Champions League, down to the wire

Shinboners

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Thread starter #1
Plenty of tight groups left.

GROUP A:

Celtic, Anderlecht, and Lyon all have 7 points whilst Bayern have 6.

GROUP B: Lokomotiv lead with 8, Arsenal and Inter Milan have 7, and Dynamo Kiev have 6.

GROUP C: Monaco and Deportivo have 10, PSV have 7, and AEK Athens is out with just 1 point.

GROUP D: Juventus has qualified with 10 points. Real Sociedad has 8, Olympiakos are on 4 and Galatasaray 3. Galatasaray and Juventus have a game in hand, and Galatasary need to win to stay alive.

GROUP E: VfB Stuggart and Manchester United are through with 12 points each, Rangers have 4 and Pananthinaikos have 1 point.

GROUP F: Real Madrid with 13 and Porto with 10 points are through. Marseille and Partizan Belgrade have 3 and 2 points respectively.

GROUP G: Chelsea are through with 10, Besiktas have 7 and are holding off Sparta Prague and Lazio who have 5 points.

GROUP H: AC Milan are through with 10, Ajax and Celta Vigo have 6 and Club Brugge 5 points.

By my reckoning, 7 teams are definitely through, 6 teams are gone, and 19 teams are fighting it out for the last 9 spots in the elimination rounds.
 

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apollo_creed

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#2
Group A

Bayern 'Should' win at home, while Celtic's lost there last 5 away in the Europe, so a betting man would go with the home teams Bayern and Lyon. Meaning Bayern would finish second and one unlucky group winner would be forced into a tricky R16 2 Legged tie against Bayern.

Group B

Hard to call. One would suspect Arsenal might be able to sneak a result at home amid a barrage of Russian defence. The other game in Kiev is very interesting. A Draw would take Inter which is what I think will happen to 8 points equal with Moscow, providing they lose to Arsneal.
If that scenario occurs, what is the head to head between Inter and Lokomotiv?

Group C

Monaco and Deportivo already through basically.

Group D

Can't see Galatasary winning twice away from home, that moved game will cost them against Juve. Juve and Sociedad.

Group E

The only interesting thing left in this group is who will go top. Stuttgart have a mean defence and Man Utd wont find it as easy to net goals at home as they did against Panathaniakos and Rangers. A Draw would send Stuttgart top on aggregate against Utd. Normally at this stage Man Utd play there second string team in Game 6 of Group Stage 1 but seeing as top isn't secure they will almost certainly field a full stregth side and aim for first. With the likes of Juventus, AC Milan, Real Madrid and possibly Chelsea and Arsenal qualifying in 1st Man Yoo would be cautious.

Group F

Real Madrid Top. Porto second is certain.

Group G

Chelsea need a draw on a neutral venue to claim top. With there strong defence I think they may just acheive it.
But second spot could fall either way as there are so many scenarios in this group.

Group H

AC Milan Top. Second open, hopefully Ajax.
 

GoalsFrom50Out

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#3
Originally posted by apollo_creed
If that scenario occurs, what is the head to head between Inter and Lokomotiv?
Inter would have to win 4-0 to take the aggregate against Lokomotiv, as Lokomotiv won 3-0 in Moscow on Matchday 3.
 

apollo_creed

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#4
Ah thats right, so Inter pretty much needs to win. They'll need to be pretty lucky to come way with anything in Moscow.
 

apollo_creed

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#6
Now this is really getting to bug me.

Initially I just assumed Inter would be playing away considering there at home on matchday five.

Then on another site someone said something about Inter's game being at home.

I checked on the CL website and it said the game was in Kiev.

Then you say this.

I'm really confused,:rolleyes:

Arsenal is playing Lokomotiv, right...

Oh what the hell...
 

GoalsFrom50Out

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#7
Originally posted by apollo_creed
Now this is really getting to bug me.

Initially I just assumed Inter would be playing away considering there at home on matchday five.

Then on another site someone said something about Inter's game being at home.

I checked on the CL website and it said the game was in Kiev.

Then you say this.

I'm really confused,:rolleyes:

Arsenal is playing Lokomotiv, right...

Oh what the hell...
My mistake, Inter is playing Dynamo in Kiev. That's gonna be very, very cold.
 
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#8
Yep, that's right, Dynamo Kiev are at home to Inter while Arsenal are at home to Lokomotiv.

As it stands:
Lokomotiv- 8 points
Arsenal- 7 points
Inter- 7 points
Dynamo Kiev- 6 points

If both games are drawn, that should send Arsenal and Lokomotiv into the final 16. If head-to-head counts with Arsenal and Inter on level points, Arsenal should be able to scrape through as such because they've scored more vs Inter.
 

GoalsFrom50Out

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#10
Originally posted by David Votoupal
Yep, that's right, Dynamo Kiev are at home to Inter while Arsenal are at home to Lokomotiv.

