Taking Shape

After another thrilling and absorbing two nights of intense champions league action, the knockout stages are starting to take shape and we are one step closer to finding out who will lift the converted trophy in Berlin. Porto, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris-Saint Germain all made it through to the quarter finals after overcoming their opposition.
I think it's non-debatable that the most drama came at the Bernabau Stamford Bridge. On Tuesday night, Real Madrid came into the game with the tie finished in many people's eyes with Madrid comfortably winning the first leg 0-2 at the Veltins Arena. However, German visitors Schalke would not lie down and produced a stunning performance to win the game 3-4 on the night. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and Karim Benzema netted one, but goals from Christian Fuchs, Leroy Sane and a crucial double from Klass Jaan Huntelaar at his old club gave Schalke a memorable win. Despite Real being poor, the visitors should be proud of their performance.
Real, however have big problems. Whenever I see them play they never malfunction as a team, always arguing on the pitch and showing a lack of trust in each other in attack. Gareth Bale has been singled out for critism, but for me the blame lies with the entire team. At the moment they are just a bunch of individuals, and you can't win games with individuals.
Another enthralling game was the clash between Chelsea against PSG, with the latter progressing after extra time. The game had it all. Tension, controversy, goals and passion, but sadly the main talking point of the match was the way the Chelsea players surrounded the referee in an attempt to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off, which in the end worked. Chelsea have been accused of gamesmanship by many pundits.
On the pitch, PSG overcame adversity to beat a shambolic Chelsea side with ten men after Thiago Silva scored an incredible header to send the visitors through, winning on away goals. For the most part of the match Chelsea played with ten men, but it seemed like Chelsea were disadvantaged in terms of numbers. They were all at sea at the back and their approach play was far too slow to penetrate.
The other two games had nowhere near as much nail-biting drama, but that was largely down to the two winning sides. Porto blew Basel away in Portugal to ease into the next round with Bayern Munich also dominating with a 7-0 victory over Ukrainian outfit Shaktar Donetsk.
Bayern have to be one of the favourites for the tournament now. They have such quality in their side and their strength in depth is incredible, with their second team perfectly capable of beating any side in this competition. You can never write PSG off, although I really cannot see them making it all the way. Real Madrid must sort out their ever-growing problems if they are too challenge. A team like Barcelona or Bayern would surely punish them if they put in a performance like onTuesday night. I'm making these assumptions believing that Manchester City will get knocked out by Barcelona in the second leg.