European football leagues 2011 - 2012

The competitions, main, start this week. Quite a bit of English involvement, Celtic there by the skin of their teeth after their last opponents beat them only to be disqualified.

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
Apoel Nicosia v Zenit St Petersburg, GpG, 19:45
Barcelona v AC Milan, GpH, 19:45
Borussia Dortmund v Arsenal, GpF, 19:45
Chelsea v Bayer Leverkusen, GpE, 19:45
FC Porto v Shakhtar Donetsk, GpG, 19:45
Genk v Valencia, GpE, 19:45
Olympiakos v Marseille, GpF, 19:45
Plzen v BATE Borisov, GpH, 19:45
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
Ajax v Lyon, GpD, 19:45
Basle v SC Otelul Galati, GpC, 19:45
Benfica v Man Utd, GpC, 19:45
Dinamo Zagreb v Real Madrid, GpD, 19:45
Inter Milan v Trabzonspor, GpB, 19:45
Lille v CSKA Moscow, GpB, 19:45
Man City v Napoli, GpA, 19:45
Villarreal v Bayern Munich, GpA, 19:45
Thursday, 15 September 2011 Uefa Europa League
Athletic Bilbao OFF Paris SG, GpF, 18:00
Besiktas v Macc Tel-Aviv, GpE, 18:00
Dynamo Kiev v Stoke, GpE, 18:00
FC Copenhagen v Vorskla Poltava, GpB, 18:00
FC Zurich v Sporting, GpD, 18:00
Hannover 96 v Standard Liege, GpB, 18:00
Hapoel Tel-Aviv v Rapid Bucharest, GpC, 18:00
Lazio v FC Vaslui, GpD, 18:00
PAOK Salonika v Tottenham, GpA, 18:00
Paris SG v Red Bull Salzburg, GpF, 18:00
PSV Eindhoven v Legia Warsaw, GpC, 18:00
Red Bull Salzburg OFF Slovan Bratislava, GpF, 18:00
Shamrock Rovers v Rubin Kazan, GpA, 18:00
Slovan Bratislava v Athletic Bilbao, GpF, 18:00
Anderlecht v AEK Athens, GpL, 20:05
Atletico Madrid v Celtic, GpI, 20:05
Austria Vienna v FC Metalist Kharkiv , GpG, 20:05
AZ Alkmaar v Malmo, GpG, 20:05
Birmingham v Braga, GpH, 20:05
Club Bruges v NK Maribor, GpH, 20:05
Fulham v FC Twente, GpK, 20:05
Maccabi Haifa v AEK Larnaca, GpJ, 20:05
SK Sturm Graz v Lokomotiv Moscow, GpL, 20:05
Steaua Bucharest v Schalke 04, GpJ, 20:05
Udinese v Rennes, GpI, 20:05
Wisla Krakow v Odense BK, GpK, 20:05

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
Apoel Nicosia 2-1 Zenit St Petersburg
Barcelona 2-2 AC Milan
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen
FC Porto 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Genk 0-0 Valencia
Olympiakos 0-1 Marseille
Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov

Bit of a mixed bag for the two English teams competing last night - but I don't think either set of fans would have been too enthusiastic over their teams performance.

The Gunners went into a just before the break lead away in Germany, very much against the run of play. Arsene had to sit miles away from the bench in the stands without a phone in sight. He would have not been too pleased with what he saw in either half. Surprisingly his team were out passed & suffered a lack of possession against what is not exactly the best team in Germany. Much was made in the English press about the apparent lack of team spirit & togetherness - even down to the muted celebration by the side of the van Persie goal. I think all associated with the Gunners will be well pleased to get this first game out of the way, especially gaining a point away from home in Germany. Bad news for them was that Marseille beat the other group contenders Olympiakos in what is going to be a rather difficult group for them to qualify out of.

Chelsea got the result that they needed but I think all associated with the club will realise that the score line greatly flattered them. It could have been a very different night early on if different refereeing decisions had been made. 2 different decisions could have easily made Chelsea a goal & a player down before they eventually scored through a player, David Luiz, who probably should have not been on the pitch at the time.
Bayer are a very young side, except for ex-Chelsea star Ballack. While he remained on the pitch they looked a competent if defensive side where his skills stood out. I do not think that there was any co-incidence that they had held out until he was substituted.
The manager had rested a few players while playing a few that will probably not figure in this weekends' Premiership clash away to Man U. That did look a bit of a gamble until the goal. Chelsea have not exactly been fluent so far this season but, importantly, they have carried on winning. They still look like a side with players still trying to slot into the team & maybe style of play that the new manager wants. It will be interesting to see where, longer term, Torres fits into that. The other players seemed very supportive of him & he can claim that he had the vital assist for both goals, however both Sturridge & Mata provided far more in the time that they were both on the pitch. So it looks like the Spaniard still looks like an expensive waste of money, however, the good news is that others within the side are making sure it is not especially important to the side as a whole. It will be interesting to see what happens when a fit again Drogba is also back on the scene.

