Spare a thought

Strong field set for Elite Eight as losers seek answers

It's knockout time in the Champions League, the moment when the competition starts to look like the old European Cup and every minute of every game becomes crucial.

Some argue that this is the strongest Final Eight field in history, and they may have a point. Seven of the eight clubs come from Europe's three strongest leagues; the other, Ajax, is second in the Dutch Eredivisie. All but Barcelona are still in with a chance to win their respective domestic titles.

The downside -- to some -- is that the competition is now weighted toward the big clubs in the big leagues, and romantics typically hark back to the 1980s, when clubs such as Finland's Kuusyisi Lahti, Scotland's Dundee United and the USSR's Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk reached the quarterfinals.

Ultimately though, there is a lot to be said about watching the great players of our time on the biggest club stage in the world, and this season -- in terms of star quality -- is about as good as it gets.

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We'll have plenty of time to talk about the Elite Eight... but, for now, spare a thought for the teams that were knocked out this week.

A case could be made that Arsenal or Roma would have brought even more star power to the latter stages, but both clubs dug their own graves in Group B.

Roma lost its first three games and, at that point, it was all going to uphill. Even if Vincenzo Montella hadn't wasted a golden chance to defeat Arsenal at Highbury, Roma would still have been eliminated following its 1-1 home draw with Ajax.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had said this would be the Gunners' year in Europe.

He was wrong, largely owing to Arsenal's inability to put teams away after establishing early leads; witness its home clashes with Ajax and Roma. Despite playing some fabulous, entertaining football, the club paid the price for what many of us identified as its most glaring weakness: a defensive rotation of Sol Campbell, 36-year-old Martin Keown and Pascal Cygan, which was simply not good enough at this level.

In Group A, Newcastle, master of the late comeback in the first group stage, can feel aggrieved, but only to a point. In the end, it wasn't the suspensions to Craig Bellamy and Alan Shearer that made the difference -- it was home losses to Inter and Barcelona that sent the Magpies crashing out. The good news for the Toon Army is that there is plenty of young talent that gained valuable experience in this campaign, as well as the fact that the old warhorse, Shearer, has two or three good seasons left.

As for Bayer Leverkusen, the less said, the better. Last year's runners-up -- plagues by injuries -- were in total disarray after the sacking of Klaus Toppmoeller and, with Bayer teetering on the edge of the relegation zone domestically, probably have more important things to worry about. It's worth noting, however, that their first two losses -- against Barca and Inter -- were closely fought affairs that could easily have gone the other way.

In Group C, Lokomotiv Moscow finished with a single point, but plenty of pride. Yuri Semin's troops let leads slip against Real Madrid at the Berneabeu and Borussia Dortmund at home and were only narrowly beaten, home and away, by AC Milan. The final encounter, against Real Madrid, summed up Lokomotiv's campaign nicely. The home side dominated possession, had twice as many shots on goal, but, ultimately, it was Real who took all three points.

Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, can easily pinpoint where it went wrong. Javier Portillo's late, late, late equalizer allowed Real to win a point in Dortmund, in a game in which Mathias Sammer's men squandered at least half a dozen chances. This sport often comes down to individual episodes and, in Borussia's case, they came up short at crucial times.

Basel and Deportivo La Coruna were edged out in Group D, despite finishing level on points with Juventus. Depor can wonder how things might have developed if Juan Carlos Valeron had been fully fit throughout the campaign and if Igor Tudor's late winner for Juventus had been a shade higher. Along with Arsenal, Deportivo played some of the most entertaining football among the eliminated teams, but, like the Gunners, Javier Irureta's men simply came up short when it mattered.

Finally, a word on Basel, this season's surprise package. The Swiss game doesn't have much of a pedigree, but Christian Gross built a team that played like a big club. From its gorgeous stadium, to its captivating, attacking style, to its passionate fans (so much for Swiss stereotypes), Basel was dazzling through this campaign, beating such teams as Celtic, Deportivo La Coruna and Juventus along the way and proving that good organization and confident players can overcome most obstacles.

The challenge now for the club is to take the experience and revenue of this year's Champions League and use it to further strengthen the team.

GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK

Good week: Pavel Nedved, whose two goals for Juventus against Modena cemented the bianconeri's place on top of the Serie A table. This is probably the best moment of Nedved's career, and he is already being mentioned as an early candidate for Footballer of the Year. With Juventus through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, he'll need to follow it up with some strong European performances.

Bad week: Fenerbache, where coach Oguz Cetin has told five players, including Abdullah Ercan and Ogun Temizkanoglu, that they are no longer wanted. Fenerbache is enduring a nightmare season, and the latest cull of players is unlikely to help.

Good week: Paysandu, who, in beating Lima's Sporting Cristal 2-1 became the first team to qualify for the next stage of the Copa Libertadores. The team from Belem, in northern Brazil, is the surprise package of this year's competition.

Bad week: Arsenal, which was knocked out of the Champions League and beaten by Blackburn Rovers in the Premiership. The Gunners are still hanging on domestically, and dreams of another double are intact (provided they get past Chelsea on Tuesday), but they need to bounce back quickly.

Gabriele Marcotti covers international soccer for SI.com.

 

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