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Champions League 09/10
Topic Started: Jul 23 2009, 05:46 AM (4,907 Views)
Hector
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I was satisfied with Sevilla's 2-0 win over Unirea of Romania. They were a pretty well drilled team and defended well but Renato and Luis Fabiano each scored one and set the other up for their goal. I liked Sevilla's movement and it was an encouraging win against a team which might be tougher than some thought. Remember Dan Petrescu from those 1990s Romania teams? He's the coach of Unirea.

Because the Sevilla match took my attention, I didn't see any other games no real surprises though in any of them. Maybe the fact Liverpool only won by a single goal against a Hungarian team was the biggest shock of last night.

I can understand Winslow's apathy at the start of this year's competition but interest will soon pick up, especially as World Cup qualifying ends and the group races in the Champions League heat up.
iPuerta amigo, Sevilla esta contigo!
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Dr. Z
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Our expectations were high for Inter-Barcelona but it turne dinto a chess match with both teams waiting for the other to make a mistake. What I did like from a Barcelona perspective was how well they pressed Inter and took the ball away from them especially in the 2nd half.
Poniendo el pecho a las balas!
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rosarino
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Dr. Z,Sep 16 2009
09:49 PM
Our expectations were high for Inter-Barcelona but it turne dinto a chess match with both teams waiting for the other to make a mistake. What I did like from a Barcelona perspective was how well they pressed Inter and took the ball away from them especially in the 2nd half.

I thought both Barcelona and Inter neutralized the other pretty well. Give both teams more time to adjust to their new center forwards and they will each be dangerous. What I enjoyed most about an otherwise dispappointing game was how well both Maicon and Daniel Alves played, to me they were each the most dangerous players on their respective teams. It also makes me envious of Brazil's depth at right back, all they have are the world's two best right backs! :angry:
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Simon
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Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Debrecen v Lyon, Gp E, 19:45
Fiorentina v Liverpool, Gp E, 19:45
Barcelona v Dynamo Kiev, Gp F, 19:45
Rubin Kazan v Inter Milan, Gp F, 17:30
Rangers v Sevilla, Gp G, 19:45
Unirea Urziceni v VfB Stuttgart, Gp G, 19:45
AZ v Standard Liege, Gp H, 19:45
Arsenal v Olympiakos, Gp H, 19:45

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Bayern Munich v Juventus, Gp A, 19:45
Bordeaux v Maccabi Haifa, Gp A, 19:45
CSKA Moscow v Besiktas, Gp B, 17:30
Manchester United v Wolfsburg, Gp B, 19:45
Real Madrid v Marseille, Gp C, 19:45
AC Milan v FC Zurich, Gp C, 19:45
Apoel Nicosia v Chelsea, Gp D, 19:45
FC Porto v Atletico Madrid, Gp D, 19:45

There aren’t many games that really leap off the page this time around, especially tonight. Fiorentina-Liverpool is perhaps the most enticing game, but that’s tempered by the fact that Liverpool are prioritising their important league clash at Chelsea on Sunday. Inter may find the going tricky in Russia but even if they drop points it seems almost certain that they will accompany Barcelona into the next round, in whatever order. Rangers have a realistic shot at qualifying following a creditable draw in Germany last time out. Sevilla must be favourites in what looks a weak group, and my suspicion is that it isn’t Rangers’ results against Sevilla that will ultimately decide whether or not they go through.

Tomorrow’s games look to be a better batch IMO. Bayern Munich-Juventus is the most prestigious game of the week. Bayern have been a bit inconsistent so far but there are signs they are taking Van Gaal’s tactics on board. Home advantage may prove decisive but you can’t write Juve off, especially as they are doing so well. Bordeaux should beat Haifa and they look like they can shake things up a bit in Group A. I’m looking forward to what should be a good match between United and Wolfsburg. I reckon Wolfsburg will look to play positively at OT rather than just sitting in defence. We need to be especially wary of what they have up front. A lot of the talk will be about Grafite after his hat-trick last time, but Edin Dzeko is equally dangerous and is second only to Wayne Rooney in World Cup goalscoring. Marseille looked more competitive than I expected in Matchday 1, but that might be partly to do with Milan’s troubles? I would expect Real Madrid to roll them over, and I would also expect Milan to beat the Swiss at San Siro. Porto-Atletico Madrid looks a good game to me as well. Perhaps Porto might be narrowly favoured following their elimination of Atletico last season, and also in light of Atletico’s difficulties so far this season. Chelsea are likely to rest players against APOEL ahead of that game with Liverpool on Sunday, but they may well still win.
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Yogi
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I'm interested to see if Andrei Shevchenko's Dynamo Kiev can do something against Barcelona. I wouldn't expect much at the Nou Camp but Kiev did get off to a good start with their opening game win over Rubin Kazan (sounds like a film director doesn't it?) While on the subject of Rubin Kazan they are tied 1-1 at home with Inter as I write.