Of the other games played the shock result was Barca being held at home. It would seem that AC Milan were only actually in the game for the first 45 seconds & the second minute of extra time at the end, but that was enough to score 2 goals & take a point. The only issue for the rest of the group is that the other game (Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov) also ended in a draw so it is all still honours (& points) even. I don't expect the starting home draw to prevent the Spanish side from qualifying, but may bring them back down to earth a little....

Wednesday, 14 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
Ajax 0-0 Lyon
Basle 2-1 SC Otelul Galati
Benfica 1-1 Man Utd
Dinamo Zagreb 0-1 Real Madrid
Inter Milan 0-1 Trabzonspor
Lille 2-2 CSKA Moscow
Man City 1-1 Napoli | Report
Villarreal 0-2 Bayern Munich

Well it rather went from yesterdays' 'poor' for the London sides to 'very poor' for the Manchester brigade.

United, like Chelsea the day before, rather had their eye on the Sunday afternoon domestic clash between the pair. They put out an altered line up from the Premiership 11 who had started at such pace. Giggs, Valencia, Carrick, Park Ji-Sung & Fletcher all started & there was a change in goalkeeper. Of these players -
Lindegaard, the goalkeeper, had a good enough game & really could not be faulted for the goal while pulling off some nice saves
Giggs scored a great individual goal BUT his involvement apart from that was nothing to write home about
Valencia looked like a player that needs a match or two to get back to form. When he WAS used in the second half he creamed the fullback but didn't see enough of the ball.
Park was as enthusiastic as ever & ran the line tirelessly without ever seeing the ball
Fletcher had a poor game. As the defensive midfielder his job is to protect the defence & offer the 'out' ball to launch an attack. He did both jobs poorly.
Carrick was even worse. There as the 'man of passes' in midfield he could not even push the ball 3 yards without losing it. Too often in the past he has flattered to deceive - this was just a VERY poor performance.
Benfica are not a bad side & have a great record at home in this competition BUT the Manchester United on view in the Premiership so far this season would have crushed them like an insect. As it was Benfica can feel more than a little disappointed that they did not take all 3 points.
I still think United will win this group but this performance should have been a real wake up call to the manager. Happy that he was picking an inexperienced squad in the Premiership with last years' 'talent' still sitting on the bench waiting a call for the 'difficult' games he must have been gutted that the bench is, infact, pretty empty & long term injuries to any of his kids will give him real problems.
Chelsea must be praying that this side will be picked for Sunday - even though they are not yet not playing especially well they will destroy them. Sir A has the difficult job of re-installing some of the previous invincibility back into the side he selects, even he knows that this was just not good enough.

Citi were playing what most would consider the weakest side in their group, at home, so the draw will be looked at with disappointment. I'm not really surprised as Citi are still very much work in progress &, for some reason that I cannot fathom, these European games seem to require a different set of skills from doing well in the domestic division. Maybe they will have learned some valuable lessons from this game & can turn things around. Or maybe they just need the experience & will be more competitive next year. They remain in a very difficult group to qualify out of & a draw at home is not a good start but they have some extremely talented players at the club & anything is possible if they can just reach the knock out stages. I suspect that the Citi 'plan' is very much Premiership this year, competitive & a force in Europe next season.

Elsewhere there was a very nice away win for Madrid & a very poor home loss by Milan.
Tonight sees the chances for some very unfamiliar faces from British football to have a go in Europe. I wish them all well...

Thursday, 15 September 2011 Uefa Europa League
Anderlecht 4-1 AEK Athens
Atletico Madrid 2-0 Celtic
Austria Vienna 1-2 FC Metalist Kharkiv
AZ Alkmaar 4-1 Malmo
Besiktas 5-1 Macc Tel-Aviv
Birmingham 1-3 Braga
Club Bruges 2-0 NK Maribor
Dynamo Kiev 1-1 Stoke
FC Copenhagen 1-0 Vorskla Poltava
FC Zurich 0-2 Sporting
Hannover 96 0-0 Standard Liege
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 0-1 Rapid Bucharest
Lazio 2-2 FC Vaslui
Maccabi Haifa 1-0 AEK Larnaca
PAOK Salonika 0-0 Tottenham
Paris SG 3-1 Red Bull Salzburg
PSV Eindhoven 1-0 Legia Warsaw
Shamrock Rovers 0-3 Rubin Kazan
Slovan Bratislava 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Steaua Bucharest 0-0 Schalke 04
Udinese 2-1 Rennes

Celtic's re-instatement into the Europa competition did not go especially well as they were defeated 2-0 away in Spain.

