UEFA Champions League last 16 draw
December 21, 2008
The Champions league draw took place the other day. As it turned out the Champions League has turned into an Italy-England contest. Three of the four teams from England will take on Italian opponents in the home and away legs of the last 16. The first leg matches will take place on 24 February, 2009.
The draw is shown below with the home teams for the first leg shown first.
Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Olympic Lyonnais v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v Roma
Inter Milan v Manchester United
Who are your picks to advance to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League?
Matchday 4 Champions League results
November 6, 2008
Matchday 4 in the UEFA Champions league has been completed. The biggest result was perhaps the 3-1 defeat of Chelsea by Roma. Also Juventus defeating Real Madrid in Spain by 2 goals to nil was a good result for the Italian team. The win sees Juve join Barcelona in the knockout stage.
Liverpool and Atletico could have joined them if either of them won the match between the pair, instead they drew one all and now must wait another game to seal a spot in the next stage.
Del Piero was impressive for Juve scoring two great goals to help his team win at the Madrid home ground for the first time since 1962.
The match between Inter and Anorthosis Famagusta produced the most goals. It was 3-3. A late goal by Julio Cruz saved Inter from embarrassment.
The full list of results are below.
A CFR Cluj 1-2 Bordeaux
A Roma 3-1 Chelsea
B Anorthosis 3-3 Internazionale
B Bremen 0-3 Panathinaikos
C Sporting 1-0 Shakhtar
C Barcelona 1-1 Basel
D Liverpool 1-1 Atlético
D Marseille 3-0 PSV
E AaB 2-2 Villarreal
E Celtic 1-1 Man. United
F Fiorentina 1-1 Bayern
F Lyon 2-0 Steaua
G Arsenal 0-0 Fenerbahçe
G Dynamo Kyiv 1-2 Porto
H BATE 0-2 Zenit
H Real Madrid 0-2 Juventus
Matchday 5 takes place on 25-26 November. The group stage wraps up on 9-10 December with matchday 6 fixtures.
Liverpool let points slip at Atletico
October 23, 2008
In match day three Champions League action Liverpool FC traveled to Spain to take on joint group D leaders Club Atletico de Madrid. Up until the 83rd minute of the match they were looking good to go top of the group with a valuable away win after Robbie Keane had given them the lead in the 14th minute.
Keane’s goal was setup with a through ball from Steven Gerrard that helped Keane slip past the last line of defence. It was touch and go if he was on-side. In the end play continued and he slotted home past Leo Franco.
The referee assistants were to play a big role in this match as first Liverpool then Atletico had goals ruled out for offside. Both decisions were questionable. Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun was first to feel the disappointment of seeing the flag go up as he put the ball into the back of the net. Not long after Seitaridis for Atletico was also denied by an offside call.
As it looked likely that Liverpool would take full points a Jamie Carragher error allowed Diego Forlan to take possession before passing to Simao who then beat Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina. More chances came for both sides as Reina tipped away a Miguel strike and Ryan Babel headed wide of the post.
Rafael Benitez said after the match that he felt Liverpool lost two points rather than gaining one which is normally a good result when playing away.
The draw leaves the two sides on top with seven points, four clear of PSV who defeated Marseille 2-0 at home.
In other matchday three action Barcelona stayed the only team to win three from three as they thumped Basel 5-0. Chelsea won at home over Roma with a 1-0 score after a John Terry goal in the 77th minute.
Matchday four is scheduled for November 4-5. The group stage will be completed on 10 December. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout stage.
Champions League Gerrard rocket brings up goal 100 for Liverpool
October 2, 2008
Steven Gerrard has brought up his 100th goal for Liverpool in style. He struck a rocket of a shot in the 76th minute from a free kick. This came in the UEFA Champions League match against visiting PSV Eindhoven.
Liverpool got off to a brilliant start when Dirk Kuyt scored after 4 minutes. The goal came after a good shot by Fernando Torres was blocked by the diving keeper. Kuyt grabbed the long rebound to shoot home.
The next Liverpool goal cam at the 34th minute mark. Torres made a good run down the right wing before sending in a cross for Robbie Keane to nicely deflect into the left side of the goal. Finally the €25m signing had scored for his new team following the transfer from Tottenham Hotspur FC in the summer. Like Peter Crouch several years ago this may open the floodgates for Keane.
PSV did not manage to get a single shot on target until the 78th minute. The result was a goal. It came after a good cross was whipped in at an angle from the right to Danny Koevermans. His one touch sent the ball past Reina into the back of the net. At the time his team were already down by three goals so the match was as good as over.
Liverpool deserved their win as they controlled the ball well and had many more scoring opportunities. Not long befre Gerrard scored his great goal Torres was gifted a good opportunity. A PSV back pass was the perfect through ball for the Spanish international. He advanced to the goal with just the keeper to beat however the tight angle made it difficult. From a similar spot in the Euro finals he scored however this time he shot wide.
Liverpool now have two wins from as many starts compared to last season when they had just one point from two matches. In the other match in group D Atletico joined Liverpool at the top of the group with a 2-1 win over Marseille.
CFR 1907 Cluj managed to hold Chelsea to a 0-0 draw in group A.
Barcelona were lucky to come away from their match with a win after an injury time goal by Messi shattered Shakhtar as they lost 2-1. Shakhtar lead one nil from the 45th minute until two later Barcelona goals changed that. Messi scored in the 87th minute and the fourth minute of extra time.
UEFA Champions League matchday three will be played on 21-22 October.
