UEFA Champions League 2009-10

[Proof]

The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League will be the 55th edition of the Europe's premier club football tournament and the eighteenth edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. It is also the first edition under the new qualifying format.The Final for the 2009–10 season will be played on 22 May 2010, at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home ground of Real Madrid, in Madrid, Spain.[1] This year's final will be the first to be played on a Saturday night, and the matches from the first knock-out round will be spread over four weeks instead of two.

Now after the befitting summary of this season's UCL campaign, I would love to see us playing and defeating Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu. I want them now, instead of a revenge against Barcelona, because I want to see Perez's monstrous big money project fail to a team which doesn't pay their players with £150,000 per-week. This would be a victory for football. Come On Arsenal!

 

[DREVAK]

The draw for the third qualifying round was made yesterday, a couple of big names such as Celtic, Shakhtar or Panathinaikos were in. Here is the draw in full. And if you are like me and have next to no idea about the new format, this will help. Well, should. Maybe.

 

[bertlb2]

<a class="postlink" href="http://kassiesa.net/uefabackup/seedcl2009.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://kassiesa.net/uefabackup/seedcl2009.html</a>
That is quite scary, isn't it? We could face one of Stuttgart, Fiorentina, Atletico in the playoff round, while the best ranked of the Champions path is Olympiakos. I am not too sure about this new format; it clearly disadvantages teams like us.

 

[GaelForce22]

Barcelona - 4/1
Madrid - 9/2
Chelsea - 6/1
Man United - 13/2
Liverpool - 9/1
Inter - 11/1
Arsenal - 14/1
Milan - 16/1
Juventus - 20/1
Bayern Munich - 20/1
Sevilla - 40/1
Wolfsburg - 50/1
Lyon - 50/1
Porto - 50/1
Atletico - 50/1
Fiorentina - 50/1

I reckon Barca to win it again. But then Madrid were my tip last year and Inter the year before that, so don't take my advice too seriously.

 

[Meatwad]

so Arsenal will face one of these teams in the play-off round.

Lyon
Stuttgart
Fiorentina
Atlético Madrid
Sparta Prague/Panathinaikos
Shakhtar Donetsk/Timisoara
Sporting CP/Twente
Celtic/Dynamo Moscow
Anderlecht/Sivasspor

I'd prefer the Anderlecht/Sivasspor winner or the Sporting CP/Twente winner. Although I think we can handle any of these teams over two legs to be honest.

 

[bertlb2]

We cannot face Sporting because of their ranking. They are high enough to be seeded like us when the draw is made. The only teams we are sure we won't face are Sporting, Lyon, Pana and Shakhtar.

 

[Meatwad]

I didn't know they still had seeding in the play-off round, I thought they got rid of it. In that case who is eventually seeded could dramatically change if there are some upsets in these ties in the 3rd round:

Sparta Prague/Panathinaikos
Shakhtar Donetsk/Timisoara
Sporting CP/Twente

 

[Proof]

http://kassiesa.net/uefabackup/seedcl2009.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That is quite scary, isn't it? We could face one of Stuttgart, Fiorentina, Atletico in the playoff round, while the best ranked of the Champions path is Olympiakos. I am not too sure about this new format; it clearly disadvantages teams like us.

This new format will is more attractive than the old one, because now to play in the UCL groups you have to be a good team and it makes the 3rd round more exciting. We are not a team from San Marino football league, we reached last season's semi-final in this tournament.

 

[Meatwad]

actually there will be more weaker teams in the group stage because of this new format. in the playoff round teams from the champions path can't be drawn against teams from the non-champions path. the champions path will be filled with weak teams and 5 of them are guaranteed to go into the group stage.

5 of the 20 teams in the 3rd qualifying round, champions path will be in the group stage:

<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9310_UEFA_Champions_League#Third_qualifying_round" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80 ... ying_round</a>

 

[DREVAK]

I just watched a poor performance by Gilberto and his Panathinaikos teammates against a surprisingly hard working Sparta Prague side. The Greeks lost 1 – 3 but the second leg is played in Athens so it's hardly a foregone conclusion. Still, I suspect it's Sparta who have the upper hand now. Which might be relevant to Arsenal as that would make them potential opponents for the fourth non champions qualifying round.