Bad defeat at home for Birmingham against last years' finalists Braga.

Great display away from home for Stoke. They were seconds away from gaining a victory & so are probably a little down when they should be looking at the positives. With their enlarged squad & style of play I imagine that few will be wanting to meet them in this competition.

Point gained away for Spurs, which rather looked like what Harry was after - with the team he put out. It rather looks like Spurs are viewing this competition as a bit of an annoyance, rather than an opportunity.

Shamrock Rovers also found the challenge a hard going one. I suspect that this is a competition that they will want to learn from rather than expect to progress in...

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City
CSKA Moscow 2-3 Inter Milan
Lyon 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Man Utd 3-3 FC Basel
Napoli 2-0 Villarreal
Real Madrid 3-0 Ajax
SC Otelul Galati 0-1 Benfica
Trabzonspor 1-1 Lille
Wednesday, 28 September 2011 Uefa Champions League
AC Milan 2-0 Plzen
Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos
BATE Borisov 0-5 Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 Genk
Marseille 3-0 Borussia Dortmund
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-1 Apoel Nicosia
Valencia 1-1 Chelsea
Zenit St Petersburg 3-1 FC Porto

Poor day for Manchester on Tuesday, slightly better day for London last night.

The Bayern v Citi game had taken a great deal of press coverage before the game &, as it turned out, a great deal after. The before coverage was stemming from Bayern German press reports about how unfair it was to have clubs like Citi (with mega rich owners) in the European competition at all. There was much English press 'lash back' about how Bayern were fine ones to talk as in Germany they wielded their financial weight like no other club anywhere in Europe. The match saw Bayern comfortably win as Citi still struggle to get a group of newly acquainted players to play in rather a different style in Europe than England. The result was rather overshadowed in the Wednesday press by the 'Tevez affair'. The crux of this is that the management team told him to warm up to go on as a substitute & he said no. He, now, says that it was a misunderstanding & that he meant that he did not need to warm up as he was ready to go on immediately....Yeah... Mancini said, Wednesday, that he will never play for Citi again...That seems to now have been modified as has currently been suspended by them for 2 weeks & there is talk about sacking him. It is difficult to know where Citi go with this one. Their financial resources mean that they could take the hit of sacking, but is it the best option to let him out onto the market as a free agent....When he wants to play he is an outstanding striker, but his English excursions with West Ham, United & now Citi have all ended with a very bad taste in the clubs' mouth.

Thankfully, or maybe not, the Citi events took the focus off just what a poor night United had in the competition. They were 2 nil up at half time in a scoreline that hugely flattered them. It could have been 2 - 4 if the Basel forwards had had their shooting boots on. Uniteds' defence was poor to non-existent yet, possibly because he felt he had no other options available, they did not improve after the interval. The Basel strikers found their feet after the break & going into the last few minutes United were trailing by 3-2. They managed to equalise at the death in typical United fashion but that should not divert attention to just how frail their defence looked. I know that they have a raft of defensive injuries, but, I personally place much of their woes at the feet of their defensive midfielder. On Tuesday night that was Carrick & I thought that he had a shocker. Apart from the fact that I cannot remember him making one tackle (& certainly not one that helped out the back 4) his distribution & outlet pass for the defence was also non-existent.

Arsenal really needed a good result & got one. Olympiakos away from home are pretty poor opposition but you can only beat what is infront of you. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored again & is proving to be a great buy. I rather suspect that when he was purchased he was looked at as being a player for maybe next year, or the year after, but he has grabbed his chance with both hands. The side will be a little disappointed that after going 2 nil up that they could not then either capitalise or at least run the game out. To concede after 27 minutes was probably disappointing, even if they did not have many real scares about the Greeks equalising. The 3 points was all important here in a group that is starting to look a little more difficult to qualify out of.

