Thus far the 1st seeds are: Roma, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Liverpool The 2nd seeds are: Chelsea, Inter Milan, Sporting, Atletico Pretty questionable huh? -Petey
Thing is Arsenal and United can't get Liverpool or Chelsea in the First Knockout Round, so it comes to Roma, Panathanaikos and Barcelona, or Inter, Sporting and Atletico. I'd probably take the latter, to be honest, but they should both be able to beat any of the 6 (bar Barca).
Panathinaikos are actually quite strong. Their captain Sotiris Ninis is incredible at only 18-years old. Not to mention that they have solid veterans as well. They have quite a few players in their ranks that should easily be playing at a higher level. The first that comes to mind aside from Ninis is definitely Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz. The guy is without a doubt the most underrated midfielder in the sport.
United have a tough trip, because of the fact most of the possible opponents are good teams that can become great in form in the space of a week. But if United can get the first goal, I can't see the other team irrelevent of how good they are winning the game in this stage of the competion. Solely because of the current team 'feel' about united, and the competion in the squad of Manchester United itself. As the team is balanced (at this point in time) Although on the other hand, I wouyld prefer to get a difficult team to get that team out of the way on route to Rome. P.S sos about the absense I was bogged down with GCSE Mocks
The point I was trying to make as I always do is just not to look down on the club. They can be very difficult. Third in your domestic league doesn't mean anything in the Champions League. Panathinaikos' current squad is built for a European run, so I'm sure they're concentrating on this more then the Greek Super League title.
