UEFA Champions League on the Way to Knockouts

Following some intense rounds in the Champions League, the best participating teams are still on the quest for a ticket to the coming Knockout Stage, in the straggle for the trophy of the most prestigious football tournament in Europe. With many tension the combats for new points in the 5th match day of the Group Stage starts with half of the groups (E, F, G and H) next Tuesday November 25th.

Trying to obtain a seat in the ‘Knockouts’, the Spanish fraction from Villarreal will measure its strength against the Manchester United. On this match the Yellow Submarine Spaniards will search relentlessly the victory to raise their advantage above the Red Devils and become leader of Group E. Without a doubt this won’t be an easy chore for Villarreal, since the Manchester has done a good work in the Champions, leading its group, although it owns 8 points as well as Villarreal, with the benefit of 2pts in the goal difference. Therefore United shows very positive about this encounter, although they might not count with their star Cristiano Ronaldo, due to a leg injury.

After not a very favorable season, Aalborg, that now celebrates their triumphs under by the command of the trainer Allan Kuhn, has imposed and now will look for a spot on the next round by confronting Celtic. The Celts hasn’t been able to stand out even though they are the present Scottish Premier League champions, currently they are in an unfavorable position at UEFA, due to the fact they have only achieved to score once in the 4 games that have passed on this phase, which makes them lose concentration and motivation. The Celtic players know very well this is their last chance in the competition, so they most try to take it, taking in consideration that football can be very unpredictable.

On the top of the next group (F) is the defending German Bundesliga champion of the 2007/08 season, Bayern Munich, will be able to qualify with just one point, but since they want to keep the lead, they will do all there’s possible to defeat Steaua Bucaresti at home. The Romanian club doesn’t come along with many winning possibilities, not just in the UEFA League but in the Romanian Liga I, where their weaknesses have started to become visible. Meanwhile to this encounter Bayern arrive as the favorite, thanks to their high level and of course the news around the return of the tremendous midfielder Franck Ribéry, who satisfactorily recovered from a injure suffered during their previous match against the Bucharest club.

Lyon, that even with a draw will qualify, it’s going to meet club Fiorentina at the Italians home, who contrarily to their rival needs above anything a victory to continue in this UEFA challenge. However, the ‘Violas’ appear quite motivated for the match, following an excellent score on their favor at the Calcio Italiano, while Lyon looks a little disappointed for losing to Paris Saint-Germain and the absence of Anthony Reveillere who’s injured and therefore out.

In spite of not having the most solid defense, Arsenal, the English leader of Group G, keeps its positivism to go ahead and fight Dynamo Kyiv, which will wrestle to not lose its opportunity to advance. Although Arsenal’s performance has been quite bad in their last Barclays Premier League games and has caused them a tumble down to fifth place on the table, for their pending clash with the Swedish rely on their new great player Cesc Fábregas, leaving them in an encouraging situation for the UEFA contest. Meanwhile Dynamo is going to try to repeat the story from 1999/2000 season to obtain the required points to reach the next phase.

Directed by the Spaniard Luis Aragonés, Fenerbahce arrives to their penultimate match day of the Group Stage confronting some difficulties in their players’ panel, from which the majority or at least the main ones are hurt or with cards accumulation, negative fact that affects the team’s integrity and puts it in the last position of their group. On this occasion see on the field the FC Porto that also presents some players troubles. By this point the Turkish have a low advantage, for the only thing they can reach with a victory on the encounter is a third place that would allowed them to continue playing but in the UEFA Cup.

For Zenit St. Petersburg will be a decisive clash too, but against Juventus. To stay in the tournament Zenit must defeat La Vecchia Signora that is practically in the Knockouts already and although right now has several players injured, they are high playing level team. The Russians at least have a weight less from their backs, since the Russian Premier League season is over and lets them focus more on the European tour.

The last encounter from the 25th game series, a very important one for the Real Madrid, will take part at Belarus against BATE Borisov; a problem for the ‘Merengues’, is that they won’t have, like some of the mentioned teams, some of their principal players due to injuries, even yet when BATE isn’t considered a real threat.

About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily Champions League games, sports news and the online betting industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.