Preview to the Champions League Group Stage - Part 2!

As promised, here is the 2nd part of my preview to the upcoming Champion's League Group Stage, which commences this coming Thursday.

Kicking right off with Group E, we see the defending Champions back in action after their victory in Moscow. Manchester Utd have managed to weather the storm of Cristiano Ronaldo's seemingly inevitable departure, and so have maintained a squad that scarcely needed any improvement. Nevertheless the figure of Dimitar Berbatov taking the pitch in the red of Utd has the potential to recreate Eric Cantona's effect on the team more than any other player in the last 10 years. If Paul Scholes And Ryan Giggs manage to extend the recent renaissance of their careers we have seen in the past 2 years then the forecast is bleak for the opponents of Man Utd.
Familiar opponents in recent times, Celtic will hope to repeat their previous group stage successes in a group with the Red Devils, having progressed from Group F in 2006/07, managing to beat Utd along the way. The first British team ever to win this competition will admittedly have slim hopes of repeating that feat, but they will be hopeful of progression if they keep defeats to a bare minimum of 1 or 2.
Their competition for 2nd place will be El Submarino Amarillo, The "Yellow Submarine" of Villareal. Semi-finalists in 2006, they suffered a lull following that success and until last season were disappointing even in the league. Bolstered by a heavy core of Spanish triumphants fresh from Euro 2008 success, Senna, Capdevilla and Santi, Villareal also boasts veterans Edmilson and Robert Pires as well as Turkey's impressive Nihat. If their new, young, American strike pairing of Giuseppe Rossi and new recruit Jose Altidore can gel, they would certainly be my pick to progress ahead of Celtic.
Aalborg BK, it must be said, have slim chance of making it even into the Uefa Cup. However, it is in that competition from which they must draw the most hope, as it is there where we can see evidence of the possible giant killing exploits we have seen they are capable. For in the 2007/2008 competition, Italians Sampdoria were felled by the Danish outfit. Celtic fans will be interested to know that it was Kaunas, the conquerors of Rangers, who Aalborg had to beat in order to reach this stage.

Prediction:
1st: Manchester United
2nd: Villareal
Uefa Cup: Glasgow Celtic
Whipping Boys: Aalborg BK


A competition like this usually throws up the old "group of death" cliche, and in this case it must surely be reserved for Group F. 2 of the teams, Bayern Munich and Fiorentina, were removed by underdogs in the Semi Finals of last years Uefa Cup. Lyon and Steaua Bucharest have more recent Champions League experience, and even if Lyon haven't fully lived up to their "next big thing" tag (at least in Europe), both teams are capable of getting a result in this group on their day.
Despite their year long holiday, FC Bayern must be seen as the narrow favourites for this group. They made most of their improvements the summer following their failure to qualify for last seasons Champion's league. Luca Toni and Franck Ribery, two of those improvements, provide goals and creativity. German contingent Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Podolski and Klose are reliable, and more graft is provided by Lucio and captain Mark Van Bommel. Despite their absence Bayern have lost none of their pedigree.
Lyon are usually expected to qualify from their group, and although in a group like this no guarantees can be offered, they too have made improvements to a squad that was already rich with quality. Although losing Gregory Coupet and Hatem Ben Arfa will be seen as a blow, Lyon have continued their tradition of signing Lille's best players, and have added Jean Makoun. John Mensah has also arrived from Rennes.
Qualifying for this competition from Serie A is never a mean feat, so Fiorentina, even without considering their Uefa Cup experience, must not be underestimated. Add to that the fact that it was the mighty AC Milan that were forced to make way and we have a frightening prospect. It is a fantastic achievement being here, for a team that only a few years ago were struggling to even survive. It will be interesting to see how the Viola fans welcome back Luca Toni, one of the most important players of their revival, when Bayern Munich come to visit. One thing is for certain though, they will be looking for the likes of Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino to cancel out any contribution he might make.
In Steaua Bucharest we have another former winner of the competition, with a multinational squad which in the last 2 years have served up some impressive performances at this stage. However, it must also be said that they have failed to progress from this stage in either of the past 2 seasons they have taken part, and although I expect the group to be close, and although they do not deserve the "whipping boys" tag, I still believe they will finish 4th.

