Nigeria Content Online

The quarter final line-up is complete and UEFA will be making
the draws today in Nyon, Switzerland, to determine the clashes between the
eight teams. But there is one recurring decimal; no team wants to be paired
with Barcelona, at least not for now.

The draw will be conducted by UEFA General Secretary, Gianni
Infantino; and the ambassador for the final that will be played at Wembley
Stadium on May 28, is former England striker Gary Lineker. The draws will be
televised by 12:00 noon Nigerian time on Hitv.

There are permutations on who will be playing who with teams
from the same country able to meet at this stage. There will be oohs and aahs
if Barcelona get paired with Real Madrid, looking at the 5-0 bashing that
Barcelona dished out to Madrid and also if Raul, now with Schalke 04, will
return to the Santiago Bernebeu to play his former side, Real Madrid. Another
mouth-watering prospect will be a Chelsea versus Barcelona match with all the history
and the memory of Norwegian referee, Tom Ovrebo, who many Chelsea fans wish
they had never heard of.

What they say

Though Jose Mourinho has said he will not like to play either of
his former clubs, Inter Milan and Chelsea, there is always the fact that with
an open draw, anything can happen with the quarter final matches fixed for
April 5 and 6 and the return legs a week after.

Cristiano Ronaldo said his team would like to meet one of the
smaller sides, a statement that may come back to haunt the Portuguese winger.
“Maybe we’d like to meet one of the smaller teams,” he said. “But can you
really say that of any side that has reached the last eight? Whoever remains in
the competition is there on merit and we need to be wary of everyone. Barcelona
for me would represent the most difficult challenge and maybe it would be
better to come up against them further down the line. We could even see Raul
return home, but let’s wait and see what happens.”

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba has said his side will do anything to
get to another semi-final. “Let’s wait for the draw and see what’s going to
happen,” he said in an interview with uefa.com . “We just want to play this
quarter-final and do everything to go through, There are a lot of big teams
there. It’s difficult to say ‘I want to avoid Manchester United’ and then you
play Barcelona, or ‘I want to avoid Barcelona’ and then you play Inter Milan.
They’re all big teams.”

The line-up of the eight teams include: two Spanish sides, three English
teams and one from Ukraine, Germany and Italy. These teams are Barcelona, Real
Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs, Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk,
Schalke 04 and defending champions, Inter Milan.