Here's the groups, thoughts and predictions later.
GROUP A
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa
GROUP B
Manchester United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg
GROUP C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich
GROUP D
Chelsea
Porto
Atletico
APOEL
GROUP E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debrecen
GROUP F
Barcelona
Inter
Dynamo Kyiv
Rubin Kazan
GROUP G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni
GROUP H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiacos
Standard Liege
Showing posts with label Lyon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lyon. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Champions League Playoffs
A quick word on the Champions League qualifiers today before the big draw.
May as well get this bit over with, as a Celtic fan my hopes of us qualifying weren't exactly sky high, If we could get a goal in the first 20-25 minutes we might have had a chance for at least penalties, and after losing 2 very soft goals at Celtic Park, I was hoping maybe a little bit of luck may go our way, when Eduardo failed to score with an open goal in front of him, my hopes grew a little maybe we have a chance.
How wrong I was, Eduardo played a nice 1-2 got in the box, Boruc ran out realised he wouldn't get the ball, tried to pull out, and Eduardo went down as if there had been full contact, brushed himself off, and placed the penalty past Boruc, I was outraged, it was never a penalty, no contact was made, it was a blatant dive, and an act of cheating.
Why do players of that quality, in a team with World Class players, they don't need to cheat, playing high quality football, they would have probably won in the end, so why cheat, the 3 to 5 thousand Celtic fans who had made the journey down to the Emirates must have felt sick, any chance of progressing taken away by a cheat, I used to have alot of respect for Eduardo from his International record to his horrific leg break against Birmingham, now all that's gone.
Yes Arsenal did win the game 3-1 in the end 5-1 over both games, however everything after Eduardo's dive is irrelevant, hearts were crushed spirits broken.
All the calls for Eduardo to be banned seem a little over the top, however maybe there needs to be a change, an extra 30 secs for the ref to look at the incident would it still have been a penalty, it wouldn't slow the game down at all, in this HD age, con artists are still given an advantage in ways how to con the referee.
Everyone knows the gulf between the EPL and SPL is huge, noone would argue that, the transfer fee's for Arshavin and Vermaelen would be Celtic's transfer budget for 6 or 7 years, the SPL teams are restricted to buying players from their own league or unknown players and trying to sell them off for a profit, however he are expected to reach the last 16 of the Champions League group stage.
If a team like Everton or Aston Villa reached the Champions League I don't think the same pressures would be put on them, although they have alot more resources available to them.
In UEFA's coefficients system Scotland are placed behind Russia but ahead of countries like Ukraine, Turkey and Greece, these countries can all attract players of a high quality, Djibril Cisse, Elano, Kader Keita these players would never come to the SPL in a million years.
So this shows the SPL punches way above it's weight, so in this sense I am proud of Celtic's performance against Arsenal, and being a Celtic fan it's hard to say but I wish Rangers all the best in carrying on the countries participation.
Also going through to the group stage with Arsenal are: Olympiacos, APOEL FC, VfB Stuttgart, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Debreceni, Lyon, Maccabi Haifa and FC Zurich, well done to all of them.
APOEL and Debreceni were the upsets of the round, Copenhagen and Levski Sofia losing out.
Atletico looked very impressive in the 5-2 win over Panathinaikos, the highly rated Sergio Aguero looking very dangerous.
Lyon seemed to use the Play-off games against Anderlecht to find their form, struggling in the league until their 5-1 victory in the first leg, and then finished it off win a 3-1 win, fans will be saying Karim who?
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Saturday Round Up 15/08
Usually I plan like last weekend to do a round-up after the Sunday game, however I'm off to London in the morning to watch GB play Basketball at the o2.
So decided to write one now, and do a Sunday round-up on Monday night or Tuesday.
PREMIERSHIP
After the 3 o'clock games I watched Arsenal's game at Everton at Wow what a great start to the season, all the criticism Wenger has received, myself being one of the doubters, only 1 player in, Toure/Adebayor out, I liked Wengers lineup, playing Fabergas with Song and Denilson in the middle, what you lose out by not having a solid DM, you make up in numbers, not sure Bendtner works as a winger, Rosicky, Walcott or Nasri will surely play there more often, Arsenal played some fantastic football this evening, Denilson goal was a cracker, Vermaelen introduced himself in the best way with a fantastic header.
