THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — Champions League title-holder Barcelona and last year’s runner-up Manchester United carry the tag of favourites into the quarter-final draw Friday.
No surprise there, as the Spanish and English champions have star strikers Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney playing at the peak of their scoring form.
Less likely was that six nations would be represented in the last eight of a competition dominated by Europe’s two powerhouse leagues in recent seasons. Spain and England had six teams in the quarter-finals a year ago and supplied all four semifinalists for the past two editions.
CSKA Moscow is the first Russian team at this stage since 1996, while Bordeaux and Lyon are the first French quarter-finalists for four years.
Inter Milan, seeking its first European title since 1965, is the only Italian representative, and four-time winner Bayern Munich flies the flag for Germany.
Arsenal joins Manchester United in a two-strong challenge from England — the Premier League’s smallest showing since 2006.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said he had no preferred opponent in Friday’s draw, which is unrestricted by seeding or nationality.
“They’re all strong teams, the draw is extremely strong. We’ll have to do things very well to reach the semifinals,” Guardiola said after his team’s easy 4-0 win Wednesday over Germany’s Stuttgart, to advance 5-1 on aggregate.
World player of the year Messi continued his inspired recent run in scoring twice. The Argentina international has 31 goals in all competitions this season.
Rooney has gone one better with 32, including a pair in United’s 4-0 demolition of 2007 champion AC Milan last week.
Barcelona forward Thierry Henry knows Rooney well from his long spell playing in England, but would have no problem going to Old Trafford.
“The only team I don’t want to play is Arsenal,” said Henry, who led his former team to the 2006 final where it lost 2-1 to Barcelona.
Bayern captain Mark van Bommel especially wants to avoid the Nou Camp after a humiliating first-leg defeat there in last season’s quarter-finals.
“Just not against Barcelona,” said Van Bommel, remembering how the tie was effectively ended by four first-half goals, including two from Messi.
Confidence is growing at Bayern after two leading contenders were knocked out this week.
“With Chelsea and Real Madrid, two top clubs have been eliminated and that makes it more possible for us,” forward Mario Gomez wrote in a column for Kicker magazine.
Chelsea had reached three straight semifinals but was beaten in Milan and London by an Inter team masterminded by former coach Jose Mourinho, who made his first return to Stamford Bridge.
Real’s 2-1 aggregate loss to Lyon was its sixth straight failure at the last-16 stage, and was especially painful after a 250-million-euro (C$345 million) off-season spending spree on players designed to take the club to the May 22 final in its own Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Real great Emilio Butragueno, as ambassador for the final, will help perform the draw at the Nyon headquarters of tournament organizer UEFA.
The quarter-finals first-leg matches are scheduled for March 30-31 and the return matches for April 6-7.
The semifinals bracket also will be drawn, with matches on April 20-21 and 27-28.