The Chelsea v Valencia was a great match to watch with a lot of skill on display. I am not sure that the Chelsea team have really 'got' what Andre Villas-Boas wants of them, but, whatever it is, it is not a deliberate handball in your own penalty area to give the opposition a goal. Make no mistake Valencia are a very good side with some very good players. Sadly being the 3rd. side in Spain & restricted by a huge debt means that players go elsewhere all too often. I am sure that they could have fielded a full side from all the high profile players who have left them to join other clubs over the last couple of season. If United thought that they had boughtthe best goalkeeper in Spain then they should have had a look at Diego Alves - who had a great game between the sticks... Maybe a disappointing result for Chelsea (although I am not so sure, win your home games & draw your away ones & you will go through pretty easily) but a great performance, away, against a very good side.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 Uefa Champions League
CSKA Moscow 3-0 Trabzonspor
Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 Ajax
FC Basel 0-2 Benfica
Lille 0-1 Inter Milan
Man City 2-1 Villarreal
Napoli 1-1 Bayern Munich
Real Madrid 4-0 Lyon
SC Otelul Galati 0-2 Man Utd

Citi left it oh so late to win this one. This time an Argentinian striker was happy & eager to come off the bench. Sure enough, it was Aguero who finally netted as well. This was a game that they really needed to win after their first two outing were rather poor. It was helped greatly though when Napoli pulled off a real shock & managed to hold Bayern Munich to a 1 all draw. Citi are now just 1 point behind the second placed Italian side in what is really a hard, hard group.

United got the result, but not the performance, that they needed. Rooney struck twice from the spot in the second half as Vidic was shown a straight red with half an hour to go...After a lightening start to the season United are starting to look exceeding ordinary. They & Citi play in a top of the table clash on Sunday. On this form Citi will walk away with the points!!!

Chelsea have what should be a nice run out at home against Gent tonight.
Arsenal have what, at the start of the season, would have looked a difficult away game at Marseille. As it is both sides have started their domestic season pretty dismally so while it is still difficult to predict the winner that is probably now for a completely different reason...
Good luck to both the London sides tonight...

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 Uefa Champions League
AC Milan 2-0 BATE Borisov
Barcelona 2-0 Plzen
Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Valencia
Chelsea 5-0 Genk
FC Porto 1-1 Apoel Nicosia
Marseille 0-1 Arsenal
Olympiakos 3-1 Borussia Dortmund
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-2 Zenit St Petersburg

As Chelsea were 2 up after barely 10 minutes it was rather a question of how many they would win by from very early on. All plus points for Chelsea as Torres managed to grab a couple as well. A very easy nights' work.

Not so easy for the Gunners though. In fairness there only ever looked like one side would win this contest from very early on as Marseille played like a point would be considered a huge result for them. Arsenal could not score until nearly the very last kick of the match though to make it a nail biting night for their fans. Not a fantastic performance by them, but they were away & it was a win so I imagine that much will satisfy.

Club Bruges v Birmingham, Rennes v Celtic, Wisla Krakow v Fulham, Stoke v Macc Tel-Aviv & Tottenham v Rubin Kazan tonight, with Shamrock Rovers away at PAOK Salonika. Good luck to all those teams as well...

Thursday, 20 October 2011 Uefa Europa League
AEK Larnaca 0-5 Schalke 04
Athletic Bilbao 2-2 Red Bull Salzburg
AZ Alkmaar 2-2 Austria Vienna
Club Brugge 1-2 Birmingham
Dynamo Kiev 1-0 Besiktas
FC Zurich 1-1 Lazio
Hannover 96 2-2 FC Copenhagen
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 0-1 PSV Eindhoven
Lokomotiv Moscow 3-1 AEK Athens
Maccabi Haifa 5-0 Steaua Bucharest
Malmo 1-4 FC Metalist Kharkiv
NK Maribor 1-1 Braga
Odense BK 1-4 FC Twente
PAOK Salonika 2-1 Shamrock Rovers
Rapid Bucharest 0-1 Legia Warsaw
Rennes 1-1 Celtic
SK Sturm Graz 0-2 Anderlecht
Slovan Bratislava 0-0 Paris SG
Sporting 2-0 FC Vaslui
Standard Liege 0-0 Vorskla Poltava
Stoke 3-0 Macc Tel-Aviv
Tottenham 1-0 Rubin Kazan
Udinese 2-0 Atletico Madrid
Wisla Krakow 1-0 Fulham

Great result by Birmingham as Club Brugge have an enviable home record in the European competition. Brum now top the table on points with the Belgian side...

Looks all over for Shamrocks' first foray into Europe as they lose their 3rd. game to remain pointless. It will have generated some cash for the club & been a useful learning experience for the future as well though.

