The first legs of the Champions League round-of-16 wrap up today with defending champs Inter Milan facing a resurgent Bayern Munich at the San Siro while two injury-depleted teams will square off when Marseille hosts Manchester United.
Second legs kick off March 8th and 9th with Barcelona hosting Arsenal and Tottenham entertaining AC Milan as the top attractions.
The marquee match of the day is at the San Siro, a rematch of last year’s final. Then, Inter came out on top, roundly outclassing Bayern in the Santiago Bernabeu to collect the trophy in what turned out to be Jose Mourinho's Inter swan song. Now, Bayern seek revenge while Inter must merely be hoping to find something of value from what has been a turbulent season so far.
Inter didn’t exactly convince in the their trip to the knockout stages, but that was then, and this is now. Under Mourinho's successor, the ill-fated Rafa Benitez, Inter were a chilly, disjointed team unloved even by their own fans and suffering from a bad case of the yips on the field. Under Leonardo, Inter has regained some of the old swagger and comes into this match on a hot streak, with nine wins in 11 games this year.
New boy Giampaolo Pazzini has made an immediate impact since his transfer from Sampdoria. Running alongside Samuel Eto’o, with Javier Zanetti, Thiago Motta and Sneijder behind, Inter have rediscovered their scoring touch, shooting their way out of trouble in games against Palermo, Roma and Fiorentina, and overwhelming the likes of Bari. But one key absentee tonight will be the man who won the final last year: Diego Milito, scorer of both goals, is out with a hamstring strain.
Bayern only dropped one game in the group stages, a 3-2 loss in Rome thanks to a late Francesco Totti penalty. That doesn’t tell the entire story: Bayern were in the midst of a prolonged slump at home and after a dominant first half performance that night, they allowed Roma to come all the way back from 2-0 down. A clearly angry Louis van Gaal snapped at reporters after the match, saying: "If it were so easy to explain why things are going wrong for us, I would already have the answer for you"
Since then, Bayern have undergone a transformation of their own, rebounding from a hideous league start to climb into third. They are unlikely to catch Borussia Dortmund for the Bundeliga crown, but they are now winning games with the kind of power and élan expected from the Bavarian giants.
Why? Easy: Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben are finally healthy. Key striker Mario Gomez has been the spark-plug that carried Bayern through some grim times, consigning Miroslav Klose to the bench in the process. But Gomez, who carried the load in the group stage, is now trying to shake off an ankle injury he picked up on the weekend against Mainz and the so-called "Rob-bery" tandem will be critical.
Where Bayern can be caught out is at the back. Phillip Lahm has spent far too much time covering up for the gaffes of Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Holger Badstuber to be the playmaker he can be, and Bastian Schweinsteiger is only just now shaking off the cobwebs from South Africa.
The same is true for Inter, with long-term absentee Walter Samuel (knee) yet to be completely replaced. Lucio and Maicon have done yeoman work, but the former is shaking off an injury and the latter is not showing the poise he did a season prior.
The game in France shapes up as a clash of the walking wounded, with Marseille missing as many as three key men and United leaving six behind in Manchester. Despite the current woes, both teams are challenging for their league titles, with United sitting atop the Premiership on a four-point cushion while Marseille trail Lille by just three in the tight Ligue 1 battle.
Marseille will be without key striker Andre-Pierre Gignac, who injured his groin last week and is also likely to be missing Mathieu Valbuena (knee and ankle). There are also questions about the availability of Loic Remy (heel) and Brandao (ankle).
Manchester United were already missing Park-Ji Sung, but shocked fans by announcing a casualty list that included Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Anderson. Anderson may miss up to two months with the knee injury he sustained on the weekend against Crawley Town in the FA Cup.
But the advantage still falls to United, a team that has shown a remarkable ability to will its way to wins despite a punishing schedule. United hasn’t shown a lot of strength in the back with the likes of Chris Smalling being called into action, but Edwin van der Sar is still magic. By contrast, Olympique has to call upon the serviceable Steve Mandana, but his backs - Rod Fanni, Gabriel Heinze and Stephane M’Bia - have all looked creaky.
Running right at the former United man Gabriel Heinze will be Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, the former finally catching fire, the latter the man of this season for the Red Devils. And while Nemanja Vidic will have a lot of ground to cover, Lyon striker Lucho Gonzalez isn’t the caliber of either of those men, especially without Valbuena’s creativity to service him.
Marseille’s home form has been impressive: they’ve dropped only one league match; got a critical win on the last Euro group stage day over Chelsea, and suffered only one misfire when they dropped their opener to Spartak Moscow.
Unfortunately, history is against them: United have only lost twice in 24 games against French teams and have been dominant on the road in Europe.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League and the Barclay's Premier League.
