The Champion's League Quarter Final Draw

Everyone this morning was sitting forward, waiting for when the Champion's League draw would come and everyone would find out who was playing who.

And for two English teams, it was a rematch of centuries that keeps repeating itself. Chelsea was drawn to play Manchester United in the Quarter finals, which the first leg begins early April. After the first and second legs, whoever comes out on top will move on to face the winner of Inter Milan v Schalke in the Semi Finals.

This has been nothing but great news for both sides, Manchester United looking to extract some revenge against Chelsea who beat them recently in the Premier League 2-1, with Ferguson getting banned because of the comments he made about the ref for that game.

But this time, both teams are playing in the UEFA, so if there are more ref slamming comments to be made it could take a turn for the worse and someone could be banned completely from a game, instead of just a touchline ban like Sir Alex received for five matches.

As a Man United fan, I simply cannot wait for these matches to happen. With Chelsea flipping in and out of form, these matches can only prove to be as crazy as they are in the premier league.

But there is something that was pretty annoying to here, and it came out of Spain from Barcelona's superstar;

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has ruled out Manchester United as contenders to win this season's Champions League.

Messi said he expected his Barcelona team, Spanish rivals Real Madrid or Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea to lift the trophy in May. But Sir Alex Ferguson's Premier League leaders and 2007-08 European champions didn't get a mention.

"Ourselves, Madrid and Chelsea are the favourites for this year," the Barcelona forward is quoted as saying in The Sun.

It is surprising to see someone like Messi to say that against a team he has faced many times before in the past and had great matches against. It'll be surprising to see if Barcelona will be able to get to the finals and I truly hope that Manchester United will be able to meet them at the finals, just to prove a point to Messi.

Now I've been thinking about this a bit more, and maybe with Messi saying things like this could have a beneficial factor for the team, boosting their overall desire to get to the final and win just to prove the world recognized player wrong.

Chelsea look to redeem themselves

For all the talk surrounding John Terry of late, with calls to return the England captaincy to him dominating the back pages, the Chelsea skipper takes his place in the headlines again, but for reasons of revenge.

When the Champions League quarter-final draw matched his side with Manchester United, Terry would have had mixed feelings. Undoubtedly a wave of frustration came over him when the Blues drew another English team and avoided the relative minnows of Shakhtar and Schalke, but then it would have dawned on the defender that he had the chance to overcome the demons of Moscow in 2008.

Terry's penalty slip against United cost his side dearly when he had the chance to secure Chelsea's first ever Champions League title and it affected him deeply, so much so that he has the shirt he wore on the night still hanging in his trophy room as a constant reminder of his burning ambition to lift Europe's top prize.

Now, fate has paired him with United again, at a time when a decent European campaign would go some way to healing the pain of losing out on the Premier League title.

Both sides, arguably, are in worse shape than when they met in 2008. United have lost Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Owen Hargreaves (although the latter is still on the club's books), while Chelsea have failed to replace Claude Makelele and still miss the industry and quality of Michael Ballack in the centre of the pitch.

Players have come and gone since but, while the Blues have just splashed £75 million on Fernando Torres and David Luiz, only the former new signing is available for the game and has been struggling horribly for form in front of goal.

Luiz's impact in the two clubs' most recent Premier League fixture - a 2-1 win for Chelsea - has raised many points of discussion for pundits and managers alike. Sir Alex Ferguson felt the full wrath of the FA for his comments about referee Martin Atkinson's failure to send off the Brazilian and landed a five-match ban, but while recent history between the two has not been kind to United, they will still draw immense confidence from the mental strength of that night in Moscow.

Terry of course, may well do the same.

It will be the sixth time the Blues have faced English opposition in a Champions League knockout tie the past seven years and will give Chelsea's players - many of whom played in Moscow - a chance to avenge the painful penalty shootout defeat three years ago. The first leg will be played at Stamford Bridge.

The winner of the Chelsea v United clash will face whoever emerges victorious from Inter Milan v Schalke, with the reigning European champions handed a seemingly favourable draw after their dramatic last-16 defeat of Bayern Munich.

On the other side of the draw, Tottenham face a first-leg trip to nine-time champions Real Madrid, with Spurs star Rafael van der Vaart given the opportunity to return to his former club.

Should Real beat Spurs, they open up the possibility of a mouthwatering all-Spanish semi-final against favourites Barcelona. The Catalans will take on Shakhtar Donetsk in the last eight - a tough draw for the Ukrainians, who have reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

The matchdays are:
Quarter-finals: April 5, 6 and 12, 13
Semi-finals: April 26, 27 and May 3, 4
Final (Wembley): May 28

It'd be really neat to see some of the lower likely teams to pull out and actually win some matches, like Shakhtar and Schalke but they most likely will fall to their respective opposition, but I believe most people will be waiting to see the two giants of England clash against each other to prove who is the best in the Champions league and could very well set the score for the rest of the season in the Premier League.

Javier Hernandez speaks with ESPN

Javier Hernandez believes Manchester United can take full advantage of playing the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford - but concedes playing Chelsea will be a test.

United were paired with their Premier League rivals in the quarter-finals draw on Friday, with Chelsea having got the better of United recently at Stamford Bridge.

Hernandez, who started on the bench in United's 2-1 defeat to Chelsea earlier this month, is focused on adding to his tally of three Champions League goals when the sides resume their rivalry on April 6.

"We play in the same league and it is going to be tough," said Hernandez. "Stamford Bridge is a nice stadium and it makes it a little bit like a league game.

"But if there is an advantage that we are at home in the second game. I am trying to think game by game and not to look too far in the future. But I am very happy with the way things are going in the Champions League and I want to keep it like that."

Fergie loving Chelsea battle

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke quickly with Sky Sports about the draw with Chelsea;

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is eagerly anticipating the UEFA Champions League showdown with Chelsea at the make-or-break phase of the season.

The two Premier League rivals were drawn together in the quarter-finals of the European Cup on Friday and the two-legged tie promises to be a fascinating battle.

Table-topping United, who are set to face derby foes Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals on 16th April, still hope to repeat their trophy-winning Treble of 1999.

Ahead of the meetings with Chelsea on 6th April and 13th April, Ferguson is relishing the period of the season he once famously called 'squeaky bum time'.

The United manager, speaking to Sky Sports News at the Cheltenham Festival, said: "It doesn't matter what draw you get at these stages, you have got to perform and we need to perform.

"We are that real cutting edge of the season now and I am looking forward to it."



Final Notes

The next couple of months are going to be the proving grounds for Manchester United, looking to prove themselves completely this year against all of the naysayers, as they actually have a good chance at winning the treble again! With Sir Alex having to deal with the FA touchline ban, the next few games will be tough tests for his squad, but in the end they will continue to prove themselves.

It's crunch time now, and Sir Alex and his squad knows this. Other teams never had to deal with this sort of pressure before, and the pressure continues to mount on the Manchester United squad that many people believe are no where near their best form.

If that is the case, I guess it's good to be on top then!

Leave comments below about what you think the Chelsea v Man Utd draw will mean for us and how it will turn out!