European Club Football 2010/2011 season

[BobHelm]

The title is to separate it from the National European qualifiers that will also be on later.

The Premiership has not even started yet but Celtic have already managed to disappoint its fans on the European front this season. To say that they do not have a good recent record in Europe is a little of an understatement but I think to exit after their first qualifier is a bit of a new low.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 879233.stm
The won 2-1 at home last night but went out 4-2 on aggregate to that Portuguese giant of European football, Braga -
They now get a second bite at European football as they will enter the qualifier stage of the Europa League - which is possibly more than they deserve. The Blue side of Glasgow must be looking forward to another walkover this season!!

[Zidane]

The Europa League is currently at the third qualifying round stage with the smaller British and Irish clubs hoping to get in amongst the big teams in the competition.
Hoping to join Celtic are the likes of Motherwell,Hibernian,Shamrock Rovers,Bangor City and Liverpool.
Liverpool should be fine after winning their first leg tie away at Rabotnicki of Macedonia 2-0....Motherwell got a useful 1-1 draw at Aalesund in Norway but Bangor City need to score early ( 4 in the first 10 minutes) to stand a chance after losing the first leg 8-2 !

[BobHelm]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE & EUROPA LEAGUE PLAY-OFF DRAWS
Venue: Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland Date: Friday 6 August
Times: 1100 BST [Champions League] & 1230 BST [Europa League]
Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website; regular updates on BBC Radio 5 live; live TV coverage on Eurosport; streamed live on uefa.com
Inter Milan captain Javier Zanetti with the European Champions League trophy
Inter Milan's Javier Zanetti with the European Champions League trophy

Tottenham will discover their Champions League play-off opponents on Friday as other British clubs find out who they play in the Europa League play-offs.

Spurs could face any of Dynamo Kiev, Portugal's Braga, Sampdoria, Auxerre, or Young Boys from Switzerland for a coveted place in the group stages.

Manchester City, Aston Villa, Dundee United, Celtic and TNS are in the draw for the Europa League play-offs.

Liverpool and Motherwell join them after winning their ties on Thursday.

Roy Hodgson's side won 2-0 at Anfield over Macedonia's Rabotnicki to complete a comfortable 4-0 aggregate win, while Motherwell enjoyed an impressive 3-0 home win over Norway's Aalesunds to seal a 4-1 aggregate success.

Celtic dropped into the qualifiers for the Europa League after failing to make the Champions League play-offs following an aggregate defeat over two legs to Braga in a third round qualifying tie.

As with the Champions League, victory over two legs in the Europa League play-offs means entrance into the competition's group stages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 888791.stm

Did not really improve for Bangor Zid....

Bangor City 1-2 Maritimo (3-10)

[Zidane]

In the Champions League final qualifying round Spurs have been drawn against Young Boys of Berne from Switzerland.
On the face of it not too bad a draw but the Swiss won at Fenerbache in Turkey in the last round so cant be taken lightly.

In the Europa League draw Liverpool face a potentially tricky tie against Trabonspor from northern Turkey.
Other ties.....
Celtic v Utrecht
Dundee United v AEK Athens
Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa
CSKA Sofia v TNS (Wales)
Odense v Motherwell
FC Timisoara (Romania) v Manchester City

[BobHelm]

Uefa Champions League Qualifying
Tottenham 4-0 Young Boys (agg 6-3)
Great result by Spurs - who had been 3-0 down after half an hour in the first leg. My favourite English forward (well after Heskey) Peter Crouch hit a hat trick

Uefa Europa League Qualifying
AEK Athens 1-1 Dundee Utd (agg 2-1)
Aston Villa 2-3 Rapid Vienna (agg 3-4)
FC Utrecht 4-0 Celtic (agg 4-2)
Man City 2-0 FC Timisoara (agg 3-0)
Motherwell 0-1 Odense BK (agg 1-3)
Trabzonspor 1-2 Liverpool (agg 1-3)

Pretty poor show except for Pool & Citi.
Villa & Celtic especially so. Vienna possibly lucky to meet a manager-less Villa Celtic getting yet another away from home thrashing in Europe!!!!

