Re: The round of 16 Champions League (Merged)
seeing as arsenal and city are in the same boat (finished 2nd so could play pretty much any of the best teams in europe) i'll just post this here:
if you avoid these teams in the last 16 by finishing top of your group, the chances are you'll get them in the last 8 or last 4. bottom line is your going to get them, and its not gonna be any easier playing them in last 8 or last 4 compared to playing them in last 16.
all it means is you might get 1 round further before potentially being knocked out by a better team.
to me it doesn't really matter, i've never understood the reaction at finishing 2nd.
its not as if you've avoided playing the top teams forever is it? you've just delayed it by a round.
maybe with city i can understand as you need to improve your coefficient in europe so the further you go, even its just 1 round further, the better. arsenal don't need to worry about that so unless we win the thing i couldn't care less if we get knocked out in last 16/8/4.
anyway i would much rather be looking forward to a glamour tie against barca/madrid/bayern then a shit game against Olympiakos or zenit.
none of this means i wouldn't have preffered to finish 1st, but not to the extent that i'm going to worry or get angry about it.
