European Football 2009/2010 Season

Group E
Fiorentina beat Pool 2-1 at Anfield.
Lyon hammer Debrecen 4-0 to finish second.
Liverpool limp into Europa cup.
I always thought this would be a group that Pool would have to be at their best to win, they were far from that.
Group F
The 2 heavy weights end up showing their class and go through.
Barca go through after winning in Kiev 2-1.
Milan ease through 2-0 at home.
Rubin Kazan make the Europa.
Group G
Sevilla had the fortune to be facing Rangers at home & so won the group 1-0.
Stuttgart under coach Christian Gross (come on Spurs ) clinch second by scoring 3 in the first 11 minutes.
Unirea Urzicen make the Europa.
Rangers manage only 2 draws in a hugely disappointing campaign.
Group H
Arsenal put out a team of children who happened to be in Greece at the time & so lost 1-0, although they did have chances. They were already winners & Olympiakos were all ready second so it was a result that had no consequence.
Standard Liege and AZ Alk had a separate battle for a 'winner takes Europa spot'. A 1-1 draw meant Liege won the battle. Their goalie securing it with a GOAL -to become the first ever keeper to manage that feat from open play in the Champion League.

Well here are the draws...

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16 DRAW
Inter Milan v CHELSEA
Lyon v Real Madrid
AC Milan v MANCHESTER UNITED
Olympiakos v Bordeaux
FC Porto v ARSENAL
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla
Stuttgart v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
First legs to be played 16/17 or 23/24 Feb, second legs 9/10 or 16/16 March

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 32 DRAW
Rubin Kazan v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht
FC Copenhagen v Marseille
Panathinaikos v Roma
Atletico Madrid v Galatasaray
Ajax v Juventus
Club Brugge v Valencia
FULHAM v Shakhtar Donetsk
LIVERPOOL v Unirea Urziceni
Hamburg v PSV
Villarreal v VfL Wolfsburg
Standard Liege v SV Red Bull Salzburg
FC Twente v Werder Bremen
Lille v Fenerbahce
EVERTON v Sporting
Hertha Berlin v Benfica
Ties to be played 18/25 February

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 16 DRAW
Hamburg/PSV v Athletic Bilbao/Anderlecht
Rubin Kazan/Hapoel Tel Aviv v Villarreal/Wolfsburg
Atletico Madrid/Galatasaray v EVERTON/Sporting
Hertha Berlin/Benfica v FC Copenhagen/Marseille
Panathinaikos/Roma v Standard Liege/Salzburg
Lille/Fenerbahce v LIVERPOOL/Unirea
Ajax/Juventus v Fulham/Shakhtar Donetsk
Club Brugge/Valencia v FC Twente/Werder Bremen
Ties to be played 11/18 March

The "special one" back at Chelski .. Now we will see if it was money or skill...
United a pretty easy draw at AC Milan- if they were half the team they were Can see them exiting.
Arsenal should be delighted at Porto & I can certainly see them going through.
All in all I think all 3 could have had easier opponents..
Better news for all 3 in the Europa.
Pool, Everton & Fulham all stand a real chance not only against their next opponents, but also against any of the teams they face in the last 16...Although Fulham (especially) could have had a less daunting last 16 game..

FC Porto 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal conceded two of the oddest goals I will probably see this season, in 1 game!! First was an innocuous cross into the box that somehow completed wrong footed keeper Fabianski who managed to push it into the net. A Sunday league keeper would have been embarrassed by it & probably gone straight home after the match to avoid his mates comments. Another oddity then as Campbell headed in a corner to equalize. Finally Campbell was then adjudged to be the villain & a back pass to the keeper given. While Campbell was arguing & the keeper retracing his steps quick witted Porto took the free kick & scored a simple goal. Arsenal will feel cheated, if (& it is a very big if) Campbell even touched the ball it was to direct it towards the oncoming keeper & added direction rather than pace. However, Arsenal had their chances & Porto were saved on a few occasions by some brilliant keeping.
The stats of this match suggest that Arsenal will stroll past Porto at home. The bizarre nature of the win suggests that Porto have something other than football on their side....

Bayern Munich 2-1 Fiorentina
I gather this also had more than a touch controversy as Munich's winner was scored by Klose against a then 10 man Fiorentina when even his mum would have flagged him for off side.
Sorry about the scant details & less than enthusiastic report on this one. I am afraid that an Italian team against a German team hardly fills me with the expectations of a feast of football, or a great deal of interest in the winner...

