Champions League - Last 16 (Leg 2)

FC Porto - FC Schalke 04 1:4 (a.p.)
Real Madrid - AS Roma 1:2
FC Chelsea - Olympiakos Piraeus 3:0
Internazionale - Liverpool FC (11.3.) -:-
FC Barcelona - Celtic Glasgow 1:0
Manchester United - Olympique Lyonnais 1:0
FC Sevilla - Fenerbahce Istanbul 2:3 (a.p.)
AC Milan - Arsenal 0:2

Some upsets in this round, Arsenal being the first English team to beat Milan at San Siro, Fenerbahce coming back after losing the first leg 2-3 to become the first turkish team to move to the quarterfinals, I believe. And Roma throwing Real Madrid out of the competition by winning at the Estadio Bernabeu.
In Germany Schalke was the talk of the town. German TV stations always like to promote matches with German teams as an occasion during which the whole nation sits in front of the television set to keep their fingers crossed for that particular team. By doing this the completely ignore the fact that there is a lot of dispise for certain teams and with the Schalke-Dortmund rivalry being one of the fiercest there was no way I was going to cheer for Schalke in their match against FC Porto. They won the first leg at home 1:0 and needed a draw to advance to the quarterfinals. That being said it became the match everyone expected. Boring, boring, boring. But the most frustrating thing was the commentary.
Now, in Germany Champions League matches are broadcasted by the pay-per-view station premiere and every once in a while they show off their skills on free tv as well. The station takes a lot of pride in their competent and in depth reporting, but to me their are just a bunch of idiots. Their announcers have no idea whatsoever of how to play and "read" a football match, they are simply there to sell the product. Their experts might be ex-football players like Beckenbauer or Sammer, but they have no television presence at all. And their commentators always talk like they are more interested in the private lives of the players and coaches than in the game taking place. A prime example was last night's commentator Fritz von Thurn und Taxis. That guy was simply hilarious. As far as I saw it Schalke had one chance in the first half and he was saying that they were in complete control of the match. He than blabbers on about the origin of certain players, calling Porto midfielder Lucho Gonzalez "a gipsy" (a word which in Germany sometimes is used in a rather insulting way) and tells Schalke and Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi to go back to Brazil because he refused to shake hands with coach Mirko Slomka. This is pure racism. That guy was way off. It sounded like he only liked to listen to himself talk. There was no information whatsoever on the match. I happened to switch to the coverage of Real vs Roma on an Austrian station and this was completely different. The commentator there was very laid back and only talked when needed. And he was trictly referring to what was happening on the pitch. The same goes for English commentators who I really like. They seem to have the ability to be "into" the action and at the same time the keep enough distance to give an unbiased look onto the match. Something which rarely happens in German television.
So thumbs down to premiere and I sincerly hope that Schalke gets eliminated in the next round so I don't have to listen to such crap again this season.