Arshavin had a really good game, he is going to be a revelation in the EPL this season, such a fantastic footballing brain, combining well with van Persie and Eduardo upfront he's going to be Arsenal's main man I think.
It's not often that Everton get beat 6-1, and with games like these I always wonder, are Arsenal playing that well, are Everton playing terrible, or is it a mixture of the two, today, I think it was a mixture, Everton played some good football at times, just Arsenal were clinical and the Toffee's defending was awful at times.
A player that impressed me at the end of this season was Wigan's Hugo Rodallega, and I've been looking forward to see how he gets on this season, and today he launched a statement of intent, a wonder strike at Villa Park, he let the ball bounce and from the corner of the box lashed a wonderful shot over Brad Freidel, video coming if I can find it.
Also a great start for Mark Hughes and Man City, my one thought on this, What happens when everyone is fit and wants to play, I can see alot of unrest, apparently Richard Dunne was the Captain and played great, so where would Lescott go?
COCA-COLA CHAMPIONSHIP
One story from the Championship today, Freddie Sears on loan at Crystal Palace from West Ham, though he had scored his first goal for Palace slotting the ball past Bristol City's keeper, the ball hit the corner of the net, bounced back out and the referee waved the players to play on, NO GOAL, Palace boss Neil Warnock, went absolutely crazy.
Surely this is a call for either a video ref, videos in the goal or even a referee behind the net, Bristol City went on to win 1-0, I find it disgraceful that in 2009 cameras everywhere, things like this can still happen, and you can guarantee the English FA will do nothing.
LIGUE 1
Exciting 2nd week in France, a caught a stream near the end of the Sochaux v Bordeaux match ,just in time to see Charlie Davies score his debut goal for Sochaux this brought FCSM back into the match at 2-1, and after Chamakh scored his 2nd, Davies scored near the end, Great way to announce yourself to you new fans, although they didn't win, I'm sure the Sochaux fans will be excited by Davies goals, I know I am. Chamakh's double could also be his last goals in a Bordeaux shirt, I hope he doesn't go to Arsenal, I think he would fail as they have too many forwards already, a move to West Ham would work wonders I think, replace forgotten target man Dean Ashton, Marouane is one of the best headers of a ball in football just now and would do well in the EPL.
Lyon have struggled again, a 1-0 win against Valenciennes, How long does Puel have with performances like these, Gomis goal will have cheered the Lyon fans up both new strikers have scored, this was a massive goal for Gomis as he struggled last season, if he had went a few games without a goal it could have been a similar season, I hope this kicks off his scoring this season.
Hansds up how many people had Nancy top of Ligue 1 after 2 games, a great 4-0 win against Monaco, look forward to seeing the highlights.
SPL
Big wins for Celtic and Rangers today, Aiden McGeady scoring twice again Aberdeen, showing what he can do given more freedom by Tony Mowbary, this is going to be Aiden's big season, and if he performs well, possibly could be his last in the SPL, the Premiership will be calling.
Rangers got a scare at Ibrox, after going 1 up, Falkirk equalised, however Rangers went on to win 4-1 a good start for them at home, Kenny Miller got 2 goals, he needs a big scoring season, 10 in 30 games last season, not fantastic for an Old Firm striker.
St. Johnstone kicked off their SPL season with a point at home to Motherwell, this gets them off the board, and something to improve on, the big win of the day was for Kilmarnock a 3-0 win at home to Hamilton, this is the kind of result they needed to kick start the season, but the complete opposite effect on Hamilton.
GOOD DAY
So decided to write one now, and do a Sunday round-up on Monday night or Tuesday.
PREMIERSHIP
After the 3 o'clock games I watched Arsenal's game at Everton at Wow what a great start to the season, all the criticism Wenger has received, myself being one of the doubters, only 1 player in, Toure/Adebayor out, I liked Wengers lineup, playing Fabergas with Song and Denilson in the middle, what you lose out by not having a solid DM, you make up in numbers, not sure Bendtner works as a winger, Rosicky, Walcott or Nasri will surely play there more often, Arsenal played some fantastic football this evening, Denilson goal was a cracker, Vermaelen introduced himself in the best way with a fantastic header.
