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Champions League 2010-11
Topic Started: Jul 16 2010, 07:51 AM (4,390 Views)
Yogi
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A potentially costly game for Milan, their meaningless match vs Ajax, which Ajax won 2-0, had both Mathieu Flamini and Thiago Silva pick up knee injuries which will keep them out for a month. Fortunately the Christmas break will be included there but their absences will still be felt, particularly Thiago Silva's. Ronaldinho did get a chance to start and once more failed to impress. It is looking more likely that he will leave Milan this winter. The question is where? Or maybe even better, who would want him?

So these teams qualified for the elimination rounds:
Tottenham Hotspur
Inter Milan
Schalke 04
Olympique Lyon
Manchester United
Valencia
Barcelona
FC Copenhagen
Bayern Munich
AS Roma
Chelsea
Olympique Marseille
Real Madrid
AC Milan
Shakhtar Donetsk
Arsenal

* Draw for first knockout round on Dec.17

* Ties to be played on Feb. 15-23 and March 8-16

Add FC Copenhagen to the list of surprise qualifiers.
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Winslow
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Here's the second round draw, completed this morning:

Arsenal (England) vs. Barcelona (Spain)
FC Copenhagen (Denmark) vs. Chelsea (England)
Inter Milan (Italy) vs. Bayern Munich (Germany)
Lyon (France) vs. Real Madrid (Spain)
Marseille (France) vs. Manchester United (England)
AC Milan (Italy) vs. Tottenham (England)
AS Roma (Italy) vs. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
Valencia (Spain) vs. Schalke (Germany)

So Real, Man U, and Chelsea seem to have the friendliest draws, Roma has a tricky job ahead with the surprising Ukrainians, and Spurs and the Gunners are both unlucky. Bayern and Schalke also could've done much worse here.

The first legs begin Feb. 15-16 and 22-23.
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robdog
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Winslow,Dec 17 2010
04:33 AM
So Real, Man U, and Chelsea seem to have the friendliest draws

I don't think FC Copenhagen will be that easy. I believe they will have fresh legs, due to a mid-winter break & ex-Chelsea fan favorite Jesper Grønkjær to guide them. Like it says on the Chelsea website, "Careful in Copenhagen". In many eyes, this reminds Chelsea of the tie vs Monaco a few years back.
Supporter for FCK, San Lorenzo, Chelsea, Pachuca, Corinthians & Real Betis
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Merengue
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Some very intriguing games there. Real Madrid get a chance for redemption against Lyon, a club who have caused them a lot of headaches over the years in Europe. Arsenal with an opportnity to put last year's embarassing loss to Barcelona behind them. Tottenham already defeated one of Milan's clubs in group play, now they get a crack at AC Milan. Some even looking matches betweem Roma-Shakhtar and Valencia-Schalke. Manchester United have a pretty good draw as Winslow notes as they are paired with Marseille, certainly not a bad team but one which often struggles in Europe. Chelsea get the surprising team of this tournament FC Copenhagen which on paper should be a good draw for them but the Dames play some nice football and if they go into this game without fear, they could be a tricky opponent.

But to me the match of the round is a replay of last season's final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. Both clubs have struggled with injuries through the fall and have slipped behind others in their respective leagues but each are starting to get healthy now and if in two months they are back to near or full strength then we should have quite a matchup.

Some games to look forward to in two months time!
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Manzanares
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Merengue, where can I buy a Lyon shirt? ;)

Lyon have been Real Madrid's nemesis in recent years in the Champions League, and it has been many years since Real Madrid have advanced past the octave finals. But this is why they hired Mourinho, to obtain success in Europe, let's se eif he and Real madrid are up for it.

Prediction, in the weeks leading up to this game, look for stories in the Madrid sporting press about how Real Madrid are interested in one of Lyon's star players. Similarly look for stories about cesc fabregas going to barcelona just ebfore the Arsenal-Barcelona series. That is one of the old tricks the sycophant Spanish sporting media love to use to try and destabilize an opponent of Real Madrid or Barcelona!