[BobHelm]

Liverpool and Man City given tough Europa League draw

Group A
Juventus
Manchester City
Salzburg
Lech Poznan

Group B
Atletico Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen
Rosenburg
Thessaloniki

Group C
Sporting
Lille
Levski Sofia
Gent

Group D
Villarreal
Club Brugge
Dinamo Zagreb
PAOK

Group E
Alkmaar
Dinamo Kiev
BATE Borisov
FC Sheriff

Group F
CSKA Moscow
Palermo
Sparta Prague
Lausanne

Group G
Zenit St Petersburg
Anderlecht
AEK Athens
Hajduk Split

Group H
Stuttgart
Getafe
Odense
Young Boys

Group I
PSV Eindhoven
Sampdoria
FC Metalist Kharkiv
Debreceni

Group J
Sevilla
PSG
Borussia Dortmund
Karpaty Lviv

Group K
Liverpool
Steaua Bucharest
Napoli
Utrecht

Group L
Porto
Besiktas
CSKA Sofia
Rapid Vienna

Top 2 in each group progress.

[BobHelm]

Champions' League Draw

1 FC Twente
2 Inter Milan
3 Tottenham
4 Werder Bremen

1 Bursaspor
2 Man Utd
3 Rangers
4 Valencia

1 Chelsea
2 MSK Zilina
3 Marseille
4 Spartak Moscow

1 Arsenal
2 Braga
3 Partizan Belgrade
4 Shakhtar Donetsk

Spurs probably have the short end of the stick, but, all in all, not a bad draw for the English clubs.

Group of death!!

1 AC Milan
2 Ajax
3 Auxerre /
4 Real Madrid

[BobHelm]

Tuesday, 14 September 2010 Uefa Champions League
Barcelona 5-1 Panathinaikos
Benfica 2-0 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Bursaspor 0-4 Valencia
FC Copenhagen 1-0 Rubin Kazan
FC Twente 2-2 Inter Milan
Lyon 1-0 Schalke 04
Man Utd 0-0 Rangers
Werder Bremen 2-2 Tottenham

Not a good start by United, but Rangers will be very pleased. Valencia's easy away win means that they top the group.
Great Spurs away draw in an exciting game. With Milan only managing an away draw as well - all 4 in the group on 1 point.

The rest, as expected with Barca handing out a home thrashing....

[DermotC]

United very very dissapointing last night Bob! Rangers came with a game plan, 11 players behind the ball and stuck to it. It made for an awful match to watch. United should have been able to break them down but couldnt!

I fear for United now with Valencia out for probably the rest of the Season. Most of Rooneys service comes from him and there really isnt anyone else that can play like him in that position. Rooney was pathetic last night. He looked like he did for England during the World Cup, giving the ball away etc. He looks like a shadow of his former self.

[BobHelm]

Wednesday, 15 September 2010Uefa Champions League
AC Milan 2-0 Auxerre
Arsenal 6-0 Braga
Bayern Munich 2-0 Roma
CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca 2-1 Basle
Marseille 0-1 Spartak Moscow
MSK Zilina 1-4 Chelsea
Real Madrid 2-0 Ajax
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 Partizan Belgrade

Goals galore for the English teams last night with Arsenal hitting the net 6 times without reply at home & Chelsea strolling away with a 4-1 win away. No real surprises in the other games with the home sides claiming the advantage except for Marseille losing to Moscow. Spartak showed they are a difficult side to beat at home last season, but they were venerable away - they seem to have put that behind them now. No side relishes playing in Moscow mid-winter so this result will encourage them that they can go through with Chelsea.
In my 'group of death' both Milan & Madrid win 2-0 at home to ease their way into joint lead.