Chelsea do not play until next Wednesday - these games seem a little dragged out this year - I guess it gives more opportunity for extra 'live' games on TV though!! Good luck to them then.

Pool & Fulham play at home in the Europa cup. Both will be expecting good wins against minor opposition, least they will be minor unless they get a bad result at home. Good luck to both of them in scoring plenty & conceding none.

A satisfactory night for the English teams last night in the Europa, but hardly brilliant.
Fulham 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Bobby Zamora enhanced his England world cup chances by scoring a cracking goal to win this for Fulham. The Cottagers scored an early goal but then for long periods it was the Ukrainians dominated & scored an equalizer. It will certainly not be an easy second leg & Fulham will have to be at their best to go through. I was a little unfair to Shakhtar Donetsk, calling them "minor" as they actually won the competition last year They are certainly an attractive footballing side & I doubt they will fear many sides outplaying them on this form.
Liverpool 1-0 Unirea Urziceni
Pool waited to 81st. minute to get a result out of this. In fairness the Romianian side looked like they had come thinking 0-0 was as good as a win. Pool have not been especially good at breaking down sides who are happy just not to lose this season, & so it proved again. I don't think the second leg shoulld create too many difficulties to Pool & they should go through pretty easily unless they press the self destruct button.
Juventus & Marseille both won away from home & look like the class acts remaining in the competition. Roma went down 3-2 away to Panathinaikos & will probably be confident of going through as well...

Couple of European matches played last night - though none involving British clubs.
Olympiakos 0-1 Bordeaux
The French champions will be delighted with this result, Scoring 1 away from home & conceding none must have been all they were hoping for. This is probably turning out to be the best European competition for French sides for quite some time. It was not a one sided contest & Olympiakos had chances to equalise but, equally, Bordeaux could have easily won it 2-0. Laurent Blanc has slipped easily into management. I would be surprised if they did not progress to the next stage from this position.
Stuttgart 1-1 Barcelona
The score does not tell the whole story on this one. For the majority of the first half & periods in the second half Barca were totally outplayed by Stuttgard. However they earned a draw & will probably just put it down to a bad day at the office. I am sure that they expect to win the home leg comfortably. I think Stuttgard had their chances & probably fluffed it. They need to win in Barcelona (or draw scoring 2 goals or more) & I think they will probably be destroyed on the break.

Tonight
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla,
Inter Milan v Chelsea,
Good luck to Chelsea. I guess most of them will be happy to get down to football again after the affairs (pun intended) of the last couple of weeks. A win or draw away at the special one's new club would be a fantastic result for them & put some of Mourinho's comments about his former club back down his throat!!

Inter Milan 2 - 1 Chelsea
I guess both sides will be reasonably content with this result.
Inter have a win at home & the lead going into the second leg. They will be disappointed that they let Chelsea score.
Chelsea will feel to win at home is certainly something that they can do. They wil be disappointed that they did not manage to squeeze a draw out of it.
The second leg should be interesting. In theory Inter only have to ensure that Chelsea do not score in order to progress. However, Mourinho has never been one to put out a especially defensive side. All his teams have been very reliable defensively, but scoring goals has usually been the name of the game. It will be interesting to see if a spell in Italy has changed those ideas..
From a neutrals' viewpoint (even if I would have preferred a Chelsea win, they are not my team, so it is not life & death ) it was an entertaining game. Inter probably just about deserved to win it, although Chelsea could rightly claim that on another day and with a sympathetic referee, they would have won it & so maybe a draw would have been fair.
Nicely poised for the second leg. An early Chelsea goal should make it a cracking game to watch!!
CSKA Moscow 1-1 Sevilla
Even stevens after the first leg. With Sevilla scoring an away goal the advantage is certainly in their court.
Moscow were playing their first competitive game since December (when the league ended) so really did not have much running in their favour. They probably should have won this one except for the ring rust.
I can see Sevilla easing through to the next stage. Many Spanish observers see them as the dark horses of Spanish football in Europe with a serious shout at winning this competition this year. If they get through then I guess 'luck of the draw' will take over, although there will be no easy sides to pick!!

Good luck to Liverpool & Fulham tonight. They both play their second round Europa Cup ties away from home tonight - both are 1 goal to the good after the first home leg..

