via upload.wikimedia.org

Finally, the Uefa champions league returns a break of 4 months, which is awesome news for all the football fans, because it is the knock out stage of the champions league which offers some mouth watering clashes among the heavy weights of European football, some of the big fixtures include Celtic vs. Juventus ,Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich , Barcelona vs. Ac Milan ,but undoubtedly the biggest tie of the knock out round is Real Madrid vs. Manchester United, which is a dream match between, the biggest two football clubs in the world.

While, the match between Real and United have all the ingredients for the fans to be excited about i.e. the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to play against his former club Manchester united where he had spent 6 very successful seasons and had won all the trophies at club level as well as individually wining the ballon d’or in 2008.secondly, Jose Mourinho (The Special one ),who is one of the best managers in the world, comes up against undoubtedly the best and most successful coach in the English game Sir Alex Ferguson, both of whom have had allot of fierce battles between each other since Jose was at fc Porto.

In past, the clashes between United and Real have produced memorable matches especially the one in 2003, the 2nd leg match was played in Old Trafford ,which resulted in a 4-3 win for the red devils, but eventually losing the tie 5-4 on aggregate, where the legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo scored a memorable hatrick ,which resulted in a standing ovation, even from the United fans .

Recently ,Real Madrid have been struggling in the Spanish league, mere 3rd position and an unsettled dressing room and with Barcelona out of their reach in the league, a Uefa Champions League victory could help and salvage a disastrous season for Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid, which is quite possible with the array of stars at jose’s espousal i.e. Ozil, di Maria, Benzema, Luka Modric,Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo , who has been in inspiring form for few seasons and is very unlucky not to have won a single ballon d’or in last 4 years. While, Sir Alex Ferguson recently quoted him as "the most complete player in the world".

While, taking of Sir Alex, the Scottish Manager would love to beat Real Madrid and go all the way to the champions league final, United have been sitting pretty top of the table

in the English Premier League, thanks to the excellent form of their Dutch striker Robin Van Persie. And in Wayne Rooney and Van Persie, United have arguably one of Europe’s best strike partnership. While, in Defense United problems lie, they have been conceding way too many goals and their young Goal keepers are making way too many mistakes, which could present Real Madrid a big opportunity, especially with their deadly forward line.

Overall looking at both the teams Real Madrid has a slight edge over Manchester United, as history shows Real Madrid have won 3 matches against united 2 wins while 3 resulted in draws, and similarly Real have already knocked out United’s noisy neighbors in the last round .but with, Sir Alex Ferguson in charge of Manchester United you can never ever write them off. Hopefully, fans of both teams and neutrals would get to see two brilliant football matches starting on the 11th of Feb.