Revenge for Inter or the driving seat for Barca.
How many times do we see returning favourites haunt their previous employers? How often do we see it so soon? Ibra and Maxwell for Barca; Motta, Eto'o and, to a lesser extent, Jose for Inter.
The question is, will Inter get their revenge for the 0-0 draw and 2-0 defeat in the group stages?
The likelihood is that after the travel plans enforced on the Blaugrana they are bound to be jaded. I'm bored to death after an hour on a coach, never mind 15 hours and over 600 miles.... The Other Team, Depor, Espanyol now a jolly coach trip. Not ideal preparation and a hard two weeks. Is this an unfair advantage for those home teams in European competition during the recent Icelandic intervention? Has it removed the benefit of having the second leg at home, especially if air travel has returned to normal by then? Should UEFA enforce a similar type of travel for the 2nd leg to ensure fair play? Fat chance...
Personally, I think that Inter will be starting to believe that they can win the competition, especially after dispatching Chelsea without really looking like they were in trouble at any point. They maybe faltering in the league but then so are we.....and we have some tough games to come.
So, as a fan would I be happy with either the La Liga championship or the Champions League?
Both please.
Expection has become all consuming and greedy. Before the second year of Rijkaard's reign would we have been happy with one or the other? Damn right ! Now we have been spoilt with quality football that produces trophies it is hard to comprehend when we don't win the competitions entered, and yet it is totally unrealistic to expect to do so.
I will expect Inter to put up the shutters (or 'Man Wall' Lucio) and rely on the pace of Eto'o and Milito with the guile of Sneider. Why did The Other Team ever release Sneider? A quality player who is always dangerous from set plays.
I would be very happy with a draw, especially a score draw.
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