 

[Proof]

Shakhtar Donetsk 2-2 FC Timisoara

That result it's arguably one of the biggest surprises of this qualifying round. It looked like the Ukrainians were overconfident, so they missed some good opportunities. Pantilimon, the visitors GK was also at his best, saving some good shots. The 2nd leg will be interesting, I would prefer Timisoara to go through because they are the weaker team and we could face them and I could watch our boys live.

 

[Clrnc]

Celtic is in big big trouble.

To think I was so impressed by them in pre-season

 

[Meatwad]

first leg results were favorable to us in the race for an easier play-off draw. If Sparta Prague, Timisoara and Twente can close the deal then Stuttgart, Fiorentina and Atlético Madrid will be seeded for the play-offs.

 

[Meatwad]

sporting gets their away goal in the last minute of stoppage time and they are through. heartbreaking for twente. pana won 3-0, so they are through as well. so Fiorentina and Atlético Madrid are definite draw possibilities now. Stuttgart can still become seeded, but Shakhtar will probably get it done anyway.

 

[Clrnc]

Twente out again? How unlucky can they be?

And Sparta Prague...LOL at how they celebrated their 3-1 win last week only to lose 3-0 this week and go out

 

[DREVAK]

Well to be fair it was a massive achievement for them to win the home leg 3 – 1 and they played really, really well, much better than their league standard, so it could hardly be surprising to see them celebrate. And even then the fourth round was still far, far away as the current inexperienced Sparta squad had to get a solid result in Athens. They weren't favourites to go through to the next round even on the back of the first leg result, although it has to be said Panathinaikos had their work cut out as well.

Sparta approached the match thinking they could shut up shop and it worked for forty minutes and in all honesty I could have seen them holding on to a goalless draw or a 0 – 1 loss with some luck. But they conceded late in the first half and then with the prospect of the next goal knocking them out it was always going to be difficult, especially against the superior Greek side.

Panathinaikos then scored their second and gave Sparta a taste of their own medicine with plenty of timewasting and focus on trying not to give the ball away. Only very late into the second half did the Prague side start to expose the opposition defense, and by doing so exposed their own folly. The Greeks' back lines haven't improved since the first leg and didn't have the easiest of times when Sparta threatened. Which, sadly for the Czechs, was only a precious few times.

They actually came very close in the dying minutes of the match, getting a shot from around the penalty area horribly wide and then heading straight at the keeper from six yards out, but they failed to score and have only themselves to blame. The Panathinaikos defense today could have been overcome if only Sparta could keep the ball for more than a few seconds and actually tried to attack instead of trying to park the bus.

 

[DREVAK]

Celtic overcome a tricky 0 – 1 scoreline from the home leg and beat Dinamo Moscow 2 – 0 away. FK Ventspils are the other team that has already qualified today but more will follow later tonight.

 

[Clrnc]

Quite surprised Bate didn't qualifiy.

So, Ventispils
Celtic
Levski
Timisoara (Surprise they knocked Shakthar out!)
Debrecen
Sheriff (Another big surprise)
Zurich
Apoel (Knocked Partizan out :Shock
Olympiakos
Kobenhavn (Wins the battle of Scandinavian)

 

[bertlb2]

And we will face one of:

Fiorentina
Atletico
Celtic
Anderlecht
Timisoara

 

[DREVAK]

Only an hour left before the draw. Arsenal, Lyon, Sporting, Panathinaikos and Stuttgart are the seeded non-champions and will be paired with Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Celtic, Anderlecht or Timisoara. In the champions qualifying path Olympiacos, Copenhagen, Levski Sofia, Maccabi Haifa and Zurich will face unseeded Salzburg, APOEL, Ventspils, Debrecen or Sheriff Tiraspol. There are bound to be some high profile fixtures in the non-champions group, I bet fans of the seeded teams will be wishing for either Anderlecht or Timisoara.