FC Barcelona once again got an easy draw compared to their opponents in the Champions League second round. FC Barcelona has been drawn against the French Champions Olympique Lyonnais. Like FC Barcelona Lyon is on the top of their respective League. When I say that Lyon would be an easy draw, it just mean that out of the all possible opponents Lyon would be the easiest (no insult to Lyonis meant here). It would be a Herculean task for Barcelona to get past the French Champion. They got quality players like Benzema, Juninho, Govou in their line-up. But I already metioned in my previous post Champions League Opponent that I would prefer to play Lyon compared to an Inter or Chelsea. Lyon would be playing a much more open game rather than the other two opponents and that increases FC Barcelona's chances of proceeding to the next round.Last season FC Barcelona and Lyon met in the group stage; Barca won the home leg comfortaby but drew in the away leg. FC barcelona has scored 18 goals in their Champions League campaign and Lyon are not far behind scoring 14 goal; that makes this the most exciting tie of the second round. Fc barcelona would be playing the second leg at home and that would be a serious advantage. The other tie ups are:
Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Lyon v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v Roma
Inter Milan v Manchester United
There are some serious rivals being joined once again in thos ties, like the Mourinho vs Ferguson rivalry, Madrid would be facing Liverpool and to make things worse would be playing the second leg away; Villareal looks to have got a much easier draw - but when you put this into perspective that Panathinaikos quialified ahead of Inter; that makes thing tricky. Athletico Madird also looks to have a good draw against Porto but plays the second leg away.