Thursday, November 05, 2009

Champions League 2009-2010 4th round group stages

Liverpool had to defeat Olympique Lyon away after losing 1-2 at home in the previous round. But last night the English team only managed a 1-1 draw, and with 4 points it is now almost impossible that Liverpool progresses to the next round: Livepool must win their remaining two matches and Fiorentina must not win any of their remaining two matches (of which the last one is between Liverpool and Fiorentina, and could prove crucial!). Watching Liverpool play, this is not surprising: although managing to dominate at moments, and getting ahead on a beautiful strike by Marcus Babbel, Lyon was the better team, and it will in fact be interesting to see whether this season may be the one for the French side.
In fact, French sides seem on top this season: Bordeaux defeated Bayern Munich 0-2 in Germany to surprisingly take the top spot in group A ahead of Juventus, while Olympique Marseille is only one point behind AC Milan and Real Madrid in group C, and will have to face both in their last two matches. Real Madrid only managed to tie against AC Milan, and while they retain the second spot, they are not looking as strong as expected.
The defending champions of Barcelona are not looking as awesome as last season either, and are struggling in group D, which is certainly the most exciting group: Inter is leading with 6 points, just ahead of Rubin Kazan and Barcelona with 5 points, while Dynamo Kiev has 4 points on last place, but can still win the group! The next round where Spanish and Italians face each other will be nail-biting!
While Atlético Madrid has been hugely disappointing and is already out after only managing to tie Chelsea 2-2 and trailing FC Porto, Sevilla has been the most awesome Spanish team, and is sure to progress from Group D where Unirea Urziceni and VfB Stuttgart are to fight for the second spot.
Finally, Manchester United and Arsenal seem set to win groups B and H respectively, with Wolfburg (by the way, cool intro-music on their web-site!), CSKA Moscow, Olympiakos and Standard Liege all having chances of progressing with them.

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