Oops, sorry to Everton fans (747) I didn't see that they were playing....& they drop out of the Cup.
Sporting 3-0 Everton] (agg 4-2)
From all accounts the result was a pretty fair reflection of the game. Everton were outclassed by Sporting for long periods of the game &, although they had chances, never really looked like scoring. At home Everton had conceded a late goal to give them only the 1 goal advantage going into this one. With a 2 goal lead maybe Everton would have been more relaxed & Sporting a little more desperate & unsure.
A little ironic really. For most of the season Everton have had a torrid time in the league & have progressed well in this competition. Now they are starting to put some great results together in the league & fall (really without much of a whimper) to a Sporting side who do not normally set much of a challenge to Premier sides over two legs.
Everton are now left to play out the rest of the season with nothing to play for. Once again their early season form in the league was dreadful. They have been improvements since, but they ended last season playing well too.
Moyes must find another routine for the closed season if they are going to seriously challenge for anything & not just play catch up to everyone else.
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-1 Fulham (agg 2-3)
Fantastic result by Fulham. This knocks out the holders (although it was called the UEFA Cup then). Shakhtar are a pretty, passing team with no less than 5 Brazilian players in the line up. Quite what they think of the freezing conditions they suffer through the winter I do not know, they can still pass & run!! Hodgson will be well aware that it was Fulham's willingness to battle (& possibly Shakhtar lack of competitive matches) that won them through.
Murphy was sent off near the end (not the first time, nor the last I suspect, that will be said ) but still a great night for them.
Next up is the mighty Juventus - if they can't fill the ground for that one then they never will.
This is the first time in Fulhum's long history that they have reached this stage of an European competition. Hodgson has built a competent team, the players look comfortable playing to their strengths & not trying to do something that is foreign to them. Gera, Murphy & Duff make a more than competent & combative midfield & Zamora has often flattered to deceive in the past but seem to be finding some sort of form in this side.
Unirea Urziceni 1-3 Liverpool (agg 1-4)
Pool do in Romania what they should have done at home against pretty ordinary opposition. Really a bit of a stroll in the park once they woke up after conceding a very sloppy goal to allow Unirea to tie it early on.
A win is a win & they now face Lille in the next round, which will be all that worries the fans. In fact not really too much to be joyful about. Liverpool still looked pretty ordinary & the goal showed how bad their defence can be this season. Lille are 3rd. in the French League, so are still having a fairly good season again, but a Liverpool playing to its full potential should brush them aside. However, Pool have rarely played to any of their potential this year so far. I am sure that The Spanish Waiter is well aware that a Europa Cup win would probably save his job - I am just not sure how much he wants to save it with the current money (or lack of) men in charge.

The other results:
Anderlecht 4-0 Athletic Bilbao (agg 5-1)
Fenerbahce 1-1 Lille (agg 2-3)
Galatasaray 1-2 Atletico Madrid (agg 2-3)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 0-0 Rubin Kazan (agg 0-3)
Juventus 0-0 Ajax (agg 2-1)
Marseille 3-1 FC Copenhagen (agg 6-2)
PSV 3-2 Hamburg (agg 3-3)
Roma 2-3 Panathinaikos (agg 4-6)
SV Red Bull Salzburg 0-0 Standard Liege (agg 2-3)
Valencia 3-0 Club Brugge (agg 3-1) (After Extra Time)
Werder Bremen 4-1 FC Twente (agg 4-2)
Wolfsburg 4-1 Villarreal (agg 6-3)

No huge surprises I think &, like every year, still some quality sides in the competition.

Arsenal 5 - 0 FC Porto (agg 6 - 2)
Well this looked like it was going to be a tough workout for Arsenal - even though they had that vital away goal.
No van Persie & no Fabregas made the attacking options look a little limited as well. After a nightmare in front of goal in the last game to Burnley, Bendtner made the headline with a hat trick. In fairness Arshavin was probably the better forward and although he did not get on the score sheet he was involved in everything good for Arsenal.
Arsenal were in front after scoring after 10 minutes & really never looked back.
In the end a very comfortable win. To score 5 goals with no reply is a great result at any stage of the Champions League, let alone the later stages.

Fiorentina 3 - 2 Bayern Munich (agg 4 - 4)
Bayern win this one (eventually) on the away goal rule.
In a game where Fiorentina were always in front from half an hour in Bayern (through Chelsea former favourite Arjen Robben) scored their second after 65 minutes to squeeze through by the tightest of margins. Bayern are a team who are well used to scoring on the road, they now have the amazing record of scoring in 18 of their last 19 Champions League away matches!!

Another couple of juicy ties tonight!!

Man Utd v AC Milan, (agg 3-2), R1, L2, 19:45
Real Madrid v Lyon, (agg 0-1), R1, L2, 19:45