Celtic gave away just about the worst own goal that will ever been seen in any football competition - talk about school boy error!! They did manage to get one in the right net at the end though. They are at the bottom of Table I jointly, on 2 points, with Rennes. Looks like another Scottish year of disaster in Europe...

This seasons' Stoke story continues. The saw off the geographically anomaly of Europe that is Maccabi Tel-Aviv. They saw them off with 3 first half goals with ease. Even getting Jerome sent off just on half time made no difference to the result. I think that Tony Pullis just might be starting to fancy his teams' chances in this competition..

The Spurs squad had a strange look to it as Harry was not willing to risk both his remaining fit central defenders on one European match. Rubin are a Russian team who have had some money spent on the squad & have the distinction of actually defeating Barcelona in a European match, so are not to be taken lightly. A good result for Spurs which sees them top the table. At the end Harry suggested that it will now be 'boys' playing for him in the return leg in Russia as he feels the travel distance rather negates playing a Premiership match game on the weekend as well..

The Fulham match will be remembered for a disgraceful piece of play acting by Gervasio Nunez of Wisla Krakow resulted in the sending off of Moussa Dembele. Dembele was wholly wrong to push the opposing player on the shoulder. However his reaction to go down clutching his face was appalling. Hopefully he will face a massive ban, but I doubt it & it will not change the result which looked like having draw all over it before the dismissal.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011 Uefa Champions League
Apoel Nicosia 2-1 FC Porto
Arsenal 0-0 Marseille
BATE Borisov 1-1 AC Milan
Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Olympiakos
Genk 1-1 Chelsea
Plzen 0-4 Barcelona
Valencia 3-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Zenit St Petersburg 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk

For the first time neither of the London clubs had great results from last nights' games, not disastrous, but a little disappointing given that Arsenal were at home & Chelsea were playing the bottom side in the group who only managed 1 goal in 3 games in the competition before this game.
The results were not too worrying for either side though as they both sit comfortably top of their tables.
Second placed Bayer Leverkusen losing away at Valencia gave support to Chelsea & hope to Valencia that they may just qualify in second place themselves.
As Arsenal were 1 point clear of second placed Marseille going into the game that remains the same. Third placed Olympiakos could have put some pressure on the top two but ended up losing to Borussia Dortmund & so now occupy last place.
In other games, another easy win for Barca means that they qualify already for the next stage. In the same group second placed AC Milan could only manage an away draw at BATE Borisov but that was also enough to let them qualify in what has proved to be an easy group for the top two.
FC Porto's loss at Apoel Nicosia means that they are in real danger of going out of the competition. Rather surprisingly Apoel Nicosia now top the group from Zenit St Petersburg.

Another round of games tonight for the Manchester contingent, who have both been rather lack luster in the competition so far. A win is really essential for both tonight.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011 Uefa Champions League
Ajax 4-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Bayern Munich 3-2 Napoli
Benfica 1-1 FC Basel
Inter Milan 2-1 Lille
Lyon 0-2 Real Madrid
Man Utd 2-0 Otelul Galati
Trabzonspor 0-0 CSKA Moscow
Villarreal 0-3 Man City

Well certainly better results for the Manchester sides in the competition last night, as it needed to be.

United fielded Owen, Berbatov & Rooney, with the latter being in a midfield creative role. It says something about the lack of the availability of that type of player to United that the experiment had to be tried.
The success of the trial was varied.
Owen limped off injured after only 10 minutes but the experiment continued as Chico replaced him. Owen had started off looking lively & trying to impress, so it was a pity that he had to be replaced. Chico had a quiet game by his standards but has really not had any time to develop a front partnership with Berbatov as Rooney or Welbeck has been the other man for him.
Berbatov had a poor evening. I know that I am not his biggest fan, but he rather demonstrated why. Flashes of brilliant touches are accompanied far too often with 99% of a game showing a seeming disinterest in putting any effort into his work.
Rooney was man of the match. Played the position well with his normal enthusiasm & effort as well as playing 90% of the penetrating passes on offer during the game. I am not sure that proves much except that he is versatile & would probably play in goal if that was the only positioned offered to him. However, with his scoring ability, it does seem to me rather a waste of talent.
Overall United were poor. Passes went astray all night & between the opening goal, 10 minutes into the game, & the second goal, 10 minutes before the end, the opposition had real chances to equalize. Considering that the Romanian side are probably the weakest side in the entire competition, the United display was pretty poor.
Fortunately for them though top of the table Benfica could only draw & so United go top on goal difference.
The next game pits United at home against Benfica while third placed Basel have the easy game against Otelul Galati.