[BobHelm]

Thursday, 16 September 2010Uefa Europa League
AEK Athens 3-1 Hajduk Split
Anderlecht 1-3 Zenit St Petersburg
Aris Salonika 1-0 Atletico Madrid
AZ Alkmaar 2-1 FC Sheriff Tiraspol
Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 Rosenborg
Besiktas 1-0 CSKA Sofia
Club Bruges 1-1 PAOK Salonika
Debrecen 0-5 FC Metalist Kharkiv
Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 Villarreal
Dynamo Kiev 2-2 BATE Borisov
FC Porto 3-0 Rapid Vienna
Getafe 2-1 Odense BK
Juventus 3-3 Lech Poznan
Karpaty Lviv 3-4 Borussia Dortmund
Lausanne Sports 0-3 CSKA Moscow
Levski Sofia 3-2 AA Gent
Lille 1-2 Sporting
Liverpool 4-1 Steaua Bucharest
Napoli 0-0 FC Utrecht
PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Sampdoria
Red Bull Salzburg 0-2 Man City
Sevilla 0-1 Paris SG
Sparta Prague 3-2 Palermo
VfB Stuttgart 3-0 Young Boys

Great results by Liverpool at home & Citi away.. Juv only manage a 6 goal home draw. Russian sides seem to be doing well in Europe at the moment.

[BobHelm]

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 Uefa Champions League
Ajax 1-1 AC Milan
Auxerre 0-1 Real Madrid
Basle 1-2 Bayern Munich
Braga 0-3 Shakhtar Donetsk
Chelsea 2-0 Marseille
Partizan Belgrade 1-3 Arsenal
Roma 2-1 CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca
Spartak Moscow 3-0 MSK Zilina

Win by Chelsea maybe a little fortunate to be 2 goals against a Marseille side who had little luck in the match. Won in the first half by a side looking very un-Chelsea edgy in the second.
AS Spartak Moscow also had an easy home win against the tables' minnows, MSK Zilina, they are both locked at the top of the table with 6 points out of 6.
Arsenal also maintained their 100% start to this season's Champions League with a win against 10-man Partizan Belgrade. As with Chelsea they share top spot in the table with Shakhtar Donetsk who also won away against the pretty luckless (9 goals conceded in two games) Braga.
So as two teams are rather running away with both leagues it looks like rather comfortable qualification for both the London sides.
Madrid are starting to move away in the group G of death as Ajax & Milan can only manage a 1-1 draw. It still looks like Ajax will struggle to relieve Milan of second spot though.
Bayern Munich open up a 3 point lead in their group & are looking comfortable to progress.

[BobHelm]

Wednesday, 29 September 2010 Uefa Champions League
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-3 Lyon
Inter Milan 4-0 Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos 0-2 FC Copenhagen
Rangers 1-0 Bursaspor
Rubin Kazan 1-1 Barcelona
Schalke 04 2-0 Benfica
Tottenham 4-1 FC Twente
Valencia 0-1 Man Utd

Start with 'my team' first - especially as it is good news in an ocean of bad...
United sneak a slender 1 goal win against the side, on paper, who pose most danger to them - Valencia. As it was in Spain, an even better result.
After managing to draw at Old Trafford, Rangers also get their home campaign off to a great start win a win. They are now joint leaders with United. Anything like a result against Valencia will see them very geared up for a good Scottish showing this year.
Spurs have an easy time at home & cruise to a great win, despite having Van der Vaart sent off on the hour..
Inter also have an easy win at home to be joint leaders with Spurs.
Lyon score 3 away to go a win clear at the top of group B, with Schalke raining on Benfica's parade by beating them so they both have 1 win, 1 loss.
IN group D FC Copenhagen race to the top with two wins as Barcelona can only manage an away draw, to prove that they are actually human.

