We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Finally! We've come to the last set of matches in the group stage of the Champions League this season. There is still plenty to be settled in the matches over the next couple of evenings, but then we'll be on to the knock-out stages. Roll on March!
posted by The Blue Devil @ 1:37 PM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
34 Comments:
I've got a lovely stream for the Sky coverage of the afternoon's proceedings through My Premium TV:
http://mypremium.tv/
Here are the fixtures tonight:
Group A:
FC Twente v. Spurs
Bremen v. Inter
Group B:
Benfica v. Schalke
Lyon v. Hapoel
Group C:
Bursaspor v. Rangers
United v. Valencia
Group D:
Barca v. Rubin
Copenhagen v. Pana
The main drama will be around whether the two English sides in this section can finish top of their groups.
Ben Amos is given only his third Manchester United start. The sides for that match at OT tonight:
United: Amos, Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, Fabio Da Silva, Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Park, Berbatov, Rooney.
Subs: Kuszczak, Giggs, Smalling, Hernandez, Fletcher, Obertan, Macheda.
Valencia: Guaita, Miguel, Ricardo Costa, Dealbert, Mathieu, Pablo, Banega, Albelda, Jordi Alba, Dominguez, Aduriz.
Subs: Cesar, Maduro, Soldado, Mata, Feghouli, Costa, Isco.
Referee: Pedro Proenca (Portugal)
And the line-ups for the match in Holland:
FC Twente: Boschker, Rosales, Wisgerhof, Franco, Tiendalli, Brama, Landzaat, Janssen, de Jong, Janko, Chadli.
Subs: Mihailov, Bengtsson, Parker, Buysse, Vujicevic, Leugers, John.
Tottenham: Gomes, Corluka, Gallas, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Jenas, Palacios, Bale, Pavlyuchenko, Defoe.
Subs: Cudicini, Hutton, Lennon, Keane, Crouch, Giovani, Dawson.
Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)
Teams coming out on a very cold night in Manchester.
Lunch has been quickly dispatched and I'm set for kick off. Valencia to get us underway.
Andy Gray has suggested an interesting ManYoo trivia question:
Which one of the Da Silva twins came out of the womb first?
Fabio and Rafael are both on the pitch from the start tonight.
Non-league Droylsden have taken a shock early lead away to Leyton Orient in their FA Cup 2nd Round replay.
Roon still hasn't shaken off the lethargy on this early evidence.
A loose header from Rio gives Valencia a first corner opportunity.
Ooh - and it went straight across the area alarmingly.
Dominguez nearly in with a near post header there. Valencia are playing without a care in the world.
Decent one-two between Anderson and Roon but Anderson isn't really the one you'd want on the end of those chances, is he?
My boy Nani gets free for once on the right but his ball in is cut out easily.
GOAL! Spurs are gifted the lead through a Peter Wisgerhof own goal but it's a howler from keeper Boschker.
Ooh - Dominguez rattles the outside of the post there. Amos might have had it covered. It all stemmed from a loose ball in midfield by Roon.
Oh - Drac had a real chance there. Clean through on goal but he elected to round the keeper when a simple finish would have had United 1 up.
Rangers have taken the lead early doors through Kenny Miller. I don't think that changes anything in the group.
And Shalke had taken an early away lead at Benfica.
Another non-league outfit - Crawley Town - are locked at 1-1 with Swindon in their 2nd Round Cup replay.
Gooners rejoice - Twente have got a goal back in the 22nd minute through a penalty from Landzaat.
Anderson had a chance there to dink an easy ball over to a teammate and instead tried a no-hoper near post shot.
Coming up on half an hour and United may well rue these missed chances later on.
Oh - great move from United. A super ball over from Fabio and Park met it full on the volley. Good save.
GOAL! And United may well rue these missed chances now, because Hernandez has scored for Valencia. Lovely unselfish play from Dominguez.
0-1 Valencia.
Valencia would go through top if things stayed like this.
Copenhagen have taken the lead against Panathinaikos. They still have an outside chance of qualifying along with Barca.
More bad news for United as Vidic is hobbling off holding his ankle. Chris Smalling is warming up.
Oh - excellent try from Roon there. It looped over the keeper and off the crossbar. Nani missed the rebound.
Coming up on half time. I've got to run to a meeting.
I'm back after full-time. Here are the results from today's play:
Group A
Twente 3 Spurs 3
(Spurs win the group; Inter second)
Group B
Benfica 1 Schalke 2
Lyon 2 Hapoel 2
(Schalke win the group; Lyon second)
Group C
United 1 Valencia 1
Bursa 1 Rangers 1
(United win the group; Valencia second)
Group D
Barca 2 Rubin 0
Copenhagen 3 Pana 0
(Barca win the group; Copenhagen second)
Good night for the English then. Cheerio!
It was fantastic seeing United win the group. There was a wild game in the Netherlands as Twente and Spurs drew 3-3. There were some rather bizarre refereeing decisions as well, including Jenas being booked for limping off injured while being substituted. The referee deemed that to be time wasting even though he was actually injured. Now he is suspended for the opening match in the round of sixteen.The 40 year old Twente keeper made an embarassing error for the first Spurs goal as he completely missed the ball when attempting to clear it and watched the ball trickle over the line.
I'm back on Wednesday evening having missed all of the action today. Here's the summary:
Group E
Bayern 3 Basel 0
Cluj 1 Roma 1
(Bayern with the group; Roma second)
Group F
Marseille 1 Chelski 0
Zilina 1 Spartak 2
(Chelski win the group; Marseille second)
Group G
Real 4 Auxerre 0
Milan 0 Ajax 2
(Real win the group; Milan second)
Group H
Arsenal 3 Partizan 1
Shakhtar 2 Braga 0
(Shakhtar win the group; Arse second)
The Round of 16 draw comes up the day I fly out to London - next Friday, December 17.
Group winners: Tottenham Hotspur FC, FC Schalke 04, Manchester United FC, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern München, Chelsea FC, Real Madrid CF, FC Shakhtar Donetsk
Group runners-up: FC Internazionale Milano (holders), Olympique Lyonnais, Valencia CF, FC København, AS Roma, Olympique de Marseille, AC Milan, Arsenal FC
Teams cannot play side from their own group or their own association; group winners at home in second leg. Matches 15/16/22/23 February & 8/9/15/16 March.
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