Prediction:
1st: Bayern Munich
2nd: Lyon
Uefa Cup: Fiorentina
Whipping Boys: Steaua Bucharest


Group G contains two of the most recent reminders that anything can happen in this competition, and in Porto and Arsenal, 2 most unexpected finalists in 2004 and 2006 respectively, we possibly have the 2 least unexpected teams to qualify from this group. Both lost out narrowly in the knockout stages last year, and although Porto especially have lost players, notably Ricardo Quaresma to Inter, I expect that a repeat of last year will be the worst either team will achieve this year.
Arsenal have replaced Alex Hleb with Samir Nasri, but have failed to replace Mathieu Flamini. This lack of depth and battle in the middle of the park may cause a problem for Arsenal, but it might be their only one. Their creativity is renouned, and if Robin Van Persie can stay injury free (a big ask seeing as he has completed fewer than 20 full matches in his 4 years at Arsenal) they will be a threat to any team. Theo Walcott's continued emergence could also prove crucial.

The manner of Porto's exit to Shalke last year was unfortunate and they will be looking to progress further this year. However with the loss of Quaresma they lack real guile in the final third, and they will face real competition from Fenerbache. Fener are another team familiar with a recent and unlucky exit from this competition. Their most significant change from last year is undoubtably their manager. Luis Aragones is a controversial figure but his quality now is hard to doubt following Spain's glory in Austria and Switzerland. With him he has brought Daniel Guiza, the current holder of Spain's golden boot, added to a squad full of Turkish Euro 2008 semi-finalists and Brazilian flair in Champions League winner Roberto Carlos and captain Alex. I am going to go out on a limb and back them for qualification.


Prediction:
1st: Arsenal
2nd: Fenerbache
Uefa Cup: FC Porto
Whipping Boys: Dynamo Kiev



Finally we have Group H. The obvious clash in this group will see Real Madrid and Juventus face off, and not for the first time. Juventus could be said to have a weaker squad following their Serie B adventure but the amazing thing about them is that Gigi Buffon, Alex Del Piero, David Treseguet and Pavel Nedved, among others, remained and rode out the storm. It is ironic that some of the players who left, most notably Zambrotta at Milan, are missing out on Champion's League football that would have rewarded them had they stayed. Time will tell how the Juventus faithful react to Fabio Cannavaro's return to Turin.
Madrid have spent most of this summer chasing Cristiano Ronaldo, unsucessfully, and they have lost Robinho to the new wealth of Manchester City, so depending on what you think of Raphael Van Der Vaart Madrid could be said to be weaker going forward this season. Their performance in the competition since winning it in 2002 has been poor, and only time will tell if they will turn it around.
These two giants' main competition lies in new upstarts Zenit St. Petersburg. Having kept hold of Arshavin, Zenit will provide outstanding proof as to the gulf between the Champions League and Uefa Cup, and Zenit will be hoping that their experiences in one will make up for their complete lack of experience in the other.
Between the 3 of them they should provide far too much opposition for tiny BATE, who in my opinion would be forgiven for celebrating even a single point. However they are here on their own merit and I would be delighted if they were to prove me wrong.

Prediction

1st: Juventus
2nd: Real Madrid
Uefa Cup: Zenit St. Petersburg
Whipping Boys: BATE

Preview to the Champions League Group Stage

It might sound like something that would come out of a Richard Scudamore think tank, but a "premier competition" without it's most premier teams becomes slightly less alluring. Most notably, last years competition left heavyweights Bayern Munich and Juventus standing on the dock, and taking the stance of the neutral I was pretty happy at the back end of last season when I realised they would be returning.

Such teams have quality which makes competitions like this one, so it is a real shame that although the two aforementioned giants are back, two teams with real European Cup pedigree, 11 titles between them in fact, will not be taking part. Of Ajax and AC Milan it will surely be the Italians who will be missed the most. It seems almost unbelievable that there will be no Champions League football for Kaka, Shevchenko, Ronaldinho and all, and it is truly a tragedy that in what will almost certainly be his last season as a professional, Paulo Maldini is denied a final opportunity to grace a competition that he has won 5 times.

