Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Soccer Futbol Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Champions League
Topic Started: Aug 1 2008, 07:30 AM (4,243 Views)
libero
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
raconteur,Sep 18 2008
07:56 AM
Martin,Sep 18 2008
07:38 AM
Juan Culio was the hero for Cluj in their triumph against Roma.  Wasn't Coolio the name of a singer a few years back?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolio


I didn't know Cluj was a gangsta's paradise! Looking at the map and it's proximity to Transylvania it looks more like a vampire's paradise. :D

A tight, tactical game between Juventus and Zenit yesterday but Juve were well worth the win. Buffon came up with a couple of big saves, Juve offensively kept the pressure on Zenit and then won it with that superb free kick by Del Piero. Look at the replays, the keeper wasn't screened, the shot just dropped like a rock in the ocean as it approached the goal.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
libero,Sep 18 2008
11:41 AM
I didn't know Cluj was a gangsta's paradise!

Speaking from experience of dodging Roma ultras and their knives, there's some apt lyrics in that Coolio song for an away trip to the eternal city! From memory it's something like: "you'd better watch how you're talking, and where you're walking, or you and your homies might be lined in chalk' :unsure:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Winslow
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Simon,Sep 19 2008
02:41 AM
libero,Sep 18 2008
11:41 AM
I didn't know Cluj was a gangsta's paradise!

Speaking from experience of dodging Roma ultras and their knives, there's some apt lyrics in that Coolio song for an away trip to the eternal city! From memory it's something like: "you'd better watch how you're talking, and where you're walking, or you and your homies might be lined in chalk' :unsure:

I'd rather be in an Amish paradise myself...

http://lyricwiki.org/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic:Amish_Paradise
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Haha nice one Winslow! :D
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Time for Matchday 2 of the Champions League

Tuesday 30th September
Group E
AaB Aalborg v Manchester United
Villarreal v Celtic

Bruce Rioch has his Aalborg team hyped-up for what he's described as the biggest game in his club's history, and it's very important that United match the intensity and work-rate of the Danes and use that as a platform to let our experience and extra quality show. I do remember how we lost away to FC Copenhagen a couple of years ago so we can't take anything for granted. Neville and Hargreaves have had to stay at home so there'll be a couple of changes. Pellegrini has said he believes Celtic now have the quality and experience to finally record an away win but as Villarreal, Liverpool and Juventus are apparently the only 3 teams from 'top leagues' who've only conceded 2 goals so far this season, Celtic's task will hardly be easy!

Group F
Fiorentina v Steaua Bucharest
Bayern Munich v Lyon

Fiorentina have Gilardino in great form and look well equipped to beat Steaua tonight, while Bayern face off against Lyon. Bayern are struggling in Germany and lost again at the weekend having previously been thrashed by Werder, but they do have Ribery back fit for this game. Lyon, as ever, are comfortably top in France but finding it difficult to translate that into European success. They had to rescue an unlikely point against Fiorentina last time and Claude Puel has emphasised the importance of not losing in Munich.

Group G
Arsenal v Porto
Fenerbahçe v Dynamo Kyiv

Arsenal go into this on the back of their extraordinary defeat at home to little Hull City on Saturday, only their 2nd defeat at their Emirates Stadium. Wenger said the result made him feel 'physically sick' and he's said he will replace some of his star names with a few of the kids who destroyed Sheff Utd 6-0 in the League Cup last week. It'll be interesting to see how far he follows through on that threat, as Arsenal need to win their home games in a group that features 3 tough away assignments. The best Porto have managed in 10 previous visits to England is one draw. Dynamo's away record is also ropey, and they visit Fener who have won each of their last 8 CL home games.

Group H
Zenit St Petersburg v Real Madrid
BATE v Juventus

I was surprised to read that it's 2 years and 8 games since Real last won on the road in the CL, and so they'll be determined to put that right tonight. It's hard to know how good their prospects are as Zenit are a good team but one who are struggling in the Russian league. That is probably because they were concentrating on their UEFA Cup campaign, and although they lost in Turin it was only to a brilliant Del Piero free-kick and there's no shame in that. Likewise, BATE were far from embarrassed in Madrid and may pose some problems for a Juve side who are finding goals difficult to come by.

