the Champions League returns TODAY, yippee!

[Zech Marquis]

:bounce: after a watered down Super Bowl (btw, did the referees get their rings yet?) and an even worse Winter Olympics (no thanks to m$nazibc), I can finally turn on my tv both this evening and tomorrow for the UEFA Champions League to resume! Today the man event is Real Madrid hosting Arnesal, Liverpool going against Benfica. Then tomorrow, my favorite team Barcelona battles Chelsea in London, and Bayern Munich welcomes AC Milan :evilgrin: life is good for this football fan! :bounce:

[dr.zoidberg]

1. Should be good.

Hey, you forgot about PSV against Lyon. This is an interesting match because is is a re-match from last year's Champions League. I have no idea who will win this one as I have yet to see either team play.

I'd have to say that Arsenal has almost no chance against Real Madrid. Liverpool should win today, and I think will go through to the next round. Bayern against Milan should be an interesting match, but we'll never see it as ESPN is showing the Madrid/Arsenal match.

Barca against Chelsea is an interesting match-up. Just a few week ago, I would have said that Barca would have gone through without second thought. However, after Barca dropped a couple in a row the last few weeks, I'm not so sure. I say that Barca goes through, but in a close tough affair. The best part is that both matches between these side will be shown on ESPN. I'm so excited! :woohoo:

Also, Inter should beat floundering Ajax, Villareal should beat Rangers(I think that it is a miracle that Rangers have made it this far. Good job, boys, Scotland should be proud.), Juventus should beat Werder Bremen.

[Zech Marquis]

3. do you have Setanta Sports

ESPN2 will only be showing 2 games this week--although these will be Real Madrid/Aresnal and Barca/Chelsea :bounce: Setanta wil be showing like 3 games today AND tomorrow. I'll have tomorrow off from work to watch them all! PSV and Lyon looks like a real shootout, and poor Arsenal simpy doesn't have enough experience defenders to stop Real. But I have my dvr locked and loaded for all the action while I'm at work today :woohoo:

[dr.zoidberg]

4. Nope.

I know Setanta has a PPV service, but only for certain events and the Champions League matches are not on the list.

[Zech Marquis]

6. not on the ppv side

Setanta has the regular channel on directv, they showed 3 matches yesterday :woohoo:

[HuckleB]

2. Indeed.

Been waiting for Barca-Chelsea.

Salud!

[Zech Marquis]

5. 1st round results

Liverpool lost 1-0, no offense at all :-(
Bayern tied with Milan 1-1, mainly from a controversal penalty, but they still have a chance to advance (although they have to go to Milan to do it)
Arsenal upset Real Madrid 1-0, Hery scored after a higlight run and shot :woohoo:
Lyon beat PVS 1-0, and this onewas a real bloodmatch(3 guys got some nasty cuts and one broken nose too!)

Those were good warm up matches, but TODAY it's Barelona vs Chelsea, two clubs that just don't like each other, and Chelsea home pitch is in terrible shape too..
AND theother match I'll watch at the same time--Juventus vs Werner :woohoo: Did you guys know that Juve was founded by the same family who started Fiat?

[dr.zoidberg]

7. Re: results.

Liverpool shouldn't lost that match. They dominated the game the whole way and then let it slip away right at the end. A great win for Arsenal, getting that all important away goal. Today showed why Thierry Henri is IMO one of the best footballers in the world. The description of PSV/Lyon makes me wish I could have seen the game. Lyon is the kind of team that can get 5 goals if they want to.

I think Chelsea has always had problems with their pitch during the winter months in the past.

[Zech Marquis]

8. PSV played good in the first half

that was also when one guy got an accidental high kick to his foothead, then 2 other guys bumped heads, with one gettig a reak nasty cut--you culd se the blood just pouring out :evilgrin: finally another guy had his nose broken--i thought I was watching a WWE hell in a cell match LOL. But pSC lost their momentum in the seond half, and Lyon took advantage with that long range free kick score.

I can understand Chelsea's pitch being in bad shape, but at least they could have tried something. They have a damn Russian oil baron as owner, he could have at least painted the patch parts green, you'd think?

[dr.zoidberg]

9. Paint the pitch green?

That would be rather funny, I think. The thing is that the design of Chelsea's stadium prevent much sunlight from coming onto the pitch, so it is hard for the pitch to get dry. Of course, knowing Chelsea, they probably have a new stadium that they are building or something.

[Zech Marquis]

10. i know, a silly idea LOL

if they can spend over $200 million on new players, surely they could have done something to help the pitch out, oh well :shrug:

[HuckleB]

11. Damn.

Barca should have had at least four, probably more.

Now that was fun!

[Zech Marquis]

12. sure was a great match

way better than the Super Bowl was :woohoo: Barca could have scored at least 3 more times, and you have to think that sorry ass pitch played a small role in that. But when the second leg goes to Camp Nou, look out! Barca's going to run wild :evilgrin: Messi is the next global superstar, he ran right past the Chelsea stiffs in th mud and gunk!

[dr.zoidberg]

13. Wonder if the Super Bowl refs were working the Barca/Chelsea game...

A horrible job by the refs. A red card that shouldn't have been(at most, it should have been a yellow), a clearly missed NFL style tackle on Messi by Terry, and a missed handball by Terry...just ugh.

Also, two own goals in a single game. Goddamn, it's like the Keystone Cops. The cross by Marques to set up the second goal was a thing a beauty. Not as beautiful as Henri single-handily scoring against Real Madrid, but then I don't think that anything in this tournament can match that.

[HuckleB]

15. That's funny.

The same thing ran through my head. But then, during the Super Bowl, I was thinking about all the famous bizarro calls that have gone for Juventus over the years, so...

Still, if that ain't a red card, then what is?

[dr.zoidberg]

16. Well...

I felt that the offending player did not go into Messi with an intent to hit Messi. He went for the ball but the ball was gone and he accidentally hit Messi. It was clear that the collision was not intentional, so I feel the offending player should have been given a yellow card.

[HuckleB]

17. I'd say we have different interpretations of what happened.

The ball was never there, if he was going to play it, so... and dangerous play has more to do with acts than intention. There is no way to actually know intention.

[Zech Marquis]

18. the hand ball miss

I was mad about that one, almost like the referee chos to look the other way :argh: BUt what made my day was reading poor Mourinho crying about the red card and Messi--even I would say that was only worth a yellow card at most. But it made no difference, as Messi ran right past the Chelsea defenders all night long. When etoo got that cross, I knew he was going to score, it was so perfect! But Henri's one man march through Real's defense...that should be in the next Nike commercial :woohoo:

[HuckleB]

14. Indeed.

I have to admit to more than a few oohs and aahhs watching Messi. Even the Brit woman rooting for Chelsea at the table next to us (we watched at Costello's Travel Cafe http://www.costellostravelcaffe.com/ ) was impressed. But then she was outnumbered by about 30 to one.

:)