Nevertheless, in contrast to these absences it will be interesting to see how some of the surprising amount of unknown quantities do in their respective groups. Of the 32 teams, I count 5 with little or no Champions League previous. Zenit St. Petersburg, of course, have given us the most clues with their performances in the Uefa Cup and their recent defeat of Manchester Utd in Monaco, and Arshavin or no Arshavin I expect them to at least give Juventus and Real Madrid some problems. BATE, Aalborg, Anorthosis Famagusta and CFR Cluj's fates are admittedly far harder to predict, and airing on the side of caution I'd have to say that all 4 would be lucky to grab a Uefa Cup place.

Of all the groups, Group A already looks by far the most cut and dried. Last year's runners up Chelsea look to have improved, both in the dug-out, with "Big" Phil Scolari replacing the underwhelming but oddly effective Avram Grant, and on the pitch. Deco and Bosingwa were, Spain omitting, in my top 5 players of Euro 2008, and I found it extremely curious that the former didn't make it into the official "Team of the Tournament". With these additions it would be a brave man to bet against Roman's Roubles bringing his London outfit the ultimate success at the 6th time of asking.


Equally brave would be Roma if they include new face Riise in the side to face Chelsea, but own-goal threats aside they will prove ample challenge for first place and should be too strong for the other two teams. A strong squad will become stronger still if Julio Baptista can finally sustain his flashes of potential, and I would back Roma to make it to the knockout stages, where they will probably be tied with Man Utd and completely lie down. Bordeaux's recent European experience and Cluj's surprisingly cosmopolitan squad should still prove insubstantial.



Prediction:
1st: Chelsea
2nd: AS Roma
Uefa Cup Place: Bordeaux
Whipping Boys: CFR Cluj

In Group B we have Inter, whose desperation to halt their European underachievement is probably 2nd only to Chelsea's. Despite this underachievement they must be seen to be favourites for the group. Adriano returns to Inter from Brazil looking to prove his countless doubters wrong, but the age of Inter's squad could prove a stumbling block beyond this stage.

Werder Bremen have had some time away from the competition but they still have a strong squad, Germany stalgwart Frings plays in front of a tough defence and the excellent Diego will be looking to provide sufficient supply for Chelsea loanee Claudio Pizzaro.

The foray of Greeks Panathinaikos into Turkish Cyprus to face Famagusta should prove interesting, although having been to Famagusta it came as no suprise to learn that they rely on another town, Larnaca, to sustain their two football teams.



1st: Inter Milan
2nd: Werder Bremen
Uefa Cup Place: Panathinaikos
Whipping Boys: Anorthosis Famagusta


On paper, it would appear that Barcelona have the most favourable draw of the big sides, with respect to Shakhtar Donetsk, Basle and Sporting of course. For those who don't follow the Spanish League, the visit of the Lisbon club to the Nou Camp on September the 16th will be an early clue to how a Barcelona without Deco and Ronaldinho, arguably the most important players of their recent successes, will function. Euro 2008's highly impressive midfield duo of Xavi and Andres Iniesta will provide the fulcrum of new manager and Barcelona legend Pepe Guardiola's side. Any side in the world would struggle to keep Barca's front line quiet, which will usually contain 3 out of Alex Hleb, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi. Bojan also showed promise in last year's group stage and expect to see him add to that this year.


Of the remaining 3 sides it is hard to see how this group will finish and we could be looking to here for some drama in the 6th fixture. Sporting have unfortunately proved to be a selling club in recent years, but at the time of writing have managed to hold on to captain and Portugal star Joao Moutinho. Backed up by Miguel Veloso and former Barcelona midfielder Fabio Rochemback, they could be the best bet to progress in 2nd place. Basle progressed through the 1st group stage in the 2002/2003 season but have had to settle mostly for Uefa Cup football since then, and I expect them to be re-familiarised with the competition before the season is out.