Wednesday 1st October
Group A
CFR Cluj v Chelsea
Bordeaux v Roma

Watching the PL I've become wearily used to seeing Chelsea constantly winning matches and it's hard for me to imagine a different outcome here, but I'm sure we said similar things about Cluj's game in Rome? If Chelsea keep playing the attractive game they have under Scolari, they may even win some friends to go with their points and trophies ;) . Early days yet, but the game in France takes on real importance for both teams after Bordeaux were thrashed first time out while Roma were upset at home.

Group B
Anorthosis Famagusta v Panathinaikos
Internazionale v Werder Bremen

Anorthosis have already accounted for Olympiakos, now they look to do a Greek double against Panathinaikos. Werder have a W1 D1 L9 record from their last 11 CL away games and after a 0-0 draw with the Cypriots I wouldn't expect any substantial improvement on that record in the San Siro.

Group C
Sporting Lisbon v Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk v Barcelona

We mentioned Arsenal's poor record in Ukraine last time, and Barca have also won just 1 of their 6 games in that country. It is a notoriously difficult place to go, but here is where Shakhtar really have to stand up. We're waiting for all this eastern European money to spark a breakthrough for their clubs, and this is precisely the type of fixture where it needs to come. Can Shakhtar build on their win over Basel against top opposition? Maybe, as Barca have been a bit stop-start so far this season.

Group D
Liverpool v PSV Eindhoven
Atlético Madrid v Marseille

Ajax announced themselves to the wider world in 1967 with a famous 5-1 win over Bill Shankly's Liverpool ("Five-one...Aye, that should help them to make a game of it when they come to Anfield for the 2nd leg" was Shankly's characteristic response to the game!) but apparently that remains the only time a Dutch team have beaten Liverpool in 10 attempts and I don't imagine that changing tomorrow. Two home wins would leave Marseille and PSV with a heck of a lot to do.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Merengue
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
Superb work as usual Simon, thank you for continuing to provide these comprehensive previews! I am really looking forward to Madrid's visit to St. Petersburg, as Simon rightly points out, Madrid's away record has been poor in this competition recently and Zenit, despite their domestic troubles, are a very good team with more than enough offensive ability to cause trouble for my Merengues. With three top level teams in this group, the ability to "steal" some away points in the games amongst the three may prove to be the difference maker. In my mind this is Real Madrid's first real test of the new season so I am quite curious to see how they will respond.

Bayern-Lyon should be a fascinating game today between two clubs who dominate their domestic leagues but again Simon is correct in remarking about Bayern's slow start to the Klinsmann led era. I think we all expect them to get rolling again soon and now that Ribery is back this is the likely time for that to start.

Arsenal-Porto is another intriguing game, Arsenal coming off that surprise league loss at home to Hull have plenty to prove but I think Porto, despite their poor away record in England, are always one of the more tricky opponents in Europe no matter how many players they seem to sell each season to one of Europe's "Big Three" leagues, they always have the ability to find quality replacements.
http://twitter.com/#!/SocrFutbolForum
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Winslow
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Tuesday's matches...
.
.
.
.
.
Group E: Aalborg 0, Man United 3; Villarreal 1, Celtic 0.
Group F: Bayern Munich 1, Lyon 1; Fiorentina 0, Steaua Bucharest 0.
Group G: Arsenal 4, Porto 0; Fenerbahce 0, Dynamo Kyiv 0.
Group H: BATE 2, Juventus 2; Zenit 1, Real Madrid 2.

The only real surprise today came in Belarus, where the home team took a quick 2-0 lead before Juventus got a pair of Iaquinta goals to tie it at halftime, and there it stayed. I should think I Gobbi were hoping for a better result; Real got one in Russia thanks to van Nistelrooy's strike at the half-hour.

Man U got a goal from Rooney and two more from Berbatov (one a defensive giveaway, the other a nice scissored finish) to win in Denmark, while Villarreal won on a snappy free kick by Marcos Senna midway through the second half. Lyon's goal was bizarre--a free kick from near-midway was headed backwards by Demichelis for an own goal; Ze Roberto's second-half header tied it. Arsenal found Porto less of a challenge than Hull City at the Emirates, as van Persie and Adebayor both scored twice.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
rosarino
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
What an impressive win for Arsenal and the perfect way to overcome the disappointment of their league loss last weekend. Porto's defense was just shredded by Arsenal's precise passing game, to me Porto had no chance in this game. Unlike merengue I just don't think Porto can play well away from home.