As it stands:
Lokomotiv- 8 points
Arsenal- 7 points
Inter- 7 points
Dynamo Kiev- 6 points

If both games are drawn, that should send Arsenal and Lokomotiv into the final 16. If head-to-head counts with Arsenal and Inter on level points, Arsenal should be able to scrape through as such because they've scored more vs Inter.
Well, on aggregate:

Arsenal 5 - 4 Inter Milan
Lokomotiv 4 - 1 Inter Milan
Arsenal 1 - 2 Dynamo Kyiv
Lokomotiv 3 - 4 Dynamo Kyiv
Arsenal 0 - 0 Lokomtiv
Inter Milan 2 - 1 Dynamo Kyiv

Lokomotiv only need a draw to advance, whereas Arsenal need a win.
 

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apollo_creed

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#12
Originally posted by X_box_X
Apparently the Chelsea / Sparta game was one of the worst games of the year.

Mutu one-on-one with the keeper and sprayed in three meters wide. :eek:
It wasn't great. Largely due to the fact that Sparta had about forty men behind the ball.

Mutu's miss was pretty poor. Worse as it was in about the 90th minute. He broke the offside trap and did a postiga.
 

JF_Bay_22_SCG

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#13
Originally posted by apollo_creed
Group A

Bayern 'Should' win at home, while Celtic's lost there last 5 away in the Europe, so a betting man would go with the home teams Bayern and Lyon. Meaning Bayern would finish second and one unlucky group winner would be forced into a tricky R16 2 Legged tie against Bayern.

This is what worries me. Bayern are capable of beat any club in the world (including Real Madrid, against whom they have a darn respectable record), but only seem to perform under the highest of pressure. Hopefully Messrs Rummenigge and Hoeness will remind the players that for a club of our statue not reaching the 2nd round is just NOT acceptable.

We stayed strong at the back at Celtic, despite 4 players nerve-tinglingly being on yellows for much of the match. But for a club like FCB with the calibre of players at its disposal it is highly annoying seeing players unable to string 3-4 passes together, as well as bitching publically whilst doing things like setting for a wall etc etc. And trying to play a counter-attack style game, but constantly stopping in midfield due to Ballack's terrible state of injuries at the moment. Sad, especially when you consider the money spent on Roy Makaay, who was hardly sighted on Wednesday night. :-(

From a Bayern perspective, the message is simple-JUST WIN. If not, there will be more pressure than ever for Ottmar Hitzfeld to keep his job.

But as we have seen, Anderlecht and Celtic are capable of springing surprises. I'll sleep well (NOT!) thinking about that.

JF
 
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#15
Originally posted by X_box_X
Apparently the Chelsea / Sparta game was one of the worst games of the year.

Mutu one-on-one with the keeper and sprayed in three meters wide. :eek:
Chelsea had only a few chances...Gallas and Crespo hit the bar and Mutu had that horrific miss...we should knock off Besiktas and go through as Group G leader
 

apollo_creed

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#16
Originally posted by noogie_da_sheep
Chelsea had only a few chances...Gallas and Crespo hit the bar and Mutu had that horrific miss...we should knock off Besiktas and go through as Group G leader
Hate to nitpick but Gallas hit the post from his 1 yard from goal header.;)

I woulnd't be too confident against Beskitas if I were you. They've already knocked you guys off once and from what I saw of them against Lazio they'll provide pretty tough opposition. With far more attacking threat than Sparta. Also they have a pretty formidable defensive record in Europe as well. I can't reemmber the exact statistic but they've only conceded about 8 goals in there last 15 games or something. Add to that they beat you 2-0 at the Bridge, it makes for a pretty interesting encounter.

Saying that I think you guys might just get a result to send you top, whether it be a win or draw. Infact all being well all three English teams 'should' top there groups. If it was being played in Turkey i'd probably lean towards a Besiktas win or a draw. But as it's being played on neutral territory i'm leaning towards a Chelsea win or a draw.

While I'm on Chelsea I found Adrian Mutu to be highly dissapointing today. He seemed to 'hog' the ball at times instead of going for an obivous pass to an open player (not that there was too much open space). I hope he lifts his game for the big match against Man Utd on Sunday, as a Villa fan I just want to see all the top players fit and firing to make for a world class spectacle to enlighten a disheartened Villa fan already planning for Div 1 next season.
 

GoalsFrom50Out

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#17
Originally posted by apollo_creed
Saying that I think you guys might just get a result to send you top, whether it be a win or draw. Infact all being well all three English teams 'should' top there groups. If it was being played in Turkey i'd probably lean towards a Besiktas win or a draw. But as it's being played on neutral territory i'm leaning towards a Chelsea win or a draw.
Where is it being played, by the way? UEFA site has it listed as the Inönö in Turkey.
 

apollo_creed

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#18
Originally posted by GoalsFrom50Out
Where is it being played, by the way? UEFA site has it listed as the Inön* in Turkey.
Obviously for political reasons, during the Chelsea game they just said it would be at a 'neutral venue', most probably wherever the Juventus v Galatasaray match is played. They did mention a country but my memory isn't too flash.
 
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