A football fan might well be on to something when it comes to the Champions League after their Reddit post ended up going viral.
Reddit user malalatargaryen posted on the r/soccer subreddit about four categories that would put a team in the perfect position to win Europe's top-tier club competition.
"On the 7th of December 2004, Lionel Messi made his Champions League debut for Barcelona (at Shakhtar Donetsk)," the user wrote.
"Since that day, there have been 15 editions of the UEFA Champions League, and all of the champion teams can be sorted into four different categories:
"Cristiano Ronaldo's team[s]: Manchester United 2007-08, Real Madrid 2013-14, Real Madrid 2015-16, Real Madrid 2016-17, Real Madrid 2017-18.
"Lionel Messi's team: Barcelona 2005-06, Barcelona 2008-09, Barcelona 2010-11, Barcelona 2014-15.
"Team led by a manager with past success in UEFA competitions: Liverpool 2004-05 (Rafa Benítez), AC Milan 2006-07 (Carlo Ancelotti), Internazionale 2009-10 (José Mourinho), Bayern München 2012-13 (Jupp Heynckes).
"[An] English team led at the start of the season by a Portuguese manager who had recently won the Europa League, who was sacked due to underwhelming league results, and replaced by a former player who formerly had very little success as a Premier League manager: Chelsea 2011-12 (André Villas-Boas/Roberto Di Matteo)."
Well, if we take that theory and apply it to the eight remaining teams in the quarter-finals, then there are four teams that fall under the matching criteria: Juventus, Barcelona, City (Pep Guardiola) and United (Mourinho/Ole Gunnar Solskjær).
Of course, that leaves Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Porto and Ajax out of the theory, with the user believing that it is "highly unlikely that we'll see one of them as the eventual champions."
But hey, it's worth remembering that this is only one theory. While many, many fans will disagree with malalatargaryen's belief that the four teams not falling in any of the categories won't become champions, the post has done very well on Reddit.
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In fact, it has passed over 13,000 upvotes and has more than 500 comments on it at the time of this writing.
The first two fixtures of the quarter-finals took place on Tuesday night.
Liverpool hosted Porto at Anfield and secured a 2-0 victory in their first-leg matchup.
City, on the other hand, had a night to forget after Sergio Agüero missed the chance to score from the spot kick and Son Heung-min fired home late on to secure a 1-0 victory for Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Meanwhile, Juventus will make the trip to the Johan Cruyff Arena on Wednesday to face Ajax, while Manchester United host Barcelona at Old Trafford for their first-leg clash.
Agree or disagree with malalatargaryen's theory?
Let us know in the comments.
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