Arshavin had a really good game, he is going to be a revelation in the EPL this season, such a fantastic footballing brain, combining well with van Persie and Eduardo upfront he's going to be Arsenal's main man I think.
It's not often that Everton get beat 6-1, and with games like these I always wonder, are Arsenal playing that well, are Everton playing terrible, or is it a mixture of the two, today, I think it was a mixture, Everton played some good football at times, just Arsenal were clinical and the Toffee's defending was awful at times.
A player that impressed me at the end of this season was Wigan's Hugo Rodallega, and I've been looking forward to see how he gets on this season, and today he launched a statement of intent, a wonder strike at Villa Park, he let the ball bounce and from the corner of the box lashed a wonderful shot over Brad Freidel, video coming if I can find it.Also a great start for Mark Hughes and Man City, my one thought on this, What happens when everyone is fit and wants to play, I can see alot of unrest, apparently Richard Dunne was the Captain and played great, so where would Lescott go?
COCA-COLA CHAMPIONSHIP
One story from the Championship today, Freddie Sears on loan at Crystal Palace from West Ham, though he had scored his first goal for Palace slotting the ball past Bristol City's keeper, the ball hit the corner of the net, bounced back out and the referee waved the players to play on, NO GOAL, Palace boss Neil Warnock, went absolutely crazy.
Surely this is a call for either a video ref, videos in the goal or even a referee behind the net, Bristol City went on to win 1-0, I find it disgraceful that in 2009 cameras everywhere, things like this can still happen, and you can guarantee the English FA will do nothing.
LIGUE 1
Exciting 2nd week in France, a caught a stream near the end of the Sochaux v Bordeaux match ,just in time to see Charlie Davies score his debut goal for Sochaux this brought FCSM back into the match at 2-1, and after Chamakh scored his 2nd, Davies scored near the end, Great way to announce yourself to you new fans, although they didn't win, I'm sure the Sochaux fans will be excited by Davies goals, I know I am. Chamakh's double could also be his last goals in a Bordeaux shirt, I hope he doesn't go to Arsenal, I think he would fail as they have too many forwards already, a move to West Ham would work wonders I think, replace forgotten target man Dean Ashton, Marouane is one of the best headers of a ball in football just now and would do well in the EPL.
Lyon have struggled again, a 1-0 win against Valenciennes, How long does Puel have with performances like these, Gomis goal will have cheered the Lyon fans up both new strikers have scored, this was a massive goal for Gomis as he struggled last season, if he had went a few games without a goal it could have been a similar season, I hope this kicks off his scoring this season.Hansds up how many people had Nancy top of Ligue 1 after 2 games, a great 4-0 win against Monaco, look forward to seeing the highlights.
SPL
Big wins for Celtic and Rangers today, Aiden McGeady scoring twice again Aberdeen, showing what he can do given more freedom by Tony Mowbary, this is going to be Aiden's big season, and if he performs well, possibly could be his last in the SPL, the Premiership will be calling.Rangers got a scare at Ibrox, after going 1 up, Falkirk equalised, however Rangers went on to win 4-1 a good start for them at home, Kenny Miller got 2 goals, he needs a big scoring season, 10 in 30 games last season, not fantastic for an Old Firm striker.
St. Johnstone kicked off their SPL season with a point at home to Motherwell, this gets them off the board, and something to improve on, the big win of the day was for Kilmarnock a 3-0 win at home to Hamilton, this is the kind of result they needed to kick start the season, but the complete opposite effect on Hamilton.
GOOD DAY
- Arsenal - The criticism stops here
- Paul Alo'o Efoulou - 2 goals on his debut for Nancy
- Obafemi Martins - debut goal for Wolfsburg
- Ronald Koeman - after last weeks defeat AZ come back to win 6-0
- RC Lens - Win first home game back in Ligue 1
- People with Joelyn Lescott in your Fantasy Football Team
- Stuart Duff - Taken off after 38 minutes for Aberdeen after McGeady scores 2
- Neil Warnock - Losing 1-0 after your team scores a legitimate goal not allowed
- St-Etienne - 2 defeats in a row, not a lot of positives
- Aston Villa - after defeat to Wigan does the top 4 talk stop
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