Good win for Real Madrid in St Petersburg. Van Nistelrooy is just a great penalty area poacher, he may have added more aspects to his game but that is still what he does best and he put Zenit away. Good game between the two and while Zenit are now with zero points after 2 games they were helepd by BATE's home draw with Juventus. If Madrid can beat Juve and Zenit do the same to BATE then they'll be back in contention.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
The United game was kind of frustrating in a way, we should have scored twice as many as we did but were a bit sloppy and careless at times. The other big negatives were that Rooney and Scholes had to go off with injuries, hopefully Rooney's won't be too bad but Scholes did a knee ligament in a clumsy challenge from one of the Danes and could apparently be out for 2 months which would be a real blow especially when Carrick is already injured. Giggsy filled in in centre-mid and was excellent for United and in fact his brilliant ball to create Rooney's goal was pure Scholes! Rooney was superb for us and it's good to see Berbatov get his first couple of United goals, his first was the result of some of the worst defending you'll ever see. Villarreal deservedly beat Celtic, but only 1-0 and off a free-kick which resulted from a dive. It may be that the next two rounds of matches qualify us and Villarreal for the next round.

Strangely, Arsenal looked shaky at the start of their game with Porto and gave up a couple of chances, but once they got going and took the lead their dominance was absolute. Honestly, they scored four but could have been in double figures, they just missed chance after chance after chance. I was amazed at just how bad Porto's defending was, but Arsenal are pretty devastating when the mood takes them. The movement and one-touch passing ripped the visitors to shreds and the sight of Theo Walcott on one of his warp speed runs past some hapless defender is one of the most thrilling in the game right now. The standard of play in the goalless draw between Fener and Dynamo was terrible by all accounts, so Porto should still have a decent chance to advance. I've only seen the goals from the Zenit-Real game but I read that Real's defending was pretty haphazard and that Zenit were worth at least a point. Even if that's true, it just may be that Zenit aren't quite yet at the level where they can turn good performances into CL wins. Excellent result for BATE, Juve just seem a bit short at present although at least they scored twice in a game for the first time in League or CL group play this season. Right now, Group F is looking a bit insipid. On current form it seems to feature one team not really good enough for this level and three who just can't get going. Apparently Bayern were poor once more and the overriding emotion of the home fans at the 1-1 final score was relief.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Manzanares
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Zenit-Real Madrid was an entertaining game, plenty of action on either end, both teams had their chances but as others mentioned, van Nistelrooy is a killer in front of goal and put the match away. Danny, the Portuguese midfielder for Zenit is quite a player, to me he looks even more dangerous than Arshavin and he had a goal bound shot deflected away late in the game by Pepe, who apparently was once a teammate of Danny's at Maritimo in Portugal. Madrid's defense bent but did not break against Zenit and offensively today they played Higuain instead of Raul and gained a lot of speed and verticality with his addition.

I thought Villarreal controlled the game against Celtic, I will disagree with Simon and say the foul which set up Marcos Senna's winning free kick was legitimate as the Celtic player stepped on the Villarreal attacker. After the goal Villarreal probably should have had another goal but with Nihat injured and Rossi not yet fit, offensively they aren't yet there. But it is increasingly difficult to score on the Yellow Submarine.

As others wrote, Arsenal were impressive in beating Porto but Simon is right that Porto had several chances early on which they didn't take advantage of. You miss opportunities like that and more often than not you will pay the price and that is what happened with Porto.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Merengue
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
I am content with Real Madrid's win in St petersburg against a very difficult opponent. Zenit did complicate matters for them but as Manzanares commenetd the defense took a lot of pressur ebut held up. meanwhile on the other end Madrid put it's own pressure on Zenit and but for some wasted opportunities could have scored more. I liked Higuain's inclusion for ana way game where the team would be looking to counter quickly. With both he and Robben in attack, Madrid were able to break forward quickly. And De la Red is really showing his value as he adds a lot of equilibrium to the midfield.

A good win over a difficult opponent and both Madrid and Zenit were helped by BATE's surprising draw with Juventus. After this latest result and match day one where they only lost 2-0 at the Bernabeu, BATE look like they won't be pushovers in this group. These next two match days where Madrid play Juventus home and away and Zenit and BATE do the same will go along way to telling us how this group will play out.

