UEFA Champions league - 2011/2012 season - Match day 1

Davaeo09

Tonight see's the start of the the UEFA Champions league group stages.
With the qualifiers, and draws already done, there's nothing more for us to do than sit back and enjoy these group stages.

Tonight's games include!
Chelsea v Bayern Leverkusen
Racing Genk v Valencia
Olympiacos v Olympique Marseille
Borussia Dortmund v Arsenal
FC Porto v Shakhtar Donetsk
APOEL Nicosia v Zenit St. Petersburg
FC Barcelona vs AC Milan
Viktoria Plzen v BATE Borisov

All games kick of at 19.45

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Dortmund and Porto games should be crackers. I'd have no hesitation in watching the Dortmund game but for the fact it's on TV3.

TheTownie

THFC wrote: »

Dortmund and Porto games should be crackers. I'd have no hesitation in watching the Dortmund game but for the fact it's on TV3.

You know the way RTE commentary on those rare occasions malfunctions and you can only hear the crowd noise... Pity that can't happen for 90mins with TV3.

flahavaj

Anyone showing Barca/Meelan?

EuropeanSon

Some really good games there. Dortmund/Arsenal, Porto/Shakhtar, Barca/Milan, and Chelsea/Leverkusen should all be pretty good. Especially the first two. Hopefully Arsenal can look a bit better than they did on Saturday.

L'prof

Very nervous about tonights game. A draw would be a good result, so here's hoping!

Evil_Clown

flahavaj wrote: »

Anyone showing Barca/Meelan?

Setanta Ireland are showing this one

Nuri Sahin

Being a BVB follower, their game v Arsenal is the pick of the bunch tonight.

Dortmund lost against an in-form Hertha Berlin and have now dropped in the bottom half of the table. Something Arsenal can relate to early on. Sahin's influence in the middle is a massive loss. But they still have the core of the team that featured last season like Gotze, Kagawa, Großkreutz and Lewandowski, latter deputizing for the still injured Barrios. I hope all 4 players start tonight, though I have a feeling Klopp may spring a surprise with his line up tonight.. Lot of intelligence with and without the ball to cause Arsenal problems. Defensively, Dortmund have been a bit all over the place at times. No doubting the quality of their starting XI back line though in Piszczek -Hummels - Subiotic - Schmelzer.

Still, this is a young side and hopefully they won't be naive.
Klopp, their coach will should see to that. Should be a very entertaining game whatever the result and the BVB crowd will be well up for it.

___

Also looking forward to Genk - Valencia, should be a very open game likewise Porto - Shaktar! The latter will surely deliver a lot of goals. Watch out for Rodriguez for Porto, really coming to the fore this season.

Ibra not playing for Milan afaik, kinda taken the edge of this one. Still should be good but cannot see past Barca now.

HazDanz

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Some really good games there. Dortmund/Arsenal, Porto/Shakhtar, Barca/Milan, and Chelsea/Leverkusen should all be pretty good. Especially the first two. Hopefully Arsenal can look a bit better than they did on Saturday.

An Arsenal win might be on. It'll to be fairly open game and it'll be interesting to see how mertesacker gets on tonight against a quick moving team.

There really are a few fantastic games on tonight though like you said, would have liked to have watched Barca/Milan myself!

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

flahavaj wrote: »

Anyone showing Barca/Meelan?

Also on Sky on the red button.

SK1979

El LoCo Ade wrote: »

Being a BVB follower, their game v Arsenal is the pick of the bunch tonight.

Dortmund lost against an in-form Hertha Berlin and have now dropped in the bottom half of the table. Something Arsenal can relate to early on. Sahin's influence in the middle is a massive loss. But they still have the core of the team that featured last season like Gotze, Kagawa, Großkreutz and Lewandowski, latter deputizing for the still injured Barrios. I hope all 4 players start tonight, though I have a feeling Klopp may spring a surprise with his line up tonight.. Lot of intelligence with and without the ball to cause Arsenal problems. Defensively, Dortmund have been a bit all over the place at times. No doubting the quality of their starting XI back line though in Piszczek -Hummels - Subiotic - Schmelzer.

Still, this is a young side and hopefully they won't be naive.
Klopp, their coach will should see to that. Should be a very entertaining game whatever the result and the BVB crowd will be well up for it.

___

Also looking forward to Genk - Valencia, should be a very open game likewise Porto - Shaktar! The latter will surely deliver a lot of goals. Watch out for Rodriguez for Porto, really coming to the fore this season.
Ibra not playing for Milan afaik, kinda taken the edge of this one. Still should be good but cannot see past Barca now.