1st: Barcelona
2nd: Sporting Lisbon
Uefa Cup: FC Basle
Whipping Boys: Shakhtar Donetsk





Group D has managed to reunite many old friends for various reasons, all of which involving Liverpool. It might be considered a shame that the draw is not able to provide more variety in match ups, having linked Liverpool to Marseille for the 2nd time in 2 years and to PSV for the 3rd time in 3. The most interesting match up however must surely be when Liverpool take their star striker and former Atleti captain Fernando Torres back to the Vicente Calderon on October 22nd. It would be crass to make assumptions and discuss how Torres might celebrate in front of the Madrid fans, especially as they have made major improvements in defence in Tomáš Ujfaluši and John Heitinga. Their status as 4th seeds is not representative of the quality they possess, rather their european absence over recent seasons, and as such the group contains 4 very capable sides.
Liverpool have the most European pedigree, but have started the season poorly, needing 118 minutes to beat a plucky Standard Liege. Although they will probably be favourites for the group, they will have to improve, especially by deciding how better to use new boy Robbie Keane, if they want to finish ahead of the pack.

Atletico will feel they have replaced Torres to some extent with their new star "el Kun" Aguero, and have another goalscorer in Diego Forlan, a completely different player from his nightmare Manchester United days. Backing them up is a veritable wealth of creative talent, including Simao, Maxi Rodriguez and, speaking of old friends, former Liverpool forwards and Champions League winners Luis Garcia and Florent Sinema Pongolle. In addition, Atletico stormed through the tastiest of qualifying ties, thrashing Shalke, who have plenty of Champions League experience themselves, 4-1 on aggregate.

In PSV we have a side that is used to qualifying past this stage, 3 times in the last 4 years in fact, and in their 4 back-to-back Dutch league titles they are obviously a team in the habit of winning, which is a valuble quality to have. However, last season they missed talisman Philip Cocu in Europe and have lost keeper Gomez to Spurs, which may be another difficult loss to cope with. If Atletico play to potential they will surely provide a more likely option to progress.

Having won at Anfield early on, Marseille came close to progressing from last year's group until Liverpool came to the Stade Velodrome in the final match and won comfortably. This season the former winners of the competition have strengthened with hot prospect Hatem Ben Arfa, but voices within the club have admitted that, once Djibril Cisse was allowed to return to England, options for strikers were a bit thin on the ground. Only time will tell if they have enough up front to succeed.

1st: Liverpool
2nd: Atletico Madrid
Uefa Cup: PSV Eindhoven
Whipping Boys: Olympique de Marseille


Tune in soon for my thoughts on groups E-H, and a short look at beyond the group stage, possibly with a few more baseless and cavalier predictions!

This new age of "footballing heroes" has renewed my youthful enthusiasm in the game I love

I have a confession to make. Its been over 13 years since I first visited Anfield and truly became a Liverpool supporter, and yet I have to admit that fairly large portions of the time since then have left me a little underwhelmed.

It is a sad fact that during a period in my life where my fascination with football and everything in it, playing, watching and obsessing alike, has gone from strength to strength, only a tiny proportion of the players I have really admired have played for my own team.

It's difficult to put a finger on what really appeals to me about the players who have reached hero status in my eyes. I first started following Liverpool in 1995 and yet the players considered the stars for the Reds at that time, the Fowlers and McManamans of this world simply didn't capture my interest as much as Ian Rush and John Barnes, two players who were by then obviously past their mercurial best, which I was never fortunate enough to witness.

Maybe it was the way my Dad spoke about them as he guided a young and always rather nervous son through the swarms of giants around the ground. Maybe it was the video tapes he gave me to watch, a window into the glory days I was born a fraction too late to see. Maybe on some level I acknowledged that these 2 players were, now at the back end of their careers, able to stand for achievement, rather than the exciting but nevertheless intangible potential of the newest breed of Liverpool stars. (Although I doubt little Tom would have put it quite like that!)

So it is fair to say that my favourite players for the Reds probably wouldn't be the same as the most popular choices of people my age. The next players along the line I had real admiration for were Gary McAllister and Didi Hamann, and neither ever reached the level of praise that a Fowler, an Owen or a Gerrard might have reached at their peaks. Again though, these players had tasted success in the past.

