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Champions League
Topic Started: Aug 1 2008, 07:30 AM (4,238 Views)
raconteur
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I am sure Simon will give us a more detailed preview but here is Reuters' outlook on the three remaining second round positions up for grabs,

Quote:
 
The three remaining places in the 16-team knockout phase of the Champions League will be decided on Tuesday with five teams, including last season’s runners-up Chelsea, chasing them.

The Londoners have failed to spark during their campaign so far and they find themselves facing CFR Cluj of Romania needing to win to guarantee progress from Group A.

AS Roma, who began with a shock home defeat by Cluj, have fought back well to top the group and they and Chelsea will both advance if Girondins Bordeaux fail to win in the Italian capital — whatever happens at Chelsea.

Should the French side beat Roma, however, they would go through. If Chelsea, without suspended midfielder Frank Lampard, win, they would go with them. If they lose or draw in that situation, Roma and Bordeaux would advance.

Inter Milan are assured progress from Group B, even though they lost at home to Panathinaikos in the their last game, and can secure top spot with a win at Werder Bremen.

Panathinaikos will join them if they avoid defeat at home to impressive Cypriot debutants Anorthosis Famagusta, who need to win to go through in place of the Greeks.

The only other issue at stake on Tuesday is the finishing order in Group D, where Atletico Madrid and Liverpool both have 11 points and are through.

Both games between the two were 1-1 draws so, with Atletico one goal better off, Liverpool will try to overhaul them in their game at PSV Eindhoven as the Spaniards visit Olympique Marseille.


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Simon
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There's not really much to add to Raconteur's Reuters link. Here are the fixtures:

Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Chelsea v CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca, Gp A, 19:45
Roma v Bordeaux, Gp A, 19:45
Werder Bremen v Inter Milan, Gp B, 19:45
Panathinaikos v Anorthosis Famagusta, Gp B, 19:45
Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk, Gp C, 19:45
Basle v Sporting Lisbon, Gp C, 19:45
Marseille v Atletico Madrid, Gp D, 19:45
PSV Eindhoven v Liverpool, Gp D, 19:45

Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Celtic v Villarreal, Gp E, 19:45
Manchester United v AaB Aalborg, Gp E, 19:45
Steaua Bucharest v Fiorentina, Gp F, 19:45
Lyon v Bayern Munich, Gp F, 19:45
Dynamo Kiev v Fenerbahce, Gp G, 19:45
FC Porto v Arsenal, Gp G, 19:45
Juventus v BATE Borisov, Gp H, 19:45
Real Madrid v Zenit St Petersburg, Gp H, 19:45

I thought I'd post on some of the general themes of the competition so far. We've heard about how only 3 spots in the next round are undecided, which is disappointing for the neutral. Especially as just last season the group phase was so dramatic and exciting - most notably with Liverpool scoring 16 goals in 3 games to come back from the dead, those clashes between Real Madrid and Olympiakos, United's great play against Sporting, Kiev and Roma, Arsenal's match-ups with Sevilla and their demolition of Slavia Prague, we saw Inter and Barcelona looking really good, Rosenborg twice beating Valencia, as well as Fenerbahce, Celtic, Schalke and Olympiakos all advancing. We don't seem to have had as many noteworthy stories this year? Several big clubs have dropped points and qualified in fits and starts, I'm thinking of Inter, United, Arsenal, Real Madrid etc, while Chelsea and Roma have stuttered and aren't quite there yet. It would be a troubling development if the big clubs now don't even need to get into top gear in order to advance through the groups.

The other thing is that if we're talking about 'haves and have nots', you can look at the transfer budgets of these big eastern European teams and place them in the first category. But as we keep asking, when will the challenge from the east properly emerge? Far from having eastern bloc teams in the running to win the CL itself, again this year we had 6 eastern European teams in the group phase and they've all been knocked out with a game to spare. Zenit St Petersburg's one win in five games has been a particular disappointment, and even that was against another eastern team.
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gaviota
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I agree with Simon's analysis of the general trend of the Champions League. I hope this is just a one year happening and not a sign of things to come because the lack of any real drama in this season's group stage has been disappointing. It is almost as if the teams are going through the motions waiting to get to the elimination stage when the tournament will really begin.
CHAMP13NS
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enganche
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Tuesday's results and goalscorers:

Quote:
 
Group A

At Stamford Bridge, London

Chelsea 2 CFR Cluj 1

Scorers:

Chelsea: Salomon Kalou 40, Didier Drogba 71

CFR Cluj: Yssouf Kone 55

Halftime: 1-0

Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden)

