FC Bayern drawn with Basel in Champions League (plus 3-0 win over Koln)

By: phil | December 16th, 2011

The Draw for the Round of 16 in the 2011-2012 Champions League has been taken, and FC Bayern get a pretty favorable opponent: Swiss champs Basel, who earned their spot by beating Manchester United last week. Bayern will have a clear advantage in talent and depth, and Basel is probably going to play mostly defensive and look for a goal on a counter-attack. But their win over Man U demonstrates that they can’t be taken lightly – they do have a few guys who can take advantage if you give them space, and if we allow them a single goal, they can turtle up and try to kill the clock.

Full Round of 16 match-ups:

Bayern vs. Basel

Arsenal vs. AC Milan

Lyon vs. APOEL Nicosia

Chelsea vs. SSC Napoli

Barcelona vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Real Madrid vs. CSKA Moscow

Benfica vs. Zenit St. Petersburg

Internazationale Milan vs. Marseilles

Some good match-ups … we’ll all be hoping for Leverkusen to pull the upset, but Barca and Real fans have to be thinking they got favorable draws. The two England vs. Italian matches are probably the most important (other than Bayern) – in both of those, a dangerous or somewhat-dangerous opponent is going to be eliminated.

Out of the other 5, what I’d like to see is at least one of the favorites getting upset: Real, Barca, Inter, Lyon, or Benfica. All will be big favorites, but crazy things always happen once you get to the knockout stage. Anyway, the biggest problem now is that we have to wait 2 months for the party to get started. It’s times like this I feel really sorry for all of my nerd friends who don’t watch soccer.

Also, consider this your Match Day Thread for the Koln game. I looked into Chat-an-go, and it appears it will work for the future … but I want to try it on a weekend (when I’m not working) the first time – this Friday game threw me off. Check back after the match for a recap and some video highlights.

Also, I’m DVR-ing the game, so if you’re watching and see a particular play, move, shot, or save you want broken down in further detail, just note the time on the game clock and then email me at bayern.offside@yahoo.com and we can break it down with some stop-motion photo analysis.

Viva viva FC Bayern!

* * * *

3-0 to Bayern is your final. Ribery got tossed with about 10 minutes to go in the first half, and probably earned himself a suspension. But the rest of the crew took care of business in the 2nd, with Gomez getting a classic Gomez goal (cleaning up the trash after a Mueller run), Alaba getting on the scoreboard, and finally Kroos with a nice looping, soft-touch goal.

For now, we have a 6-point lead at the top of the table. Dortmund and Schalke could cut into that later this weekend, but we’re headed into the winter break in good shape – at least 3 points clear at the top, and maybe more. If Schweinsteiger comes back at 100%, we have a great chance for glory in 2012 – Bundesliga, Pokal, and Champions League.

Some video fun – van Buyten popping the ball: