Jakarta Java Kini - Jakarta's City Magazine

This Season’s UEFA Championship League is nearing its climax

Well, a top summer of international sport is on the cards, what with annual treats such as Wimbledon and Formula 1 (which has a record six world champions lining up on the grid this year) being joined by the London Olympics and the Euro 2012 championships. But before we get there, there’s the small matter of the UEFA Champions League to resolve, which should act as a suitably spectacular curtain raiser to a simply super summer of sporting spectacle.

Last year’s Champions League produced a superb final face-off between Manchester United and Barcelona of course. The mighty Man Utd were laid low 3-1 by a Barca side that many claim is basically the best club team of all time. This season however, Manchester United fell at the first hurdle of the group stages, along with newly minted Premier League leaders, Manchester City.

Other English clubs have done slightly better. Arsenal managed to claw back three goals in the second leg of their second round fixture against AC Milan but alas went out 4-3 on aggregate. Only Chelsea managed to scrape through to the quarterfinals after overturning a two-goal deficit against Napoli in the second leg of their second-round fixture at Stamford Bridge.

So who else is left in the competition then? Well, as just mentioned, there’s AC Milan of course and this iconic club will be looking to step out of the shadows of 2010 winners Inter Milan and reassert themselves as Italy’s most prestigious football club. Benfica are flying the flag for Portugal and are also looking to grab headlines away from archrivals Porto. Barcelona march proudly on of course, most recently defeating Bayer Leverkusen 10-2. Barcelona are already the best team without the scintillating Lionel Messi on the pitch. With him though, they are simply out of this world.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the European footballing spectrum, lowly Apoel Nicosia have provided this year’s fairy story by beating the fancied French side Lyon in the second round and are the first ever Cypriot club to reach this stage of the competition.

Also in the mix are the aforementioned Chelsea and Jose Morinho’s Real Madrid, who will be looking to get one back on archrivals Barca. Bayern Munich are also still in the competition, as are lone remaining French side Marseille, who put on a great performance to just get the better of Inter Milan on away goals in the second round.So the heat is now on and as the competition reaches fever pitch, we are surely in for some truly nail-biting action and a few late nights spent on our sofas. Let’s see who can take it all the way to Munich.