Previewing quarter final matchups

Based on the fact that at least two, maybe three or four, of the Europa League teams will be difficult to watch, it's either Granada-United or Ajax-Roma. In my head, there's no real decision as it's obviously the latter. So yeah, Ajax vs Roma. I'd say at full strength, basically with Haller and Onana who are unavailable for dumb reasons, I'd be backing Ajax. However, with the former unregistered and the latter suspended, I'm leaning towards Roma, or the idea of it being a toss up. Thus, I'll be tracking the two sides as they play in their respective leagues (on ESPN+) up until that tie. To be fair, it's much closer than it seems due to the international break, which I'd somehow forgotten about when I had this idea but remembered as I thought of when the first legs are.

Since I started with Europa, it's now time for Champions. Just straight up, even before knowing I won't be able to watch Porto legally, I have no "ganas de ver" as we say in Spanish the Chelsea-Porto tie. I know how both play, and it's gonna be largely a continuation of each side's round of 16 matchup. That leaves us with Bayern-PSG, Liverpool-Madrid, and City-Dortmund. I know for sure I'll be able to watch the English and German teams. I assume, at least this weekend, I'll be able to watch Madrid and PSG. Frankly, I don't doubt that both Liverpool and Madrid can make the final, given the vastly weaker side of the bracket, but neither intrigues me to write about or watch. On the flip side, I also question whether Dortmund can actually pose a threat to City. One caveat I must mention is I don't like watching PSG in the league. It just so happens, and this is typical, that just as I'm getting to writing this and having this idea, PSG have some interesting league games (Lyon and Lille). Actually, let me take a step back. I've had a feeling for a long while that despite the chaotic let down of a season they're having, Liverpool will pull a 2005 or 2012 Chelsea to win the Champions League. It's back to what I was saying, in that in the CL teams have pride and don't park the bus, so to speak, unless they're well off the pace quality-wise. That said, this side of the bracket actually hinders Liverpool, in that Madrid are defensively sound and the reds struggle to beat teams like that. If you swapped them with say Dortmund, I actually think they'd make it to the final. The more I think about this, I'm leaning towards not even doing proper previews or whatever and just looking at how the ties go as they're happening. Just looking at that side of the bracket a bit more, I see Chelsea as more equipped to break down "park the bus" teams, as they have more depth and better midfielders. Same with Madrid regarding the midfield, although their attack is toothless at times, and Liverpool won't really park the bus.

If I were to pick my final four right now, it would be City v PSG and Chelsea v Madrid. Part of that is me hoping for one or even zero English teams in the final, lol. Now that Atalanta are out, I wouldn't mind a first time champion, or for Bayern to repeat, or for Madrid to win again and piss more people off. Oh, and the other thing with all this is the stacking of one side of the bracket. It happened in the Europa League as well. I was thinking recently how much it comes down to draws, fitness and form whether teams win trophies or not, given the volatile nature of these knockout competitions. My "dark horse" if you can even call English super-clubs that is either Chelsea or Liverpool, and the fact that they've drawn Porto and a mediocre Madrid team respectively only fuels my belief in that. Compare that side to the two "oil clubs" and Bayern, not to mention Dortmund whose attack induces fear in the best of sides. The only relative "underdog" teams are Dortmund and Porto, who realistically are better than 95% (at least) of the teams in world football. Europa for me has been and continues to be more fun, and this has been since around 2013. That was the all German CL year and the Chelsea over Benfica in Europa IIRC. The fact that Granada are facing United, and if they were to win they'd face Ajax or Roma, is what these competitions are about. Small club, never been in Europe, floundering in the second tier a couple years ago, now facing these immense institutions of football.