The plot will be about reunions and revenge when Barcelona starts the next step toward its Champions League defense at Arsenal in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
The first leg will pit Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas against the club that nurtured him as well as former Barcelona youth team friend Lionel Messi, while Thierry Henry should finally come up against the Gunners three years after departing.
Henry was in the Arsenal side that lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final - a 2-1 defeat which manager Arsene Wenger still harbors grievances about because goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off.
"This time I'm sure it will be different," Wenger said. "It's very frustrating for a manager not to win the title, but on the night we turned up with a decent performance and that's all you can do."
This week also sees a rerun of the 1999 final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich. The all-French clash between Lyon and Bordeaux and Inter Milan's meeting with CSKA Moscow complete the quarterfinal lineup.
But the spotlight will be on north London, where Arsenal and Barcelona should produce an attack-oriented match.
Arsenal will have much to fear from Messi if the Argentinian reproduces the recent devastating form that has helped Barcelona - in coach Pep Guardiola's words - "steamroller" opponents.
"Leo is very special," said Henry, whose side will be without injured midfielder Andres Iniesta. "What Leo can do is difficult to find in any other player. The other day I had my head in my hands because I did not know how he does such things. I've received a load of messages all asking me if Leo is human. At times I ask myself that."
Messi missed the 2006 final through injury, denying him a chance to play against his former junior teammate Fabregas, who had been lured from the Barcelona youth team three years earlier at 16.
"As much as it's important not to speak too much about the individual players of Barcelona, it's important we don't put too much pressure on Fabregas ... and expect him to make the difference," Wenger said. "It will unfair and not realistic."
While Barcelona enters the match on five straight wins and only being kept off top spot in Spain by Real Madrid on goal difference, Arsenal's Premier League title hopes were rocked Saturday by a draw at Birmingham that kept the Gunners third.
Top of the English standings is three-time European champion Manchester United, which is on a mission to reach a third straight Champions League final.
The final being recalled this week, though, involved the competition's most dramatic comeback. Bayern Munich was leading United 1-0 in 1999 until the 90th minute when Alex Ferguson's side scored twice in stoppage time to lift the trophy.
"Nobody will ever win a European Cup like that again," Ferguson reflected over the weekend. "Every time a team is 1-0 up with three minutes left, they will keep thinking of Manchester United."
Bayern hosts United on Tuesday only days after being toppled from the Bundesliga summit by a second straight loss and with concerns over on the fitness of winger Arjen Robben, who sustained a left-calf injury in the 2-1 defeat to Stuttgart on Saturday.
"It would be bitter if lost such a top player," defender Philipp Lahm said. "Now we have to show what we're made from. We have to try not to concede a goal at home."
CSKA Moscow travels to Inter Milan as the first Russian team to reach the quarterfinals since Spartak Moscow 14 years ago.
"We are used to being underdogs," coach Leonid Skutsky said. "Maybe they will underestimate us."
But Inter, which ousted Chelsea in the previous round, is still reeling from a 2-1 loss at AS Roma that cut its lead atop the Serie A to just one point with seven rounds remaining.
Center back Lucio and midfielder Thiago Motta will be suspended for an Inter team which is chasing a treble, including the Italian Cup.
"It's not easy playing in three competitions, you spend a lot of energy, but we're just going to keep pushing forward trying to give our all," striker Diego Milito said. "The will to win is stronger than the fatigue."
The Champions League is guaranteed a French semifinalist for the first time since Monaco six years ago.
French champion Bordeaux, which will be without suspended captain Alou Diarra, has won seven Champions League matches in a row while conceding just three goals. But Lyon, which hosts the first-leg on Tuesday, caused this season's biggest upset by eliminating big-spending Real Madrid to reach the quarterfinals.
"It's not because we beat Real Madrid that we'll (necessarily) beat Bordeaux too," Lyon playmaker Miralem Pjanic said. "We will face a very good team, Bordeaux, which is tough to handle. We know what to expect. We won't underestimate them."