How many other modern Reds have a league winner's medal?

It almost feels like a betrayal to say this, but between about 97 and 2000 I really had no Liverpool heroes and looked for players to admire elsewhere. I was particularly fond of AC Milan and George Weah especially. It was him and players like Ronaldo I really wanted to be in the park. This time was one of the heights of my football obsession but sadly Liverpool weren't quite as accessible to such an obsession as I'd have liked.

This isn't to say I wasn't still mad about Liverpool, I still went to the games whenever Dad got us tickets and loved every second. I met a couple of the players, Riedle and McAteer stick out in the memory, on a couple of occasions and it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. There were players I admired, even loved. There was just no one I really idolised. I think its fair to say that I realised early you love the club first and everything else about it comes second.

This cycle repeated during the dubious post-treble years (or perhaps we should call them the Cheyrou years). In 2004 I got my new home shirt, and on the back a solitary number 7. Although this was mainly meant to represent Kenny Dalglish and the days before names on shirts, it was telling that there were no players in the current side I wanted to show on my back. Even after Istanbul I loved the club as much as ever but still lacked faith in the players. I really did love Baros, Cisse, Riise and Garcia but, as I'm sure was the case with many Reds my age, I knew they didn't measure up to the real legends I'd only heard about..

At this stage I just put it down to growing up and being too old to be adoring fully grown men. Getting a replica shirt past a certain age is bad enough, so I'm told. Getting your favourite player on the back as if you were somehow pretending to be them was even worse.

But something utterly brilliant has happened. The days of my football obsession has returned, but this time there is absolutely no question where the objects of my idolisation lie. I'm 21 but I feel like I'm 10 years old again. I look at some of the players we have and it really makes me giddy.

I wear Javier Mascherano's Argentina shirt all the time. Fernando Torres adorns my computer desktop, and not only do I want a shirt with his name on, I even want it in long sleeves, just like he wears. It doesn't stop there. I bought a pair of boots like the ones he has, and you can guess what my phone ring tone is.

In all my time spent rooting for the underdogs among our players now it is impossible for me to deny the quality of the players that all the other Liverpool fans are raving about, and alongside the likes of Torres and Gerrard who every fan in the country will acknowldge, the Babels, the Aggers and the Skrtels have taken the place of the Dioufs, the Kvarmes and the Bjørnebyes.

If you've managed to get this far you'll probably still be wondering what the hell my point is, but hopefully you'll have spotted that I think this year should be one of incredible optimism for Liverpool. If this team can give a fairly sceptical 21 year old more idols that he had as a 10 year old kid, they must be doing something right. Maybe I see the same quality of "achievement" in them as I did in Rushie and Barnes way back when, only this time they've got time to turn that quality into what we've all been waiting for.

Yippee the season's here! But where were the fireworks?

lIt has become fashionable among football fans in this day and age to bemoan what Sky's brand of broadcasting has done to your average weekend between August and May. They long for the times when by 5.45 your weekend was free for other things. Having given it some thought I can't for the life of me understand why. I'm just settling down in front of my 5th football match of the weekend. What could possibly be wrong with having more football?
Unfortunately it isn't always quite as simple as that. Not that it's Sky's fault (although try telling that to some), but after this week, overall I find myself a little...underwhelmed. After Liverpool's less than convincing performance in Belgium, not even watching Man City finding playing against Midtjylland even more challenging than pronouncing it managed to entertain me. Nevertheless expectations were still high for the weekend, and hurrah! Arsenal took just 3 minutes to give those expectations a false dawn.

My reaction to Nasri's goal was two fold. Half resulted from my very recent decision to drop him from my fantasy team, and I really hope that the string of heavy language that followed didn't carry to the next room, where my best mate's parents were sitting quietly. On the other hand, this was more like it! I'm not an Arsenal fan but the prospect of them shifting a few goals past West Brom was one I was more than happy with.