At last Citi managed to produce the sort of form in Europe that they have shown in the Premiership. Admittedly it was against bottom of the table Villarreal but that does not matter as they now stand a good chance of qualifying. They do face two hard matches (away to Napoli & home to Bayern) but at least the result is in their hands.
The team of the group are Bayern though. Gomez has been their star, scoring a ridiculous number of Champion leaague goals for them - something like 17 in 10 games. To think that a year ago there were rumours about him moving to Liverpool as he could not hold down a place in the Bayern team.

Elsewhere...
Inter Milan win & qualify despite fielding the oldest team ever to start a Champions' League match with 8 of the players over 30 years old...
Real Madrid do similar, but with that man Ronaldo scoring twice to maintain their perfect start.

Thursday, 3 November 2011 Uefa Europa League
AEK Athens 1-3 Lokomotiv Moscow
Anderlecht 3-0 Sturm Graz
Atletico Madrid 4-0 Udinese
Austria Vienna 2-2 AZ Alkmaar
Besiktas 1-0 Dynamo Kiev
Birmingham 2-2 Club Brugge
Braga 5-1 NK Maribor
Celtic 3-1 Rennes
FC Copenhagen 1-2 Hannover 96
FC Metalist Kharkiv 3-1 Malmo
FC Twente 3-2 Odense BK
FC Vaslui 1-0 Sporting
Fulham 4-1 Wisla Krakow
Lazio 1-0 FC Zurich
Legia Warsaw 3-1 Rapid Bucharest
Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke
Paris SG 1-0 Slovan Bratislava
PSV Eindhoven 3-3 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Red Bull Salzburg 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Rubin Kazan 1-0 Tottenham
Schalke 04 0-0 AEK Larnaca
Shamrock Rovers 1-3 PAOK Salonika
Steaua Bucharest 4-2 Maccabi Haifa
Vorskla Poltava 1-3 Standard Liege

Pretty good set of results overall...
Brum were 2 nil down at half time but looked a different team after the break & were well worth the point. However 3 team are now on 7 points each in their table so still much to do to qualify,

Celtic at last managed a win, however it was against bottom the last team in the group. They are now 3rd. & still have a lot to do to qualify.

Fulham are now second & them & top placed FC Twente look pretty sure to qualify.

Great away win for Stoke & they top the group by 4 points now...

Spurs are now 3rd. on equal points with Rubin Kazan & 1 point behind leaders PAOK Salonika after taking a rather weakened team to Russia. Goalkeeper Cudicini had an inspired night in what could have been an embarrassing night without him. Spurs rarely had a foothold in the game.
In the same table Shamrock remain 4th. & pointless...

Tuesday, 22 November 2011 Uefa Champions League
Bayern Munich 3-1 Villarreal
CSKA Moscow 0-2 Lille
Lyon 0-0 Ajax
Man Utd 2-2 Benfica
Napoli 2-1 Man City
Otelul Galati 2-3 FC Basel
Real Madrid 6-2 Dinamo Zagreb
Trabzonspor 1-1 Inter Milan

Not exactly a wonderful night for Manchester in Europe last night...
With Rooney absent Berbatov couldn't make a name for himself despite been given opportunities to win it for United. A draw was probably a fair reflection on the game. United now need a point in their last game, a difficult away game to third placed FC Basel. Benfica now look favourites to win the group as they are level on points with United but have a last home game against pointless Otelul Galati.

It went even worse for Citi who were desperate for a result away at Napoli. At the weekend it is reported that Mancini said that his side are now as good as Barcelona. They clearly are not. While they may have bought themselves a Premier League title this season they are still way off the pace in Europe.
They are now 1 point behind Napoli in third place & so face the daunting task of beating unbeaten Bayern Munich in their last game while hoping that Napoli cannot do the same away to pointless Villarreal. A hard task & also out of their hands to qualify for the knock out stages.

Inter Milan will win Group A, despite only drawing away last night. It is still anyone for second place in that group with only 1 point separating the other 3 sides.

Real Madrid roll on majestically to win Group D after thrashing bottom side Dinamo Zagreb. Ajax must be favourites for the second spot, despite having their last game at home against Madrid. Their draw away at Lyon means that they have a 3 point & goal difference advantage over the French side.

London's turn tonight, with Arsenal (home) & Chelsea (away) both face German opposition tonight with both on the brink of qualifying. Good luck to both.