Champions League Draw: The Reaction from Spain

After hearing the Champions League draw, the first reaction from Spain is relief. We know the strength of our own league; it's good for us that none of the Spanish teams have to face each other. There is a strong mutual respect between the three Spanish teams remaining in the competition, and a collective pride in our country's footballing prowess.

In terms of the specific teams, Barcelona's tie with PSG has prompted mixed reactions. PSG, like Barcelona, are performing strongly in their domestic leagues, and Barca fans clearly remember 1995, when PSG knocked out their team en route to the semi-finals.

Every Spanish afficionado knows about PSG's burgeoning strikeforce of Lavezzi, Pastore and Moura, and the dangers they will pose. But Barcelona are playing away first, and the Catalan connoisseurs believe that, if they can get something in Paris, their fabled attackers will get plenty of opportunities to punish the French team in the return.

Real Madrid are, by common consent, the luckiest of the three Spanish sides left in the competition. Galatasaray played against Real only once, in the quarter finals in 2001, and it was Real Madrid who won comprehensively with an aggregate score of 5-3. Nobody thought they would get far in this season's Champions League, but with Sneijder and Drogba in harness they have surprised everyone - and the have Yilm

However, while Real fans are cautious, and recognise that their next opponents have reached the quarter-finals on merit, few of the Bernabeu's devotees are predicting anything else but triumph for their team - such is the perennial, all-pervasive confidence that seeps through the Bernabeu.

Then finally there is Malaga, the team which has surely had the worst luck in the Champions League raffle. Borussia Dortmund are not perhaps the strongest team Malaga could face, but Jurgen Klopp's team are second in the German Bundesliga, they have a lot of experience, and we all remember how hard they made it for Real in the group stage. Another disadvantage for the Spanish team is they are playing in Spain first.

However, on the other hand Malaga is a young team with a lot of hope and ambition, playing for the first time in the quarter finals of the Champions League. All of Spain is proud of them, and hopes they make it a Spanish one-two-three in the semi-finals.