- -

At Stadio Olimpico, Rome

AS Roma 2 Girondins Bordeaux 0

Scorers: Matteo Brighi 61, Francesco Totti 79

Halftime: 0-0

Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

- - - -

Group B

At Weserstadion, Germany

Werder Bremen 2 Inter Milan 1

Scorers:

Werder Bremen: Claudio Pizarro 63, Markus Rosenberg 81

Inter Milan: Zlatan Ibrahimovic 88

Halftime: 0-0

Referee: Pieter Vink (Netherlands)

- -

At Olympic stadium, Athens

Panathinaikos 1 Anorthosis Famagusta 0

Halftime: 0-0

Scorer: Giorgos Karagounis 69

Referee: Bertrand Layec (France)

- - - -

Group C

At Nou Camp, Barcelona

Barcelona 2 Shakhtar Donetsk 3

Scorers:

Barcelona: Silvinho 59, Sergio Busquets 83

Shakhtar Donetsk: Olexandr Gladkiy 31, 58, Fernandinho 76

Halftime: 0-1

Referee: Mike Riley (England)

- -

At St Jakob Park, Basel

Basel 0 Sporting 1

Scorer: Yannick Djalo 19

Halftime: 0-1

Referee: Paul Allaerts (Belgium)

- - - -

Group D

At Stade Velodrome, Marseille

Olympique Marseille 0 Atletico Madrid 0

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

- -

At Philips Stadium, Eindhoven

PSV Eindhoven 1 Liverpool 3

Scorers:

PSV Eindhoven: Danko Lazovic 36

Liverpool: Ryan Babel 45+2, Albert Riera 68, David N’Gog 77

Halftime: 1-1

Referee: Nikolay Ivanov (Russia)


Roma, Chelsea and Panathinaikos assured their 2nd round classification today. Poor Anorthosis who did so well until these last few match days but their loss today combined with Werder Bremen's win puts Bremen in the UEFA Cup and ends Anorthosis' European adventure.
Prefiero morir de pie que vivir arrodillado
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raconteur
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That is too bad about Anorthosis, they did have a great run but over 6 games team depth plays a part and Anorthosis just lack that.

No real surprises in the 16 teams which have qualified, maybe Panathianikos finishing ahead of Werder Bremen is a minor surprise but the rest followed form.
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Manzanares
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Atletico Madrid decided to rotate some players against Marseille, it was not as extreme as Barcelona playing it's second team versus Shakhtar but Atletico decided finishing first or second was not as important to them as keeping players fresh for league play. But with no European play now until late February, was that really necessary? Now Atletico runs the risk of getting drawn with a group winner like Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Inter, Juventus or Arsenal instead of possibly playing a second place finisher like Panathinaikos or Sporting Lisbon.
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SuperEagle
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Manzanares,Dec 9 2008
08:43 PM
Atletico Madrid decided to rotate some players against Marseille, it was not as extreme as Barcelona playing it's second team versus Shakhtar but Atletico decided finishing first or second was not as important to them as keeping players fresh for league play. But with no European play now until late February, was that really necessary? Now Atletico runs the risk of getting drawn with a group winner like Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Inter, Juventus or Arsenal instead of possibly playing a second place finisher like Panathinaikos or Sporting Lisbon.

Hold on manzanares, maybe Atletico Madrid are crazy like a fox. Inter's loss yesterday meant Panathinaikos won their group with Inter second. And tonight we will learn whether Manchester United and Bayern Munich finish first in their respective groups. The 16 remaining teams are all now determined but how they finish in their groups is not yet decided and already some heavyweights are dropping down into 2nd place. More could join them tonight.
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enganche
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Wednesday's results and goalscorers:

Quote:
 
Group E

At Old Trafford, Manchester

Manchester United 2 AaB Aalborg 2

Scorers

Manchester United: Carlos Tevez 3, Wayne Rooney 52

AaB Aalborg: Michael Jakobsen 31, Jeppe Curth 45+2

Halftime: 1-2

Referee: Lauret Duhamel (France)

- -

At Celtic Park, Glasgow

Celtic 2 Villarreal 0

Scorers: Shaun Maloney 14, Aiden McGeady 45+2

Red card: Guille Franco (Villarreal) 35

Halftime: 2-0

Referee: Claudio Circhetta (Switzerland)

- - - -

Group F

At Ghencea stadium, Bucharest

Steaua Bucharest 0 Fiorentina 1

Scorer: Alberto Gilardino 66

Red card: Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest) 72

Halftime: 0-0

Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)