I am with Merengue, if they are both back to health, the Inter-Bayern rematch should be a great series.
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robdog
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Manzanares,Dec 17 2010
10:24 AM
I am with Merengue, if they are both back to health, the Inter-Bayern rematch should be a great series.

I don't know about Inter, but I fully expect Bayern to be back at full strength. That winter break will do that team wonders. Already Robben is returning to fitness. With BvB running away w/ the Bundesliga, I fully expect Bayern to turn their attention to the Champion's League. Inter w/ a lot of matches & players that are already exhausted from International duty, will wish they had a winter break. :o
Supporter for FCK, San Lorenzo, Chelsea, Pachuca, Corinthians & Real Betis
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Yogi
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Inter will have a winter break, Serie A after this weekend won't resume play until the 2nd week of January so Inter will have a break after their gam tomorrow vs TP Mazembe. And Inter are getting healthy too, look at the World Club Cup where Julio Cesar, Eto'o, Milito and Stankovic all returned. they will be ready for Bayern and what should be a fascinating rematch.

AC Milan-Tottenham should be a fun matchup. Tottenham won a lot of fans with their free wheeling play vs Inter but I like how Milan are playing and I think they are building a solid, well balanced team. It took Allegri most of the fall but I think he has found his ideal lineup and the results are proving that.

Real Madrid will be favored but do not ever count Lyon out in a European match. Arsenal got the unfortunate draw of being paired with barcelona, time for the Gunners to think about their domestic league!

Roma are pretty happy with being paired with Shakhtar but the Ukrainians are not pushovers and playing there in February/early March will not be pleasant.
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Mr. Pither
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Inter-Bayern should be fascinating. Can you imagine the preening by Jose Mourinho if Bayern get by Inter? Then again he better concentrate on Lyon who as others said have a good history vs Real Madrid. Nevertheless you have to think Madrid will get by them and if they do they will be serious contenders for this year's title.

But the caveat we always need to give is club's form in the fall often bears little resemblance to how they will be playing in February and March. Who knows by then maybe Roma, Chelsea and Valencia will be the in form teams?
P-I-T-H-E-R ...as in Brotherhood, but with PI instead of the BRO and no HOOD
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raconteur
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Quote:
 
But the caveat we always need to give is club's form in the fall often bears little resemblance to how they will be playing in February and March. Who knows by then maybe Roma, Chelsea and Valencia will be the in form teams?


I think this is spot on, every Champions League there are teams which come alive in the new year and go on good runs in the knockout stage while some teams who looked great in the group stage look much tamer once the elimination stage starts.

I wonder how Copenhagen and Shakhtar, who each have much longer winter breaks than anybody else still alive in the competition, will do? Obviously they will have an extensive preseason before resuming Champions league play but they could also be rusty.

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Simon
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Interesting ties.

I'm happy enough with being paired with Marseille, I think we should get past them. Arsenal have enough talent to get past Barcelona as well, but I suspect that they won't. Teams in international competition, if not in Spain, have beaten Barcelona by smothering their attack and picking at their defence with fast direct thrusts. Even when Barcelona eliminated Chelsea a couple of years ago, their main asset was the referee, whose heavily-perforated picture is still on robdog's dartboard! But I don't think Arsenal have the defensive options to do this, and they were remarkably naive in the way they gifted Barca goals last season. The stats tell a story that Arsenal struggle in big games (Barcelona last season, and only 1 draw and 9 defeats in their last 10 games against United and Chelsea, with a game against Chelsea to come next week) and this is something that Wenger's team has to reverse if they are to break their five year trophy drought.

Milan-Spurs should be very entertaining, I'm looking forward to that one along with Inter-Bayern.
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raconteur
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raconteur,Dec 17 2010
09:30 PM
Quote:
 
But the caveat we always need to give is club's form in the fall often bears little resemblance to how they will be playing in February and March. Who knows by then maybe Roma, Chelsea and Valencia will be the in form teams?


