Zimbabweans themselves. but from all over  the  world  people  were predicting City Barca tie. this  is sufficient evidence  to infer that african football needs extra miles to catch up with the  European football. Getty Images Suarez of Barcelona (L) celebrates scoring their second goal with Lionel Messi and Neymar of Barcelona during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match between Manchester City and Barcelona at Etihad Stadium

 FC PLATINUM fans celebrating Mutasa's slaught on SOFAPAKA in Mandava Stadium