Bad news Simon with Scholes, he will be out 10 weeks. I ahd recently read an article where Ferguson had said he no longer views Giggs as a winger due to his age but now he is a central midfielder, well he came in and filled that role well last night and with Scholes and Carrick out he will get more opportunities. But do you expect Hargreaves and Anderson to be the first choice now?
http://twitter.com/#!/SocrFutbolForum
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Very possibly, but Fletcher and O'Shea can be expected to feature as well. The unfortunate thing with Hargreaves is that he's suffering with tendonitis which seems to prevent him playing consecutive games.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
gaviota
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
My comments on Real Madrid's win against Zenit aren't much different from those already made so I will keep them short. Yes, it was important to win on the road, and to do it against a difficult opponent while another main group rival, Juventus, drew against the supposed to be weakest team in the sector. But there are still 4 games to play and much can happen. Benching Raul for Higuain was a surprise to me but it worked for the reason Merengue noted, Higuain with his speed is perfectly suited to the counter attacking game. With two losses now Zenit have some work to do to get back in contention but beating BATE hoem and away would go a long way to getting them back in the fight.

Manchester United's big win in Denmark against Aalborg was the first time one of this year's "lightweights" was really put in their place, the rest are still continuing to do well as shown by BATE's draw with Juve. I am curious as to what Anorthosis, Cluj and Basle can do tonight.
CHAMP13NS
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Winslow
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
And Wednesday's matches...
.
.
.
.
.
.
Group A: Bordeaux 1, Roma 3; Cluj 0, Chelsea 0.
Group B: Anorthosis 3, Panathinaikos 1; Inter Milan 1, Werder Bremen 1.
Group C: Shakhtar Donetsk 1, Barcelona 2; Sporting Lisbon 2, Basel 0.
Group D: Atletico Madrid 2, Marseille 1; Liverpool 3, PSV Eindhoven 1.

I didn't see any of these, but wish I had. The Cypriots did over another Greek side, while Cluj pulled another surprise by holding Chelsea, which had Drogba carried off with a late knee injury that could put him out for months. Roma actually trailed much of the match until Vucinic tied it and Julio Baptista's pair won it; same for Barca, as Messi scored twice very late. Both Atletico and Liverpool scored early, but the Reds breezed home while the Mattress-makers (sorry, can't remember the Spanish for that) needed a winner from Raul Garcia.

Wait--it's Colchoneros! :)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Simon
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I was flicking between the Liverpool and Chelsea games. Liverpool were on easy street against PSV in a game notable for Robbie Keane's first goal for the reds and Steven Gerrard's 100th. Gerrard's was a trademark piledriving strike from outside the box. I've only seen the goals from the other games so I can't comment on the pattern of play, but the two Atletico goals were both really nice finishes. I don't know what was going on at the back for the 'colchoneros' (I'll remember that for whenever I need the Spanish word for mattress-maker!) but Niang had a free header for the Marseille goal. Still two games to play but it's a long way back for Marseille and PSV. The two games between Liverpool and Atletico should be ones to look forward to.

That injury to Drogba is the main story to emerge from the Chelsea game, that's a real blow to them. As for the game itself, Cluj really competed well, frustrated Chelsea and proved their win in Rome wasn't a one off. Anelka had a goal chalked off but Cluj did also hit the post through Trica. So that's now Cluj and Anorthosis with an impressive 4 points after 2 games, what a brilliant story. Who knows, maybe it'll be Cluj who finally break Chelsea's age-old unbeaten home record, wouldn't that be something? Tonight's third minnows, Basel, didn't fare quite so well and now they're about to face off home and away against Barcelona in the two games that should finish them off. I had said that the game with Barca would be a good barometer of whether Shakhtar are ready to make an impact at this level but I'm reluctant to write them off just yet as they only conceded two very late Messi goals to be mugged by Barcelona. I couldn't really work out what was going on at the end of that game, the Shakhtar players seemed to be standing around watching as the ball was crossed in for Messi to tap home, and afterwards they were complaining to the referee although I have no idea what about. A couple of reports I read said Shakhtar had the better of it but maybe they lost their discipline at the end? Great composure by Messi for the winning goal, a really nice chip over the keeper. Maicon also scored a nice chipped goal for Inter but then it looked to me like he was ball-watching when Pizarro stole in for the equaliser. Good point for Werder.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · UEFA · Next Topic »
Add Reply