Champions League: Three things to watch

Can Celtic pull off yet another unlikely European triumph? Can Dortmund maintain their magnificent pre-Christmas form? And how will United go about trying to stop a familiar face at the Bernabeu?

Can the Hoops upset the odds yet again?

If you’re a Celtic supporter whose views on football are dictated completely by logic, then you might be better off looking away now. As far as the bookies are concerned, the Hoops haven’t much of a hope of winning at Celtic Park tonight, much less progress over the two legs.

You can get odds of 10/3 for Neil Lennon’s men to win the first leg and 7/2 to go through, while the Serie A giants are quoted at a prohibitive 1/6 to reach the quarter-finals. Bear in mind that Celtic are playing in an uncompetitive league (they’re 18 points ahead of the mighty Inverness Caledonian Thistle) and Juve are leading by five points in Italy and you can see where the ominous odds are coming from.

Logic, however, has rarely dictated Celtic’s results in Europe, especially at Celtic Park over the years. Few would have envisaged a victory over the mighty Barcelona in November, nor would they have predicted the famous victories over AC Milan in 2007, Manchester United in 2006 or tonight’s opposition, Juventus, in 2001.

No matter what the Juventus players have experienced before, nothing will prepare them for the atmosphere in Glasgow tonight; the reaction of the star-studded Barcelona side to the encounter in November is testament to that. Another famous victory tonight and who knows what could happen in Turin in three weeks’ time?

The prospect of Celtic going through is unlikely for sure, but we’re certainly not going to rule it out.

How do United stop Ronaldo?

How Alex Ferguson will deal with his former protégé is the most obvious talking point from what is one of the most anticipated Champions League encounters in a long time on Wednesday night, but it is also the most intriguing one.

Fergie will obviously know more than most about what Ronaldo has to offer, but although he was already world class when he left Old Trafford in the summer of 2009, he has elevated himself to an even higher level since then, a level occupied only by himself and Lionel Messi in the football world at the moment.

Is this the man to stop (or at least try and stop) Ronaldo?

For hints as to how United might attempt to nullify Ronaldo’s influence, their formation in two recent encounters against Tottenham and Everton could be telling. In both games, Ferguson sought to cut out the threat of the opposition’s main men, Gareth Bale (Spurs) and Marouane Fellaini (Everton), by employing Phil Jones - a man of so many faces - not as a man marker as such, but to clog up the space in which they had to work with.

The tactic worked in the sense that neither Bale nor Fellaini had much of an impact against United, but it was noticeable against Spurs that Aaron Lennon had oceans of space on United’s left side and was probably their best player in the recent 1-1 draw. With the likes of Mesut Ozil, Karim Benzema, Angel di Maria and Jose Callejon about, Real have a lot more in their locker than Spurs, so Fergie will have to strike a balance between paying extra attention to Ronaldo while ensuring that the other Los Blancos stars aren’t given the freedom of the Bernabeu.

Finding a solution will certainly be tricky, but we can’t wait to see how he goes about it.

Dortmund hiding in the long grass

For all the quality sides in this season’s Champions League, there should be little doubt about who have been the most impressive side in the competition to date.

Drawn in the undisputed Group of Death, Bundesliga Champions Borussia Dortmund made light of the presence of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax to progress with the second highest points total (14) in the group stages (PSG had the highest with 15) and they did so playing a style of football that was incredibly easy on the eye and breathtakingly effective at the same time.

A bit like Real Madrid, Dortmund’s hopes of success this season are pinned on the Champions League (they are 15 points behind Bayern in the Bundesliga) and with stars such as Marco Reus, Mats Hummels, Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze and manager Jurgen Klopp highly coveted around Europe and potentially on the move in the summer, this season could represent the best chance the current side have of European success.

Shakhtar Donetsk, particularly away from home, will be no pushovers but we’d be confident that Dortmund can do the job over two legs and who knows what might happen thereafter.

They’re 15/2 to win the competition outright and if they can maintain their pre-Christmas form in the knockout stages, that could represent excellent value indeed.

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