Wednesday's knock out Preview

The stage is set for the big games in Europe as anyway eight European giants have to leave the arena and the winners will go to the Quarter finals. The English giants have got slight upper hand over their Spanish and Italian counterparts as Real Madrid need to win the game at Anfield by a margin of 2 goals also Juventus and Roma trailing Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. Barcelona have got the away goal advantage and Inter Milan have got the mountainous task of winning at Old Trafford if they want to progress . Bayern almost made to the next round with their first leg performance .


Manchester United v Inter Milan


The much waited match of the day as the first leg end in a goalless draw at Italy contested between the champions of Italy with the Champions of World, Europe and English football playing each other . It will be the battle between the two best managers in Europe – Ferguson the long serving coach of United and Mourinho the new one in the block who can claim to be Fergie’s real successor and who wants to do the same with United with his recent remarks. With his spells with Porto , Chelsea and now with Inter the Portuguese has shown that he is also a genius
In the first leg United outclassed their Italian counterparts in every department yet they were not able to do that in front of the goal . It was a rather bad decision for Sir Alex to leave Rooney on the bench as his other strikers were ruining chance after chance . The striker is in his peak form now scoring goals in all his last starts and also making crucial assists . He will be up to take his chances .
Vidic is coming after suspension which is a major boost for United . The Serbian is their major player in the heart of the defence throughout the season and it is interesting to see how Ibramovic cope with him Defensively United are in trouble now with Ferdinand & O’shea injured . With Neville and Brown also injured United somehow have got a defensive crisis. But otherwise they are flying high in their league .

Battles will be fought between the United forwards and their counterparts. Last match it was between Ronaldo and the Inter milan keeper

Meanwhile, Inter Milan have just two fit centre-backs after losing Marco Materazzi and Nicolas Burdisso to injury in the first half of their 2-0 victory over Genoa.

Ahead of the game in Manchester, Inter coach Jose Mourinho said: "Christian Chivu, Walter Samuel, Materazzi and Burdisso are out."


Roma v Arsenal


Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor will miss the Champions League tie with Roma because of an ongoing hamstring injury.

But Ivory Coast defender Kolo Toure should be fit for the match, which Arsenal lead 1-0 from the first leg.

Eduardo and Theo Walcott - who both played in the Gunners' FA Cup win over Burnley - are among manager Arsene Wenger's options up front.

Meanwhile, Roma defender Cicinho is out for the season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

Up front, Eduardo made a strong case for inclusion with a superb goal against the Clarets, while England winger Walcott played the last 20 minutes in his first appearance since shoulder surgery in November.

Walcott admits he is not fit enough to start yet but could make an impact from the substitutes' bench.

"I need a few more training sessions, a few more games coming off the bench and hopefully if I am doing well the boss will put me in," said Walcott.

He added: "The shoulder feels fine.

"I still haven't experienced getting clattered yet, so that's the next test. Even though it sounds weird, that will definitely be good for me."