According to Arsene Wenger, there is a 50-50 chance of victory for his side, Arsenal FC of England and FC Barcelona on the much awaited Champions League match between the two sides to be played on 30th March. I agree with him.
Football may be the most popular sporting event of our planet but its followers and even its experts are not among the best soothsayers. As I have seen over the years, predictions of the outcomes of football matches are often based on superficial observation, political motives or just sensational. Even though the outcomes are usually at variance with the predictions, football analysts always fail to learn lessons. Ivory Coast for instance was tipped to win this year’s edition of the African Nations Cup. They were eliminated in the quarter finals by Algeria. Brazil or Spain was tipped to win the Under-17 World Cup held in Nigeria. Switzerland surprised the whole world.
Ivory Coast was tipped to win simply because of the outstanding performance of Didier Drogba at his club, Chelsea FC of England. Football is however a team event and it is the reason why Egypt that was not even in the books of forecasters eventually won the tournament.
Besides remaining among the three best English Clubs in the last decade, Arsenal has been a very consistent team in the Champions League within the same period, always going to the quarter finals stage for most of the years. It has one of the best coaches in the world and boasts of players of great finesse. On the other hand, Barcelona which is more or less a peer is considered a favorite simply because it is the defending champion. It is not about status. It is about current form. On that basis my own prediction is that any of the two sides can take it.
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