Fiorentina-Liverpool should be an interesting game today, Fiorentina need the win if they are to have any realistic hopes in this group. Zico ahs just taken over as Olympiakos coach and I am curious as to how they'll do against Arsenal. Away to the Gunners you would not expect much there.

But as Simon wrote, Wednesday's Bayern Munich-Juventus game is the real attention grabber. Hopefully it turns out more interesting than last round's supposed top matchup-Inter vs Barcelona.
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Winslow
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Tuesday's results...
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Group E: Debrecen 0, Lyon 4; Fiorentina 2, Liverpool 0.
Group F: Barcelona 2, Dynamo Kyiv 0; Rubin Kazan 1, Inter Milan 1.
Group G: Rangers 1, Sevilla 4; Unirea Urziceni 1, VFB Stuttgart 1.
Group H: AZ Alkmaar 1, Standard Liege 1; Arsenal 2, Olympiakos 0.

An important home win for Fiorentina and a road stumble for Inter appear to be the newsmakers here. Rangers had a better-than-average penalty shout waved off in the first half, then crumbled in the second; Arsenal pounded on the door for 78 minutes until van Persie finally beat Nikopolidis, the former George Clooney lookalike who had a fantastic match.
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raconteur
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Arsenal pounded on the door for 78 minutes until van Persie finally beat Nikopolidis, the former George Clooney lookalike who had a fantastic match.

haha, Nikopolidis did have a good game from what I saw of it and he is a former George Clooney look alike because his once salt and pepper hair is now totally gray! Makes me feel better about my own gray streaks! :P

Looked to me like Arshavin was offside on the 2nd Arsenal goal but he finished it with a backheel! Arsenal clearly deserved the win and only the gray fox in Olympiakos goal kept it from being a larger victory margin.

Great win for Fiorentina with 2 Jovetic goals. I hope to catch some extended highlights of that game and I see where Rangers-Sevilla will be rebroadcast where I live later tonight. An impressive road result for Sevilla, I'd like to see how they achieved that.
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Yogi
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Excellent work from Fiorentina who reallly needed the win. Liverpool didn't have much creativity, their best hope was Kuyt's running and long balls forward to Torres which Fiorentina's defense handled well. Jovetic is a young player with a lot of promise and he's been delivering lately for the club. No Gilardino, no problem, Jovetic takes up the scoring load!
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Merengue
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Sevilla and Lyon each with 4 goal wins on the road, not a bad way to start their road schedule in group play! Rangers do claim, as Winslow noted that they should have had a penalty in the 1st half when it was still 0-0, they may have a case but it also looked to me like the Rangers attacker was already falling before Konko of Sevilla made contact. In the end it didn't matter as Sevilla simply crushed them with 4 2nd half goals, all done without really looking like they were extending themselves. And they likely were not as they have their mind on Sunday's game vs Real Madrid. That is two 4 goal road wins in the past 4 days for Sevilla, they are entering the big clash against Madrid on a very high note.

A pretty decent defensive effort from Dynamo Kyiv but not much in attack as Leo Messi cutting in from the right had an easy time of it. Comfortable win for Barca.

