AaB 0 - Manchester United 3

Villareal 1 - Celtic 0

Bayern Munich 1 - Lyon 1

Fiorentina 0 - Steaua Bucharest 0

Arsenal 4 - FC Porto 0

Fenerbache 0 - Dynamo Kiev 0

Bate 2 - Juventus 2

Zenit St. Petersburg 1 - Real Madrid 2

The surprise of the night ha to be Bate Borislav drawing 2 - 2 with Juventu hands down.

2nd half substitute against Villareal at home in the 62nd minute and looking damn sharp for a guy who’s been out injured for the better half of three months.

I love the Champions League. The best teams from Europe combined with mid week, day time games that allow me to play hookie and meet up at the pub with friends. Come on, doesn’t get a whole lot better than that. My version of the businessman special. And today it makes its return with ESPN2 showing Chelsea v Bordeaux. Good times, good times…

Say hello to the 2008 Champions League ball. Pretty fresh looking. Gotta get us one of these…

Sami Hyypia is not a happy camper after finding out that he’d been left off Liverpool’s Champions League squad just after the Transfer Day Deadline.

Hyypia, who was the subject of a 2.5 Million Pound bid by Stoke was notified AFTER the deadline but felt that if he had known he was left off due to the new 8 home-grown rule by UEFA, he might have made a different choice.

Hyypia said: ‘The decision to leave me out of the squad is a big disappointment. But the club had perfect timing.

‘They didn’t want me to move elsewhere, so I was told just after the transfer window.’

image via TheWorldOfUs

Group A 

Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, CFR 1907 Cruj

Group B

Inter, Werder Bremen, Panathanaikos, Anorthosis Famagusta

Group C

Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, FC Basel, Shaktar Donetsk

Group D

Liverpool, PSV, Marseille, Atletico Madrid

Group E

Manchester United, Villareal, Celtic, Aalborg BK

Group F

Olympique Lyonnais, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina

Group G

Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbache, Dynamo Kiev

Group H

Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St. Petersburg, Bate Borisov

image via FreshSportsNews

Not only is it a big day in the world of big business transfers, but it’s also the day that the balls drop and teams find out who gets who in the Champions League Group Stage draw in Monaco.

With all the major clubs directors in town (the Uefa Club Player of the Year will also be announced while the Uefa Group Stage Draw will be held on Friday), you know at least a couple more deals are about to be finalized as well as clubs looking to pick up fringe players on the cheap.

The 32 teams that have qualified will be put into a pot, picked out one by one and will end up in eight different groups of four teams.

None of the English teams will face each other in the early Group Stages after all were made a top seed.

Roma’s Stade Olimpico will host the 2009 Champions League Final on May 27th.

With Arsenal facing FC Twente in a Champions League qualifier tonight, now is not the time to face an injury crisis. Failure to qualify for the group stages would cost the Gunners some £25m in potential income, and that would be no bueno. Cesc Fabregas is the latest Arsenal player to suffer an injury setback, leaving Arsene Wenger without NINE players for tonights qualifier.

(more…)

I was thinking about Drogba’s Red Card during my flight from Dallas to LAX on Sunday and it got my thinking.

We see so many times during huge matches (Zidane anyone) players lose their cool in a split second.  Hell, even I got a Red Card for retaliation during the 2000 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Hershey.

Why though?  Is it because the players want it so badly?  What do you think?

Did Drogba deserve to be sent off?