The knockout stages of UEFA Champions League 2011/12 are starting today with Bayer Leverkusen taking on Barcelona and Lyon hosting APOEL Nicosia. So lets see how some teams reached this stage and some dropped out.
UEFA Champions League had the biggest upset in store as previous edition’s runners-up and 2008 champions Manchester United were knocked out from the group stages from relatively easy Group C. In group A, Manchester City were bundled out as Napoli and Bayen Munich progressed while Inter and CSKA Moscow qualified from group B dumping out Ligue 1 champions Lille.
Real Madrid maintained a perfect record with 6 wins out of 6 and were followed by Lyon to the next round in Group D while Ajax missed out on goal difference. Chelsea and Bayer Leverkusen qualified from group E as Valencia were only able to hold to a Europa League spot.
Arsenal & Marseille qualified from Group F while APOEL FC were surprise winners of Group G followed by Zenit St Petersburg. There was not much competition in Group H, as Barcelona were clear winners while Plzen and BATE were no match for AC Milan.
Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich) and Lionel Messi (Barcelona) are joint top-scorers with seydouDoumbia (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Frei (Basel) and Bafetimbi Gomis (Lyon) following closely with 5 goals each.
The round of 16 presents some mouth-watering ties as AC Milan takes on Arsenal and Napoli lock horns with Chelsea. Full list of fixtures is given below:
Lyon vs APOEL Nicosia
SSC Napoli vs Chelsea
AC Milan vs Arsenal
Basel vs Bayern Munich
Bayer Leverkusen vs Barcelona
CSKA Moscow vs Real Madrid
Zenit St.Petersburgvs Benfica
Marseille vs Inter
So keep your fingers crossed and support see whether your team reaches the final, which will be played at at the Fußball Arena München on Saturday, May 19, 2012.
GeoSuper