[Zidane]

Excellent results for all the 5 British teams in the Champions League this week. =D>
As it stands,at the moment,all are in a qualifying position for the knockout stages although Rangers next two ties are very tricky,Valencia home and away,and most likely will decide their fate.
Last nights win over Bursaspor was their first in 13 attempts in the Champions League,so you never know.
But an excellent win for United,although Valencia failed to capitalise on their possession....Hernandez coming on as sub and scoring a late winner after earlier hitting the post.....Ferdinand back in defence,too.
I think most United fans would have settled for a draw so to win in Spain without the likes of Rooney,Scholes,Giggs and Valencia (the player) will make the beers go down a lot easier in the next few days.....at least till the Sunderland away match !

[BobHelm]

Thursday, 30 September 2010 Uefa Europa League
AA Gent 1-1 Lille
Atletico Madrid 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
BATE Borisov 4-1 AZ Alkmaar
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Sevilla
CSKA Moscow 3-0 Sparta Prague
CSKA Sofia 0-1 FC Porto
FC Metalist Kharkiv 0-2 PSV Eindhoven
FC Sheriff Tiraspol 2-0 Dynamo Kiev
FC Utrecht 0-0 Liverpool
Hajduk Split 1-0 Anderlecht
Lech Poznan 2-0 Red Bull Salzburg
Man City 1-1 Juventus
Odense BK 1-2 VfB Stuttgart
Palermo 1-0 Lausanne Sports
PAOK Salonika 1-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Paris SG 2-0 Karpaty Lviv
Rapid Vienna 1-2 Besiktas
Rosenborg 2-1 Aris Salonika
Sampdoria 1-0 Debrecen
Sporting 5-0 Levski Sofia
Steaua Bucharest 3-3 Napoli
Villarreal 2-1 Club Bruges
Young Boys 2-0 Getafe
Zenit St Petersburg 4-2 AEK Athens

Citi & Pool both discover the realities of European football, but also both manage to get a draw out of it.
I gather both rode their luck & they certainly didn't deserve anything more than the draw.
Citi are joint top (on 4 points) with Lech Poznan. Juve are on 2 from 2, & have not made much impression in Europe for a while now, so I imagine are far happier with the away draw than Citi were.
Liverpool go 2 clear at the top of their league as everyone draws...

[BobHelm]

Tuesday, 19 October 2010 Uefa Champions League
Ajax 2-1 Auxerre
Arsenal 5-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Bayern Munich 3-2 CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca
Braga 2-0 Partizan Belgrade
Marseille 1-0 MSK Zilina
Real Madrid 2-0 AC Milan
Roma 1-3 Basle
Spartak Moscow 0-2 Chelsea

Bayern Munich dominate the Group E table, now being 6 points clear of the other 3 sides who are all on 3 points. Had a close win at home last night but still won. Roma slumped to a home defeat against Basle to make their life in the group hard.
Chelsea had a magnificent away win in Moscow against their chief opposition in group F, Moscow. Look home & clear for the next round now..
Real ease into a great position in group G after beating second place Milan at home. A home win for Ajax gives them a chance as they are now joint second with 4 points with Milan..
Arsenal continue their fun time in Group H & batter second place Shakhtar Donetsk by 5-1 at home. They are looking a good side in Europe, 3 games, 3 wins, 12 goals for, 2 against. I am not sure they will find the next stage quite as easy but you can only beat what you play!!

[BobHelm]

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 Uefa Champions League
Barcelona 2-0 FC Copenhagen
FC Twente 1-1 Werder Bremen
Inter Milan 4-3 Tottenham
Lyon 2-0 Benfica
Man Utd 1-0 Bursaspor
Panathinaikos 0-0 Rubin Kazan
Rangers 1-1 Valencia
Schalke 04 3-1 Hapoel Tel-Aviv

