The Champions Path is distorting the competition...

It is a noble idea and one which attempts to restore the Champions League to a tournament which features the champions of Europe's domestic leagues. But introducing Zilina and Partizan to the competition this season has proven to be akin to throwing lambs to the slaughter. Those two teams gained zero points in total between them from 12 matches. They scored a grand total of five goals and conceded 32. There has been a clear disparity between them and the other teams in the group. And people complain about the lack of competitiveness in England and Spain.
There can be no denying the financial munificence bestowed upon qualified teams by UEFA but the trade off comes with utter, abject embarrassment. International football has long since patronised San Marino and Andorra. Now club football is beginning to do the same. And for the record, Panathinaikos and Bursaspor have some serious explaining to do. The proud football nations of Greece and Turkey have been shamed by the performances of their champions. The qualification process for the Champions League needs to be tweaked yet again.
The men behind the goal only give us more people to blame for bad decisions
The two extra officials were added to UEFA's Europa League roster last season to largely indifferent effect. They missed some key decisions and were largely reticient on the ones that the referee's judged correctly. Their presence was extended, bafflingly, to this season's Champions League and they have made no significant improvement to the level of officiating.
Last night Chelsea were denied a penalty due to the incorrect advice offered to to the referee. Another spot-kick chance went begging when the man behind the goal-line failed to see Souleymane Diawara's blatant trip on Salomon Kalou. Commendation must go to Platini and his slew of aides for actually deciding to do something about the standard of refereeing but more thought is needed in the process. The obvious solution is video technology but that's another story.
In the meantime, referees will continue to be vilified for their on-the-spot judgements. Extra matchday officials have not given us better decisions; they have only given us is more people to blame for the bad ones.
Chelsea and Inter are lucky the group stage ends when it does
Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez are two of Europe's most respected coaches. But the Champions League winning duo cannot catch a break at the moment. Chelsea have won only twice in their last eight matches after starting the season like a team intent on winning it all. And Inter? Well Inter are in freefall and will welcome the break that the Club World Cup gives them in Abu Dhabi over the next few days.
Both Chelsea and Inter were beaten on Matchday 6; the Blues lost in the English football graveyard at the Stade Velodrome while Inter came unstuck at the mightily surreal Werder Bremen. Turn the form book back a few pages and these results would have been inconceivable. But it is what it is. Chelsea and Inter, two of Europe's best teams, are struggling. They simply do not have the current form to win the competition or even go too far.
In that respect Ancelotti and Benitez are fortunate to have around two months to solve the problems in their line-ups, welcome back key players from injury and attempt to reconstruct their seasons. If the knockouts were to start tomorrow, there would not be many punters backing the Pensioners or the Nerazzurri to go all the way.
Shakhtar are the most creditable outsiders...
What is not to love about Shakhtar Donetsk? Mircea Lucescu's side purvey a brand of scintillating attacking football with emphasis on starving opponents of the ball and utilising their mostly Brazilian attacking talent in the final third. They have blitzed their way through the group stage of the Champions League and dropped points only once in a tamely surrendered match at the Emirates.
But they have more than compensated for that and have qualified for the knockout stages for the first time in six attempts. The Miners are unbeaten in some 55 matches at home, a run stretching back as far as two years. Shakhtar are a breath of fresh air in a competition that has threatened to become boring and predictable. The Donbass Arena is one of the most feared venues in the European game.
There are not many teams in the unseeded side of the draw that will be relishing the trip to Donetsk. In fact, Lucescu's side have the beating of most of them.
... But Barca are the team to beat
Not strictly on the evidence of their Champions League performances, although those have been quite formidable but also on the most significant domestic result of the first half of the season anywhere in Europe.
Barcelona may not have sleepwalked through the group stages of the Champions League but they have played, to this point, well within themselves. And after watching the Blaugrana smash Real Madrid to pieces in el Clasico, all signs point to the fact that Pep Guardiola's team can step it up a notch when the situation dictates.
Madrid and Barca's Champions League groups were quite even, los Blancos', perhaps, even harder than the Catalans' to negotiate. And what happened when the two sides met in la Liga was nothing short of a hammering. Jose Mourinho has legitimate aspirations of winning back to back titles in this competition but he better hope to avoid Barcelona. When they're good, they're good and that means unplayable.
(Goal.com)