Champions League Round Up

Celtic claimed a memorable late win over holders Milan, Chelsea defeated Valencia, but Liverpool lost to Marseille in the UEFA Champions League.

Elsewhere, Olympiakos and Shakhtar Donetsk recorded notable firsts, while Real Madrid were held by Lazio.

Liverpool are now bottom of Group A after slipping up at home to Marseille, who had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half.
The telling goal arrived on 77 minutes when Mohamed Sissoko lost possession in his own half and Mathieu Valbuena capitalised with a superb curling shot.

Ricardo Quaresma scored an injury-time goal to hand Porto a 1-0 win over Besiktas in Turkey.

In Group B, Chelsea produced a stirring comeback at the Mestalla to repeat last season's 2-1 win over Valencia.
David Villa pounced on some shoddy defending to give Valencia the lead on nine minutes before Joe Cole levelled from close range midway through the first half.
Cole's sumptuous pass with the outside of his foot on 71 minutes released Didier Drogba to score the winner with a clinical finish.

Group minnows Rosenborg are now bottom of the section after Schalke won 2-0 at Lerkendal.
Jermaine Jones' well-taken goal on 62 minutes put Schalke ahead and Kevin Kuranyi caught Rosenborg on the break with a second a minute from time.

Celtic's spirited performance against reigning champions Milan was rewarded with a dramatic 2-1 win at Parkhead.
Stephen McManus, with the help of Yoann Gourcuff, put Celtic ahead on 62 minutes, but Kaka equalised from the penalty spot just six minutes later.
In the final minute, Dida could only push Gary Caldwell's shot back into the path of Scott McDonald, who gleefully accepted the gift.

Shakhtar Donetsk are now top of the group after picking up a first away win in the Champions League after Jadson's 42nd minute goal saw off Benfica in Lisbon.

Lazio twice came from behind to force a 2-2 draw at home to Real Madrid in Group C.
Ruud van Nistelrooy put Real ahead after just eight minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, but Goran Pandev's cushioned finish drew Lazio level on 32 minutes.
A cute finish from Van Nistelrooy nudged Real back in front just past the hour mark, but Pandev then got his second of the game 15 minutes from time to secure a point.

Olympiakos delivered an impressive performance in Germany to win 3-1 at Werder Bremen, who had scored eight in the Bundesliga at the weekend.
Bremen had gone in front on 33 minutes through Hugo Almeida, only for Olympiakos to level on 72 minutes through Ireoklis Stoltidis.
Goals inside the final eight minutes from Christos Patsatzoglou and Darko Kovacevic earned the Greek side a first Champions League away win.

source: SkySports.com

Very happy with the Chelsea result yesterday, thought Ashley Cole was different class along with Drogba and Terry.
Another great use of the rotation policy by Raffa.
Congrats to Celtic great result

Lyon are now looking at an early exit after two succesive defeats ...surprising considering how well they have done in the past .

If they go out they must be looking to win the Uefa cup.

thats what i find unfair , why reward a team who have failed , a place in another european competition ...they had their chance in the Champions League ....that should be it ..

I agree completely - if you're out, you're out

finishing 4th is given the same treatment as finishing 1st. is that fair?

the rich get richer with UEFA.

i mean Lyon if they were to fail to qualify would then maybe face Tottenham who have gone through two or three home and away ties only to lose 2-1 to Lyon after Teflon makes another howler and throws the ball in the goal .

Still i guess the clubs are not to blame ...

That result was just another fins indication how p*ss poor French Football is. For years Lyon have dominated it without really ever making waves in European competition and teams like Bordeaux who have made the group stages in recent stages have really jsut been here to make up the numbers. Teams like Monaco, Auxerre and Marseille have all badly fallen off in recent years.

The favourites to win the Uefa Cup aren't even in it yet. Any Champions League reject that drops into the Uefa Cup are favourites ahead of the likes of Bayern Munich & Spurs.

That is spot on CFC, its farcical in my opinion.

Saying "ANY CL reject" are favourites to win it is spot on in your opinion? There are a few teams that could finish 3rd in their group that personally i wouldn't consider favourites over Bayern. Over Spurs yes, but not over Bayern.

For Bayern to stop being favourites we'd have to see some really good teams joining them from the CL: teams like Liverpool, Werder and Lyon are still on 0 or 1 points, but only Liverpool could potentially earn the favourites label from Bayern. But not on current form probably.

So, until we see one of the big boys joining them it is obvious Bayern are the favourites. But imo teams like ManU, Real, Barca, Chelsea, Inter, Roma, Arsenal and Sevilla will go through, one way or another, so for the time being that leaves us with Liverpool and (maybe) AC Milan as the only teams that could fail to progress in the CL and end up challenging Bayern.

No, that it is impossible to lay claim to any favourites as we don't even know who all the teams competing will be as yet.

Its a farce that you can be knocked out of the competition...only to still find yourself in Europe with the added bonus of going for the UEFA Cup.

It maybe a farce but like marios said unless the likes of AC milan dont qualify Bayern are favourites imho.

I'll say it again, Any team that finishes 3rd in their CL group, automatically becomes favourite (according to some, not all bookies). Read about it last week. That was last week of course and odds may have changed since then

But that's not strictly correct. If you finish 3rd or 4th you still have to play qualifying games to go through, if you don't win them then your out of the CL.

As for fail to make the CL so you get a UEFA Cup spot I totally agree that is all wrong. If they have places to give out then they should be given to the runners up of the Carling Cup or the team that's committed the less amount of fouls (Fair play award)...or something.

oh come on man, playing against some thrid world p*ss poor conference standard side is hardly a challenge worthy of "the greatest club tournament in the world"

But what is the alternative (i'm talking about the CL)? Having the champions of countries like Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania etc go straight into the CL groups in the place of teams from England, Spain and Italy? Wouldn't that really bring the level down?

Imo, it works as it is. It's not unfair for countries with stronger leagues to have larger representation in the competition. And i say that as someone who is from a small country (Cyprus).





Regarding the UEFA Cup, i'm not sure that the bookies would call ANY team that finishes 3rd a bigger favourite than Bayern. Just look at some of the teams that look likely to finish 3rd and you'll see that bookies would be crazy to rate all of them higher than Bayern. If there's an article about this somewhere i'd like to read it please.

how are those leagues supposed to progress when their champions are not even treated the same as a team finishing 3rd in another country?

Well Ajax were in there bracket.