Liverpool have given themselves some work in this group after losing at Fiorentina, home wins against Lyon and Fiorentina should still set them up in a position to qualify but their room for error is shrinking in what is looking like a pretty good 3 way race. How badly each of Lyon, Fiorentina and Liverpool beat up on Debecen might end up being decisive. If so Lyon's 4-0 win in Hungary should really help them.
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Simon
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I refuse to get my hopes up about Liverpool losing a game in the group stage. I've done that before and they still end up in the semis or final, regular as clockwork. They're like bloody cockroaches - indestructible! They've probably set a date with Chelsea for their annual clash at the end of the competition, I hope Chelsea get stood up but we shall see! I tuned into the game when it was already 2-0, but still got the impression that Liverpool had been really poor in the first half. It was mainly Liverpool in the second half especially for the first ten minutes when they battered Fiorentina. If they'd scored it would have brought some horrible memories of Istanbul '05 flooding back, but fortunately the Italians just about held out and then looked more secure afterwards. I thought Liverpool looked pretty flat and half-arsed for big spells, presumably because they know they have Chelsea at the weekend. Afterwards, Benitez criticised Liverpool's 'lack of intensity', but he should reflect on his own role in that. He stated plainly before the game how much more important the Chelsea match is - you don't do that and then expect your players to really tear it up in the Fiorentina game. In fact, he's not an idiot and so I expect there's a bit of kidology involved. He said "I believe you will see a different Liverpool in that match (against Chelsea), a totally different performance with a different mentality". Well, of course. Whatever he says to get a rise out of his players, I suspect neither he nor they are that bothered about last night.

I only saw highlights of Arsenal, but the consensus of the studio experts was that Arsenal haven't really shown anything like their best form in the CL so far. But I'm sure they won't be too worried, as their two 60% sort of performances have so far been sufficient for two wins. There doesn't seem to be too much in that group to worry them. I did see most of the Inter game earlier in the evening, and Rubin gave Inter a real going over. Inter were pretty fortunate to nick a point, but it should be a valuable point. Eastern European teams are often tricky in their own backyard, but they are awful travellers. I don't think Inter will be troubled at home to the Russians, or Dynamo Kiev. Likewise Barcelona. 2-0 isn't an amazing result, but it doesn't need to be. A win is a win, and unfortunately the group phase of the CL is often an exercise in the big teams just doing enough to advance, often without being especially stretched. Barca may find it trickier on their travels, to judge by their controversial game in Donetsk last season, but there's no evidence yet that they or Inter will face any competition for a second round slot.

I think Rangers should have had a penalty, but as Merengue says it is irrelevant anyway in light of the scoreline. There's a two tier system in Europe, and Rangers are of a Europa League sort of standard, as evidenced by their getting to the final two years ago. That's not to say that they won't finish second behind Sevilla, as this is a notably weak group. I think they've got a half-decent side but their problem is the classic one that always afflicts the old firm - they spend their weekends putting four or five goals past the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Falkirk and they just can't suddenly make the gear change necessary to be facing teams like Sevilla. The solution that is occasionally suggested is for Rangers and Celtic to join the PL, but I think that's a non-starter.
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Mr. Pither
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Quote:
 
I think Rangers should have had a penalty, but as Merengue says it is irrelevant anyway in light of the scoreline. There's a two tier system in Europe, and Rangers are of a Europa League sort of standard, as evidenced by their getting to the final two years ago. That's not to say that they won't finish second behind Sevilla, as this is a notably weak group. I think they've got a half-decent side but their problem is the classic one that always afflicts the old firm - they spend their weekends putting four or five goals past the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Falkirk and they just can't suddenly make the gear change necessary to be facing teams like Sevilla. The solution that is occasionally suggested is for Rangers and Celtic to join the PL, but I think that's a non-starter.


Surprisingly Rangers came into this match against Sevilla following 3 consecutive 0-0 draws in SPL matches. In that regard it might have been a surprise that Rangers even scored a goal against Sevilla! Although the Rangers goal, scored by Nacho Novo when it already was 4-0, was a real cracker. Rangers and Celtic used to be good at the least for a home win in Europe but this season not even that has been attainable against better opponents. I agree with Simon, right now the Europa League looks like their best hope for some glory.

Like others here, I am looking forward to Bayern Munich-Juventus and also towards Manchester United-Wolfsburg. I don't expect the VW works team to win at Old Trafford but I am curious to see if their reknowned attack can create problems for United.
P-I-T-H-E-R ...as in Brotherhood, but with PI instead of the BRO and no HOOD
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Winslow
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And Wednesday's results...
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Group A: Bayern Munich 0, Juventus 0; Bordeaux 1, Maccabi Haifa 0.
Group B: CSKA Moscow 2, Besiktas 1; Man United 2, Wolfsburg 1.
Group C: AC Milan 0, FC Zurich 1; Real Madrid 3, Marseille 0.
Group D: APOEL Nicosia 0, Chelsea 1; Porto 2, Atletico Madrid 0.