- -

At Gerland stadium, Lyon

Olympique Lyon 2 Bayern Munich 3

Scorers:

Olympique Lyon: Sidney Govou 52, Karim Benzema 68

Bayern Munich: Miroslav Klose 11, 37, Franck Ribery 34

Halftime: 0-3

- - - -

Group G

At Dragao stadium, Porto

Porto 2 Arsenal 0

Scorers: Bruno Alves 39, Lisandro Lopez 54

Halftime: 1-0

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)

- -

At Valeri Lobanovskiy, Kiev

Dynamo Kiev 1 Fenerbahce 0

Scorer: Roman Eremenko 20

Red card: Claudio Maldonado (Fenerbahce) 90+3

Halftime: 1-0

Referee: Florian Meyer (Germany)

- - - -

Group H

At Stadio Olimpico, Turin

Juventus 0 BATE Borisov 0

Missed penalty: Sebastian Giovinco (Juventus) 52

Halftime: 0-0

Referee: Costas Kapitanis (Cyprus)

- -

At Bernabeu, Madrid

Real Madrid 3 Zenit St Petersburg 0

Scorers: Raul 25, 57, Arjen Robben 50

Halftime: 1-0

Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)


Group winners: AS Roma, Barcelona, Liverpool, Panathinaikos, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Juventus and Porto

Second placed teams: Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Olympique Lyon, Real Madrid, Sporting and Villarreal

Prefiero morir de pie que vivir arrodillado
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Yogi
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Looks like some teams didn't care if they finished first or second as these past few days we saw many teams playing weakened lineups. As Supereagle wrote, there are some powerful teams who finished second. Sets up the possibility of some titanic matchups in the next round, say Barcelona-Inter, Manchester United-Real Madrid or Bayern-Chelsea. Of course we also could get Panathinaikos-Sporting Lisbon too.
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gaviota
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Good first game in charge for Juande Ramos at Real Madrid. Arjen Robben was in great form playing on the right wing ala Lionel Messi as Madrid easily beat Zenit 3-0.

As Yogi writes there is the possibility with the number of powerful teams in 2nd place for some really good matchups. Barcelona for instance are guaranteed a tough series as they can not play Sporting the 2nd place team from their group nor can they face the three other Spanish teams who finished in 2nd place in their particular groups. So that means Barcelona's only possible opponents in the draw, set for 19 December, are Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter or Lyon!
CHAMP13NS
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historyman
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So it's the same old faces who have reached the last sixteen. Last night's series of games was a little flat and devoid of much excitement since so many issues had already been settled. Still, no doubt the knockout rounds will redeem the tournament. For me the CL doesn't really start until February.

I watched the Porto/Arsenal game and it was yet another example of Arsenal dominating possession but failing to turn that into goals. Wenger played many of his 'youngsters' and they experienced a steep learning curve last night. Their passing was atrocious at times, and Bendtner had one of those evenings that he'd rather forget. Porto should have won by four or five goals.
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Mr. Pither
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Quote:
 
As Yogi writes there is the possibility with the number of powerful teams in 2nd place for some really good matchups. Barcelona for instance are guaranteed a tough series as they can not play Sporting the 2nd place team from their group nor can they face the three other Spanish teams who finished in 2nd place in their particular groups. So that means Barcelona's only possible opponents in the draw, set for 19 December, are Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter or Lyon!


As others already commented, this week's games took place without much drama but the potential 2nd round matchups look very mouth watering. Panathinaikos have qualified before for the next round of the tournament but it has been several years since that has happened so I would say they are the one outsiders in this group. They probably are the team most would hope to get drawn with but they are the outsiders last hope in this tournament.
P-I-T-H-E-R ...as in Brotherhood, but with PI instead of the BRO and no HOOD
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Johnbuildr
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So, now nothing more until the end of February? The usual, but too bad to have to wait that long.....
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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raconteur
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Johnbuildr,Dec 11 2008
10:43 AM
So, now nothing more until the end of February? The usual, but too bad to have to wait that long.....

Just the internecine warfare that is league games!
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historyman
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The draw for the secound round has just been made:

Chelsea v Juventus

Villarreal v Panathinaikos

Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich

Atlético Madrid v Porto

Lyon v Barcelona

Real Madrid v Liverpool

Arsenal v Roma

Internazionale v Manchester United


Ties to be played on February 24 and 25, and March 10 and 11.

So now we can begin to savour some of the mouth-watering ties that await in the spring. One sub-plot to the second round is three Anglo-Italian clashes. Could this be an opportunity for Serie A to strike back against the Premier League?
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