4 Clubs who can stop Barcelona from winning the Champions League this season

#1 Juventus

Juventus would be gunning for a first UCL since 1997

This post has been operating on a lot of premises - i.e that the bigger teams would progress at the expense of the minnows and the favourites would go all the way. However, as football and in particular this season's Champions League has shown us, pedigree and class counts for nothing hen it comes to knockout football.

Nevertheless, in keeping with the premise, this season's Champions League has the potential to give all football fans that long elusive dream - a Ronaldo/Messi final.

The one time this happened back in 2009, both men were arguably not yet at the peak of their powers, only reaching unimaginable heights once they went in direct competition with one another in La Liga.

The El Clasico rivals' strength and quality meant that it was expected that the pair would contest at least one Champions League decider, but try as it may, that dream eluded us all for so long.

Even though they might no longer be rivals in Spain, the two extraterrestrials remain at the very peak of their powers and are still the driving forces behind their respective club's push for continental glory.

When the draws were made, both men were put on different routes to the final and a lot of fans (at least this writer did) licked their lips in glee when they realized that if all went well, Barcelona (Messi) and Juventus (Ronaldo) could clash in the final.

The Old Lady are desperate to get their hands on the 'Big Ears' after 22 years of near misses - so desperate in fact that they were willing to break the bank on a 34-year-old who they saw as the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle and if Barcelona were to stand between them and their dream, you can be sure they would go all out to exact revenge for their 2015 loss.