UEFA fumbles its balls in Champions League draw

	As they battle for the top spot in the English Premier League, it's now possible Man Utd and Chelsea may meet for the European Cup. FotoSports/WireImage.com
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And the English Football Association rejoices. Three of the four Premier League teams in this week's Champions League action reached the final eight, and thanks to UEFA's random fumbling of their balls, none of them will face each other in the quarterfinals.

In England, the response to the draw has been predictably favorable -- all three EPL teams are matched up against the three clubs the bookmakers rank as the least likely to lift the trophy. Manchester United meets Roma, Liverpool faces PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea goes up against Valencia.

The most hotly contested match is thought to be AC Milan vs. Bayern Munich, but in clichéd and paternal fashion, Team Limey warns that there are no easy matches at this stage.

Tensions are high at Castle Limey, with both of our preseason picks for the English club still in the competition. Ben Franklin took the obvious choice with bookmakers' favorite Chelsea, while Jon Pickstone saw Rafa Benítez's expert reading of the European game as key when choosing Liverpool. (Can anyone guess which one of us wrote this paragraph?) But before a Valencia-Inter style punch-up erupts in the banqueting hall, let's take you back to the midweek round-of-16 matches.

The golf clubs were nowhere to be seen at Anfield, as Benítez's tactics saw Liverpool advance past reigning champion Barcelona. Despite losing 1-0, the Reds qualified on the away-goals rule thanks to their first leg 2-1 victory at the Nou Camp.

Even with a team of virtually the same players who won last year's tournament, Barça looked like a shadow of its former self. One player that was conspicuous in his absence was Ronaldinho. We weren't even aware that he was playing until he decided to touch the ball just before halftime. Unexpected pre-match queues at the Anfield burger stalls, perhaps?

Chelsea came back from a goal down to defeat Porto 2-1, apparently thanks to the Special One's "difficult" halftime team talk. José Mourinho explained that he "made the players think a little bit," something the players obviously aren't used to. Hard life earning $200,000 a week, isn't it?

With his loan spell ending, Henrik Larsson scored the only goal in his final game at Old Trafford, as Man United beat French side Lille 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate). Another season for the dust to settle in the Emirates Stadium's trophy cabinet, as Arsenal lost to PSV 2-1 on aggregate, ending the Gunners' hopes of silverware in 2006-07.

Much to Arsène Wenger's annoyance, the scorer of PSV's goal, and its chief tormenter in repelling everything the Gunners could throw at them, is technically a Chelsea player. Brazilian center back Alex was bought by Chelsea in '04 and loaned to PSV for an initial two seasons.

The comic moment of the round has to be the sight of the school playground-esque chase that ensued after Valencia substitute David Navarro broke Inter Milan's Nicolás Burdisso's nose, and then made a run for it. The fight and scenes that followed have to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, fight fans, the cameras didn't show what happened next after 6-foot-5, 210-pound Inter goalkeeper Francesco Toldo charged into the Valencia dressing room to confront the runaway Navarro.