UEFA Champions League

• Laley23

  

  Huge match today in the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain.
  
  Inter Milan and Barcelona will match up in about an hour to possibly decide the fate of the group. Both teams have struggled so far in the group stage and no team in the group has it locked up. All 4 control their own destiny with only 2 matches to go.
  
  I havent read up on Inter heading into the match, but Barca MAY be very shorthanded. Messi and Ibrahimovic may both miss out on the clash with nagging injuries (and with Real Madrid visiting Sunday they cant risk the injuries becoming worse) and Abidal and Toure both have Swine flu and are doubtful.
  
  It will be very interesting to see the line-up Guardiola sends out there as they can afford a draw and a win in their next match to advance, but they are on the road in their final match. I expect both Messi and Ibra to play.
  
  Thoughts on this or the other matches coming up?
  Game will be on the Fox Sports Netowrks. FSN/FSO in Ohio. Lyon vs Fiorentina will be shown on FSC.
• Laley23

  

  Apparently nobody cares, lol.
  
  But Barca strikes first. Pique off the corner 10 minutes in. 1-0 To the Catalans.
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  What's the Champions league again??? Premier League is the English teams right??? But some of those teams are also Champions???
  
  Is the Champions League the one that plays it's final in June??? Is Man U involved in CL???
• CharlieHog

  Strapping Young Lad wrote: What's the Champions league again??? Premier League is the English teams right??? But some of those teams are also Champions???
  
  Is the Champions League the one that plays it's final in June??? Is Man U involved in CL???

  
  It's a tournament of all the best club teams in Europe. Each League gets to send a certain number of teams based on how good the league is. The Premier League in England sends their top 4 clubs.
• gorocks99

  

  Barca is up 2-0 in the 26th minute now. Elsewhere, Liverpool is leading 1-0 over Debrecen (Hungary)
• Laley23

  

  Champions League is basically tournamnet involving all the champions of the leagues throughout Europe. Small leagues send 1 team, bigger leagues the top 2 etc. The top leagues send 4 (England, Spain, Italy).
  
  You have a total of 32 teams in the tourney and 8 groups. Top 2 in each group (after 6 matches, 2 with each other team in group) advances to the knockout round of 16 teams. You play a home and home (2 matches) with winner advancing. The final is only 1 match.
• Laley23

  

  Barcas second goal was a thing of beauty. Soccer at its best. As the announcer said: "Barca with a moment of football ballet. Simply brilliant!"
• Laley23

  

  How is Milito still in this game? That should easily have been a second yellow for him.
• Life's a Pitch

  I wish I could be watching today!! Stuck at work.
  
  All work and no play makes Life's a Pitch a very dull boy-
• Mulva

  

  Huge win for Barca.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Inter looked absolutely terrible.
• Sage

  

  Was hoping my boy Samuel Eto'o would do to the damn thing today.
• Laley23

  

  SportsAndLadies wrote: Inter looked absolutely terrible.

  They did look bad. But Barca played the best game of the year (I have missed 2 games) but Im pretty confident in that statement.
  
  Barca is in great shape right now only needing a draw in their next match in Kiev, Ukraine. Inter on the other hand will have to beat Rubin Kazan in the San Siro (Kazan tied Barca in Russia and beat them in Spain).
  
  I was thrilled with the way Pedro and Iniesta played today. They were absolutely dominant on the wings. It was great to get the W without your starting #9 (Ibra) or Messi.
  
  BTW, is their a better Right Back in the world than Dani Alves or a better Central/Distributing Midfielder than Xavi Hernandez. It is unbelievable that Barca has (what most consider, not just myself) the best player in the world in 3 positions (Messi, Xavi, and Alves). Then have Yaya Toure and Andres Iniesta who are also arguably the best. I think Essien is a better Holding Mid than Toure, but I think Toure is the second best. Iniesta was crowned best player in the world by Rooney before the CL final last year.
• Laley23

  

  Sage wrote: Was hoping my boy Samuel Eto'o would do to the damn thing today.

  He was the ONLY player working for 90 minutes. You could tell he played a year under Guardiola. Inter really had no chance with the way they approached this game. Eto'o and Milito couldnt even get involved.
• cbus4life

  Wish work wasn't keeping my from missing most of the games. Will need to invest in DVR for the 2010 World Cup!