What's this--the Rossoneri losing to a Swiss team at the San Siro? Milan's scruffy play in Serie A carries over to Europe! Chelsea did just enough to pick up three points in Cyprus, while Juve takes home a useful road point. Real took a comprehensive home win, but Atletico, also playing scruffily in La Liga, couldn't handle Porto at the Dragao.

At Old Trafford, Wolfsburg opened the scoring before the hour on a header by Dzeko, but Giggs tied it a few minutes later on a free kick that bounced off the wall and wrongfooted the keeper. United finished off the Bundesmeisters (?) when Carrick (ex-Spurs) took a smart layoff ball from Giggs at the top of the box and curled one into the top right corner.
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Simon
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Now Mr Pither points out that Rangers are even in bad form in their mediocre league, maybe they should be thankful they kept the score down to four! Still, they have Celtic at the weekend, so that should suitably rouse them!

Happy with United tonight, we played some great stuff going forward. There has to be a question mark when a team loses the best player in the world (ANOTHER two goals tonight? How many's Ronaldo going to score this season?) but we've won 9 out of 10 matches this season and the team are playing brilliantly. Michael Owen started but had to be replaced after just 12 minutes with a groin strain, but Berbatov was excellent, as was Giggs who scored one and set up the other. My man of the match would be Carrick, though, who ran the game with his passing. His winning goal was the icing on the cake. More regular goals are all that's missing from his game really, and I'd like to see him getting into those positions more regularly. It's been over four years since United lost a CL game at OT, and so huge credit goes to Wolfsburg who came and played a really positive attacking game, throwing their full-backs forward as auxiliary wingers. United looked a bit shaky at the back once again. Rio is clearly still feeling that back problem, that's becoming a real concern. And Vidic wasn't really at it today.

The big story tonight has to be Milan though. Apparently Leonardo received the dreaded vote of confidence from the Milan hierarchy tonight, which is so often the precursor to being sacked! I think that would be lunacy seing as how Leonardo has been stuck with a bunch of problems. But only one Milan goal at the San Siro so far this season, and that's a horrific result tonight. What about that for a winning goal though, and from a centre-back? I'm betting he's already ordered a hundred DVDs of the game to distribute as Christmas presents! As with Inter-Barca, Bayern-Juve turned out to be a let-down. Madrid won easily enough, as expected. I heard that they were a bit patchy before they scored, and then they clicked into gear, maybe our Madridista contingent could confirm or correct that? Funnily enough, that opening goal was a huge 'route one' hoof straight down the pitch, which was knocked in by the forward. People used to poke fun at Wimbledon for scoring goals like that in the late 80s! Still, Milan had better raise their game before their double header with Real.
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Pepe
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Real Madrid seem to be following the same script recently whether it is in Europe or in the league, they play an uninspired first half where their opposition has some chances but can't finish them then Pellegrini makes some halftime changes, gives an inspired team talk and they put the game away with an early second half goal. That seems to be the default description of all of Real Madrid's recent games. Nice pass from deep by Pepe to Ronaldo who got behind the defense and scored, Ronaldo then brought down by Diawara, who was sent off for a 2nd yellow and Kaka converted the penalty. Then in the team's best collective move Kaka and Benzema combined to feed Ronaldo for a tap in at the far post.

Ultimately a 3-0 win and a good second half display but now comes Sevilla, an opponent where Real Madrid will need to play more than just one good half.

Last round the expected matchup between Inter and Barcelona fizzled out, this round it was the Bayern-Juventus game which also was a dud.
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Dr. Z
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Pepe is right, Real Madrid are winning games in the 2nd half after giving their opponents opportunities in the first. Cristiano Ronaldo is playing well though but he left this game with an ankle injury suffered when Diawara fouled him inside the penalty area and got sent off. At first viewing I thought it was a clean tackle, but on replays you can see he caught Ronaldo before getting the ball.

Another poor offensive display from Atletico Madrid, no midfield creativity so even forwards as good as Forlan and Aguero are going to have trouble.
Poniendo el pecho a las balas!
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