I am a regular on a Chelsea Mboard and this is a take on the CL by an Italian who's knowledge of the game and opinion I respect:
Pauly wote:
If you look at the strength of the squads (and the current points) of the teams chasing the EPL, you can already say that it will finish; Arsenal winners, Chelsea second and Manure a distant third.
I believe that by simply looking at the squads you can narrow the champions league down to only one possible winner, but for the sake of arguing i will say there are 4 teams that could possibly win.
This is the weakest champions league for many many years, and we do have a small chance of winning it - this is what i think of the competition that is left.
1. Man Utd & Juve: Neither have a chance. Decimated squads, Man Utd without Ferdinand will be exactly the same as man utd without Stam. I don't think that any team that is sweating on the fitness of MIKAEL SILVESTRE & WES BROWN can challenge for the cup. Juventus made an error in selling Davids, and it shows. I went to watch them at Bologna a couple of weeks ago, and they looked absolutely horrible. Del Piero plays 4 out of every 5 games indifferently, and is a dead weight on the field and they don't look safe without Antonio Conte on the field - a bad situation. In summary, Neither have the possibility of winning.
2. Monaco, Lyon, Sociedad, Celta, Sparta Prague, Lokomotiv are all second class teams and have no possibility of winning.
3. Bayern Munich, Stuttgart & Depor would be distant outsiders even if the qualified from their current matches which is unlikely. Bayern would have the best chance out of those 3, but i can't see any of them making it past the semi's at best.
4. That leaves remaining: Arsenal, Milan, Madrid & Chelsea. The first 3 more importantly because they are well formed teams that know eachother very well, and then obviously because of the squads. I put us in there, simply because of our squad - the CL is played disjointedly, and is a cup, that is the only reason we stand a chance. But we do have that chance because we have, THANKS TO CLAUDIO RANIERI, a squad that is COMPLETE.
Naturally it is my opinion that Milan are the only eventual winners. (that should guarentee a loss to sparta) But Arsenal are very high on confidence and Madrid are Madrid... with zidane and ronaldo. Milan are the only team with what i think are the two components necessary to go down as one of history's great teams - A complete team (one that defends, holds the ball and attacks with the same genius), AND the individual stars.
This is the direction Chelsea are going, we are not going to be a Madrid, Arsenal or Manure that are great going forward but undoubted have many big weaknesses. We have the complete squad, we just lack a real star player (zidane, nedved, ronaldo etc.)
SO in summary;
Finalists; Milan & Madrid
Semi-Finalists; Milan Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal.
Pauly