The battle at the top of Group A sees at home Inter edge out Spurs. Spurs were 3 goals & 1 man down within 15 minutes, so it was always a struggle. The match was well over going into extra time with Inter 4-1 up. Then 2 quick goals gave Spurs some hope but it was all just too late. If Spurs had played like they did in the last 10 minutes for the 90 then they would have easily won. Bale (who scored all Spurs goals), especially, looked real class even in this sort of company.
Fortunately for Spurs the other two in the group could only draw. Inter top the group on 7 points with Spurs second 2 points clear on 4 points
Lyon keep an unblemished record in group B against Benfica. Schalke keep second with a routine home win against Tel-Aviv.
United put Rooney woes behind them to gain a modest defeat at home over Group C whipping boys Bursaspor. Rangers continue their excellent tournament with a home draw against Valencia. They are now second with a 1 point gap over last nights' visitors. The Rangers game at Valencia looks like it will decide who is second in the group. Rangers showed in their first game away to United that they can go and battle a result. United will be pleased that they had little opposition in front of them last night. If the game had been against either of the other two in the group it could have been a disastrous result.
Barcelona head group D by 1 point after defeating second place Copenhagen 2-0 at home. They have not looked so "all conquering" in the group stages this year as they have in previous. However they appear to be doing the job. The other 2 in the group managed a 0-0 to leave Copenhagen sitting comfortably in second.

[BobHelm]

Thursday, 21 October 2010 Uefa Europa League
Anderlecht 3-0 AEK Athens
Aris Salonika 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
Atletico Madrid 3-0 Rosenborg
AZ Alkmaar 1-2 Dynamo Kiev
Besiktas 1-3 FC Porto
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Paris SG
CSKA Sofia 0-2 Rapid Vienna
Debrecen 1-2 PSV Eindhoven
Dinamo Zagreb 0-0 Club Bruges
FC Metalist Kharkiv 2-1 Sampdoria
FC Sheriff Tiraspol 0-1 BATE Borisov
FC Utrecht 1-1 Steaua Bucharest
Karpaty Lviv 0-1 Sevilla
Lille 1-0 Levski Sofia
Man City 3-1 Lech Poznan
Napoli 0-0 Liverpool
Palermo 0-3 CSKA Moscow
Red Bull Salzburg 1-1 Juventus
Sparta Prague 3-3 Lausanne Sports
Sporting 5-1 AA Gent
VfB Stuttgart 1-0 Getafe
Villarreal 1-0 PAOK Salonika
Young Boys 4-2 Odense BK
Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 Hajduk Split

Citi played now second place Lech Poznan & won fairly comfortably. Juve had a bad day at the office to only draw away at Salzburg. Hence Citi look pretty comfortable heading the group by 3 points. Juve are 3rd. & struggling with only 3 points from 3 games..
Pool only manage a 0-0 against second place Napoli. Not their best European result ( ) but they are still 2 points above Napoli at the top of their league on 5 points, as 3 & 4th. place FC Utrecht and Steaua Bucharest could only draw as well.
It seems Portuguese & Russian year in the second European competition this time round.
Sporting, FC Porto, Zenit St Petersburg, CSKA Moscow have all won 3 out of 3, VfB Stuttgart are the only other side in that position.

[stattointhailand]

Pool only manage a 0-0 against second place Napoli. Not their best European result ( ) but they are still 2 points above Napoli at the top of their league on 5 points, as 3 & 4th. place FC Utrecht and Steaua Bucharest could only draw as well.

They did leave Gerrard & Torres amongst others behind, which seems to suggest that Roy H and the new owners are more worried about staying in the PremierLeague, than they are about "European Glory"

[nkstan]

Pool only manage a 0-0 against second place Napoli. Not their best European result ( ) but they are still 2 points above Napoli at the top of their league on 5 points, as 3 & 4th. place FC Utrecht and Steaua Bucharest could only draw as well.

They did leave Gerrard & Torres amongst others behind, which seems to suggest that Roy H and the new owners are more worried about staying in the PremierLeague, than they are about "European Glory"

If that is their thinking,I would say that is the prudent choice!