What about Juan Manuel Iturbe, is he going to get a look in for Porto soon? Whispers of him being something special.

flahavaj

SK1979 wrote: »

What about Juan Manuel Iturbe, is he going to get a look in for Porto soon? Whispers of him being something special.

Interested to see how Defour does there as well. Porto are amazing operators in the transfer market.

Buy small, sell big, rinse, repeat, keep winning.

SK1979

flahavaj wrote: »

Interested to see how Defour does there as well. Porto are amazing operators in the transfer market.

Buy small, sell big, rinse, repeat, keep winning.

Absolutely, they appear to be shrewd operators. Actually, will be interesting to see how Witsel does against us tomorrow night. Another Belgian guy who has a high profile.

Nuri Sahin

SK1979 wrote: »

What about Juan Manuel Iturbe, is he going to get a look in for Porto soon? Whispers of him being something special.

Wouldn't know much about him bar his appearance in the U20 world and scoring v Brazil and that I don't he has played for Porto yet afaik.

Apparently scored in the Copa Libertadores this summer though I don't recall it. Really only watched the Valez Sarsfield and Santos games in the Copa to be honest.

flahavaj

SK1979 wrote: »

Absolutely, they appear to be shrewd operators. Actually, will be interesting to see how Witsel does against us tomorrow night. Another Belgian guy who has a high profile.

I saw their qualifier and Witsel played very well. As long as he doesn't go jumping in tackles I'll be happy.

(Pretty gruesome footage if anyone's eating lunch).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiF6TYsUU-U

CorkMan

Barca-Milan should be a cracker.

It will be interesting to see how Van Bommel, Gattuso and Ambrosini will handle Barca's midfield.

Davaeo09

CorkMan wrote: »

Barca-Milan should be a cracker.

It will be interesting to see how Van Bommel, Gattuso and Ambrosini will handle Barca's midfield.

I wonder what kind of reception VB will get? :P
That tackle on Iniesta, and De Jong's on Alonso will stand out in memory for a long time to be honest.

Ibra being out is a massive loss for AC. But if a front line of Cassano, Pato and Robiniho is still frightening for any team!

CorkMan

Just found out Gattuso is still serving a 4 match ban from his confrontation with Joe Jordan last year, a big blow for Milan.

I wouldn't mind Van Bommel giving Busquets the same line of introduction he gave other players last year. He is a former Barca man and all, Van Bommel. I wonder how Puyol will be treated, he is susceptible to injury ATM.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

flahavaj wrote: »

Anyone showing Barca/Meelan?

Anyone with FlashSportsStreams know if this is on there? It's not in the schedule. They've 2 Setantas, Canadian and Australian, hardly on either of them.

Aidric

Plzen trading at just under evens are worth a decent bet. Living in Prague I follow the Czech league and have seen Plzen playing live a few times already this season and last.

They play a really exciting and attacking brand of football and whilst they won't trouble Barca they may get a draw at home to Milan. They went through their six qualifiers unbeaten, scoring 18 goals along the way and including away wins at Rosenborg and Copenhagen.

Nuri Sahin

Shaktar leading thanks to Helton messing up for Porto.

Nuri Sahin

Hulk equalises, 1-1

Aidric

Yes. 1-0 to Plzen on the stroke of half time, lovely swivel from Jiracek and plays it across the box to the in rushing Bakos.

Nuri Sahin

Aidric wrote: »

Yes. 1-0 to Plzen on the stroke of half time, lovely swivel from Jiracek and plays it across the box to the in rushing Bakos.

Very nice goal indeed.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Why was Ratkisky (sp) sent off? Says serious foul play on Score Centre.

Aidric

Balls, Bressan beats the offside trap and sticks it. Too easy. 1-1

dsmythy

Apoel Nicosia doing a good job against Zenit.

niallo27

What's with all the benders playing tonight

dsmythy

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

Victoria Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov

Aidric

All over in Prague. 1-1, a fair result on the balance of play.

Cypher_sounds

I see Fanni saw red for Marseille at the end there, good result for them though.