I think this is spot on, every Champions League there are teams which come alive in the new year and go on good runs in the knockout stage while some teams who looked great in the group stage look much tamer once the elimination stage starts.

I wonder how Copenhagen and Shakhtar, who each have much longer winter breaks than anybody else still alive in the competition, will do? Obviously they will have an extensive preseason before resuming Champions league play but they could also be rusty.

So this Champions League thingy starts up again this week, like last year half the first leg games will be played this Tuesday and Wednesday, the other half will be played next week. This week's matches:

Tuesday
AC Milan-Tottenham
Valencia-Schalke

Wednesday
Roma-Shakhtar Donetsk
Arsenal-Barcelona

So how do you think these clubs' form compares now to how it was last fall?

I would say Milan, Valencia, Schalke, Barcelona and Arsenal are playing better than they were in the fall with Milan in my opinion playing significantly better. Tottenham and Roma are playing slightly poorer while we have no idea about Shakhtar who are still in their preseason.

And remember that UEFA now does not wipe the accumulated yellow card slate clean after the end of the group stage so this is the disciplinary situation going into ths week's matches:

Quote:
 
Playing on Tuesday

AC Milan            v Tottenham Hotspur

Suspended: Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur)

Misses next match if booked: Gianluca Zambrotta, Luca
Antonini, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Gennaro Gattuso (all AC Milan)

- -

Valencia            v Schalke 04

Suspended: David Albelda (Valencia)

Misses next match if booked: Aritz Aduriz (Valencia);
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04)

- -

Playing on Wednesday

AS Roma            v Shakhtar Donetsk

Misses next match if booked: Marco Cassetti, Jeremy Menez
(both AS Roma); Olexiy Gai, Razvan Rat (both Shakhtar Donetsk)

-

Arsenal            v Barcelona

Suspended: Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)

Misses next match if booked: Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal);
Gerard Pique (Barcelona)


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Don Balon
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I understand suspensions carrying over from the group stage but carrying over yellow cards is I think ridiculous. They did that in the World Cup last year too. Why should a player in February playing the first game of an octave final run the risk of suspension through accumulation of cards for a previous caution he picked up back in September?

Raul received a good reception with Schalke on his return to Spain. Valencia-Schalke looks like a pretty even series, realistically neither club is a threat for the title but they are where they are now on their merits and the memories of Porto, Monaco and Deportivo from 2004 must give them both hope.

I was reading that Gareth Bale the revelation for Spurs in the group stage will miss his club's trip to Milan. That has to be some comfort to the Italian club. As the Milan fans have been commenting on in the Serie A forum, the trio of Ibrahimovic, Cassano and Robinho have become a very effective attacking force.
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libero
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Cassano played for Sampdoria this past summer in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League so that I believes makes him ineligible for the Champions League knockout stages. My understanding is you cannot play for another club later in the tournament if you appeared in the prelim stages. If you played in the Europa League, as Fernando Torres did for Liverpool, then you are eligible for the Champions League knockout stage with another club (Chelsea.)
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Martin
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libero,Feb 14 2011
05:52 PM
Cassano played for Sampdoria this past summer in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League so that I believes makes him ineligible for the Champions League knockout stages. My understanding is you cannot play for another club later in the tournament if you appeared in the prelim stages. If you played in the Europa League, as Fernando Torres did for Liverpool, then you are eligible for the Champions League knockout stage with another club (Chelsea.)

That is right libero and Milan also will be without Mark Van Bommel too so they will look different tomorrow than the team we have seen recently in Serie A.
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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Onslow
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Looks like Milan-Tottenham is almost as much about who will miss the game as who will actually play for both sides. Milan without Van Bommel and Cassano as mentioned plus Pirlo and Boateng also will be missing due to injury, Spurs without Bale, Huddelstone and Jenas plus Modric likely will be on the bench after recovering from an appendectomy.
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