Sadly while the game promised much, it delivered little and the remaining 87 minutes really was a bit dull. As I was realising this, it seems the commentary team on my TV were as well. They sounded as bored as I was. This wasn't the Hollywood coverage that usually earns Sky such mixed reviews, was the game really bad enough to stifle even the unbridled optimism of Sky, always promising bigger and better games from the "best league in the world", on the opening day of the season no less?

If I'm being a tad harsh on Arsenal and West Brom, I would like to make it very clear that the following is more than fair: the game I was invited to go and watch at Goodison Park was absolute garbage. I have never seen a worse game with so many goals. Everton were the poorer of the two teams and deserved their defeat even in the unfortunate manner it was delivered in. They put good moves together on 3 occasions which probably totalled about a minute. The rest of the time they were utterly dire, with the main culprit captain Phil Neville, who throughout the first half played a succession of long balls, none of which stayed in play, and seemed unable to control the ball at all.





To be fair Everton had injuries but still should have had some creativity coming from Arteta and Leon Osman. They looked completely void of ideas, but in the second half they came out and managed to string a couple of passes together. They looked good and it just goes to show once you remember how to play basic pass and move football it doesn't matter if you have Nuno Valente masquerading as a left winger.

But sadly after Yakubu's goal remembering is exactly the opposite of what Everton did and they went back to starving their best players of the ball, which when you think about it isn't particularly constructive.

Blackburn weren't overly spectacular either even if they were the better side, but in all honesty they didn't need to be to beat Everton. However Even if Roque Santa Cruz, who showed a few neat touches and took his goal characteristically well, leaves, I'm not sure all this recent talk about Ince being a rubbish manager and Blackburn being a decent bet to go down isn't a bit of an overreaction. They were solid at worst and they might not have enough to take points off the top teams but they will have no problem with the likes of Stoke I can assure you of that.

Time then to watch Liverpool, and as this is my first entry I should mention that I am a Liverpool fan. This probably increased my dissatisfaction at the quality of the game because admittedly Liverpool were rather poor, and seemed initially to share their neighbour's problem of keeping the ball away from their more creative players. Similarly Torres was about as anonymous as Arteta had been for much of the game but these kind of players can do nothing for the majority and then pop up with the goods when it mattered.

And it's a good job Torres did pop up because by the time Xabi Alonso was lining up from a good 60 yards I was reminded about an FA Cup tie against Burnley about 10 years ago, when the highlight was a similar effort from Stan Collymore, and that game still holds the honour of being the worst game I have ever seen live.

Robbie Keane's continuing mediocrity in a red (or rather grey, fantastic kit by the way) shirt was another source for my crippling disappointment. Although his clearance from Torres effort was particularly effective, top draw.





In all fairness, today things have improved, not least because there's now nearly 50 minutes gone up at Old Trafford and Man Utd aren't winning 4-0. And Kevin Keegan is the Newcastle manager. It's like I've gone back in time. If only Phillip Albert was playing...

Chelsea were excellent today, to put it bluntly. Even before the weekend they were this intrepid budding football writer's (scoff) pick for the title. Chelsea have strengthened with Bosingwa, who was the only player in this summer's European Championships to consistantly impress me, and Deco, who has been an unsung hero behind the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi for years. At 8 million Chelsea have for once paid under the odds for a player. I was more than happy, especially as it had no bearing on the result anyway, to see him rifle in his excellent goal, and I really hope that he doesn't get into the habits of his teammates that seem to make the public hate every single Chelsea player.

On that note I recon Chelsea might finally go some way to fulfilling their horrible smug chief executive's wish to improve their public image. Philipao (that's Big Phil to you and me) has arrived in England and has been very well received by the majority, despite being the man who has shafted England constantly over a number of years. If he can continue today's transition as far away from the "functional" side we've seen over the past few years then Chelsea might become the neutral's favourite in the top 4. As long as they keep Cashley Cole and Anelka locked away during Christmas partys.

So even though now with 60 minutes gone Manchester United have clearly decided they're going to leave it late, just to taunt me just that bit more, actually it's not all bad. My team won and maybe soon they'll actually start playing, a bit like Chelsea did today. So it can be done. Football is back and maybe Sky dialling down the hype is something to be embraced. They can keep the weekends full of football though, because I can't get enough of it.