Nuri Sahin

Manchester City v Napoli: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov; Y Toure, Barry; Silva, Aguero, Nasri; Dzeko

Napoli XI vs Man City: De Sanctis; Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica; Zuniga, Gargano, Inler, Dossena; Hamsik, Lavezzi; Cavani

Mars Bar

No Jones for United.

grenache

El LoCo Ade wrote: »

Manchester City v Napoli: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov; Y Toure, Barry; Silva, Aguero, Nasri; Dzeko

Napoli XI vs Man City: De Sanctis; Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica; Zuniga, Gargano, Inler, Dossena; Hamsik, Lavezzi; Cavani

you beat me to it!

Really looking forward to this one. As a Napoli fan i can't believe how people tipping City to sweep us aside tonight. 3-0 and 4-1 are some of the predictions i've seen. While City have been extremely impressive so far, they've not met any team of real substance - until tonight! This type of game is made for Napoli, who will look to hit City on the break, on their day Napoli are best counter-attacking side in Serie A. Hamsik, Cavani and Lavezzi will certainly keep Kompany & co on their toes. Inler in midfield will show up Gareth Barry for the pedestrian that he is - that is if De Jong doesn't decide to break his knees with one of his customary OTT tackles. Dossena can make this regular jaunts up the wing too. Watch out for Paolo Cannovaro at centre back too, nearly as good as his brother was at his peak. Certainly one of the most under-rated defenders around today. So, it's all set, this is the real best game on tonight, with all due respect to United and Benfica.

Forza Napoli!!

Nuri Sahin

Villarreal XI vs Bayern Munich: Diego López; Mario, Musacchio, Zapata, Catalá; Marchena, Senna, Bruno, De Guzmán; Rossi, Nilmar

Bayern XI vs Villarreal: Neuer, Boateng, van Buyten, Badstuber, Lahm; Tymoshchuk, Schweinsteiger; Müller, Kroos, Ribery,Gomez


Should be goals galore in this one hopefully. Fingers crossed, all of them for Gomez

flahavaj

grenache wrote: »

you beat me to it!

Really looking forward to this one. As a Napoli fan i can't believe how people tipping City to sweep us aside tonight. 3-0 and 4-1 are some of the predictions i've seen. While City have been extremely impressive so far, they've not met any team of real substance - until tonight! This type of game is made for Napoli, who will look to hit City on the break, on their day Napoli are best counter-attacking side in Serie A. Hamsik, Cavani and Lavezzi will certainly keep Kompany & co on their toes. Inler in midfield will show up Gareth Barry for the pedestrian that he is - that is if De Jong doesn't decide to break his knees with one of his customary OTT tackles. Dossena can make this regular jaunts up the wing too. Watch out for Paolo Cannovaro at centre back too, nearly as good as his brother was at his peak. Certainly one of the most under-rated defenders around today. So, it's all set, this is the real best game on tonight, with all due respect to United and Benfica.

Forza Napoli!!

Inler was a really shrewd signing for them as well. Will be keeping a close eye on this one. A tough debut for City.

Nuri Sahin

Real Madrid XI vs Dinamo Zagreb: Casillas; Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo; Alonso, Coentrao; Di María, Özil, Ronaldo; Benzema


As expected.


______




Lille XI vs CSKA: Landreau, Debuchy, Basa, Rozenhal, Beria, Mavuba, Balmont, Pedretti, Obraniak, Hazard, Sow.

Pretty much full strength. Another game on paper that I'd hope will provide some goals. Look forward to Hazard and Sow making their CL debut.

CorkMan

I wonder how Cavani will do for Napoli tonight.

Nuri Sahin

Bayern 1-0 up thanks to Kroos.

Nuri Sahin

G'wan the Sow. Clever finish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUj6ScQWxbk

Lille 1-0

edit - Lille 2-0, Pedretti

grenache

Vaffanculo Zabeletta! Great block from hamsik.

grenache

Yahoo!!!! What a break, what a goal!!!!! Maggio break was magic, perfect pass to Edison and bang!

Forza napoli!!

Nuri Sahin

Lol Inter. They always have one shocker in the group stages, losing 0-1

Good finish.

flahavaj

El LoCo Ade wrote: »

Lol Inter. They always have one shocker in the group stages, losing 0-1

Good finish.

Gasperini under big pressure straight away.

Nuri Sahin

2-2 it finishes in Lille, Doumbia brace earns CSKA the draw.

dor83

flahavaj wrote: »

Gasperini under big pressure straight away.

It's not all his fault, the players looked like they didn't want to play tonight, they didn't even try. I can't understand how the players can put is so little effort, they never looked like they wanted to win the ball back and seemed happy to let Trabzonspor have it. The papers will all be blaming Gasp tomorrow but the players have to take as much of the blame because they were useless.