Madsear's Guide to the Champion's League

Tuesday night will mark the second match day of the 2007/2008 UEFA Champions League and a few pretty interesting matches are going to take place. Some heavyweights are facing each other. Here is a short preview of Tuesday's games - ESPN Classic will show Stuttgart-Barcelona while ESPN2 will show the Manchester United-Roma revenge.

Lyon – Rangers (E)

Lyon, having won their sixth consecutive title in the French championship last spring has made the Champions League their main objective this season. After a lackluster beginning domestically this season to say the least, they have started playing like champions again and will receive the Scottish side to get their first points in this year’s CL campaign. The Rangers have a lot of recent French links when you see their midfield is composed of Brahim Hemdani and Amdy Faye (the last time I checked). The Rangers, and Scottish sides in general, don’t succeed very well when it comes to playing French teams in France (we’ll forget how the French NT lost to Scotland a few weeks ago in Paris) but they will try to create an upset by locking the midfield and more precisely Juninho. I’ll bet on Lyon and given Karim Benzema’s actual form, they may even be given the Barcelona treatment.

Stuttgart – Barcelona (E)

The other teams in the Group will face off in Germany and you can count on the Germans not to be the expiratory victims of the Blaugranas on Tuesday night. They will have to create and provoke the Catalan defense if they want any shot at winning this match. They surprisingly lost to the Rangers in match day 1 and will need at least a point if they want to be competing for something other than the wooden spoon. Concerning Barcelona, their season officially started and even more importantly, Thierry Henry’s season started since the Frenchman “VaVaVoomed” his way through Levante’s defense this Sunday and scored his first hat-trick in Spain. During the same match, the Spaniards lost Yaya Touré, who’s been controlling the midfield since the beginning of the season, for a month. Now that the machine seems somewhat on and after the last displays from both Léo Messi and Henry, the missing superstars (like Ronaldinho and Eto’o) won’t be missed much for the moment.

Man. United – Roma (F)

The last time these two sides faced off in last year’s quarterfinals, Sir Alex Fergusson’s boys managed to score seven times in what is still the biggest humiliation in Rome’s history. What is sure is that Luciano Spaletti’s players (most of whom were already present in last year’s debacle) won’t let lightning strike twice. Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi are still some of the best players in the world and Rome’s defense is considered to be one of the strongest in Serie A. We’ll see one of the most interesting confrontations yet this year for sure. Two teams that have been offering the best examples of what football should be in recent memory. Manchester has lost only one of their last 33 home outings in the UEFA Champion’s League. Without their starting keeper Edwin Van der Sar, they’ll need all of their confidence to give us a display anywhere near last year’s tour de force. If you're going to watch one game tonight, watch this one.

Dynamo Kyiv – Sporting (F)

The first bad news for everybody is that the match will be refereed by Mr. Bertrand Layec, a French tough guy who likes to distribute yellow cards like flyers. If any of the 22 players doesn’t behave, they’ll be sure to be sent off. Now concerning the game itself, it will allow the two teams competing for the UEFA third round qualification to face off pretty early. Not to disrespect the Ukrainian side, but they have been showing such poor skills this season that the Portuguese are a cinch for third place and will be able to confirm the very encouraging display they’ve shown two weeks ago. Their midfield Russian metronome Marat Izmailov should be coming back from an achilles injury for the first time this season and that alone is amazing news for them.

CSKA Moscow – Fenerbahçe (G)

Speaking of Russia, Moscow will be playing extraordinary early against Fenerbahçe. The game will be played at 8.45PM local time. So three hours earlier than any other game. This game is the one to end a disappointment streak for the Russian squad who will look for extra motivation in the Champions League to restart their season. Having lost to the PSV and after losing their shot at the domestic title to Zenit St Petersburg last week, this is the only way to save their season. Fenerbahçe on the other hand have defeated Internazionale Milan in an exemplary display of team spirit two weeks ago. The Turkish side has seen better days domestically but created THE upset of the first match day. They might even have secured their spot in a European competition next spring. This game certainly won’t be a scoring fest but if you like tactical mind games in extreme temperatures (and who doesn't? - Large), this one shouldn’t be missed.

Internazionale – PSV (G)

Where’s the magic? Internazionale has not been playing close to the way they were last year. Now the Serie A is only five games deep and the Nerazzuri are having internal difficulties that may take weeks to be resolved. The two teams each have a legendary player as a coach - Ronald Koeman and Roberto Mancini (who seems to be in it to get personal revenge on Koeman after Koeman captained Barcelona and won the 1992 UEFA Cup by humiliating Mancini’s lifelong team of Sampdoria). PSV has a very strong chance of getting a result in Italy when you see the amount of players missing from the interist team these days: Marco Materazzi, Patrick Vieira, Ivan Córdoba, Maicon, Nicolás Burdisso, while other superstars Zlatan Ibrahimović, Olivier Dacourt and Christian Chivu should be able to report for duty. PSV will rely as usual on their amazing team spirit and speed that could outrun any European side in the fall. Ronald Koeman’s boys could be eliminating the Italians if they win the confrontation.

Steaua Bucarest- Arsenal (H)

Arsenal is the only team worth seeing this year in the Premiership. More seriously though, the team that Arsène Wenger was able to put together took a year of adjusting without Thierry Henry (who was injured most of last season). This season, they’ve just been monstrous. It is funny that their only English player is the much-hyped youngster Theo Walcott, but Arsenal have been incredible when it comes to skills and overall quality. How could I forget Cesc Fabregas who’s been able to lift up any fantasy football team he’s been incorporated in this year. Everybody was expecting a transition year after Thierry Henry left the Emirates Stadium but Fabregas has been playing like a Ballon d’Or contender for six months now. It doesn’t seem to matter who they play, they’re just going to eat them alive. The Romanian side is shook, and it’s understandable. They just changed their coach so they do not reek of stability at the moment.

Sevilla – Slavia Prague (H)

Back to back UEFA Cup Winners Sevilla were outplayed in every single compartment of the game by Arsenal in London two weeks ago. Now they’ll receive the Czech champions for their first reception this year. Sevilla is one of the more pleasant sides coming out of Spain, outshining Barcelona on their home turf when it comes to offering showmanship. The tragedy that struck them with the death of their very young player Antonio Puerta is still on everyone’s mind but the players have been showing some pleasure the last few displays and may even be on the verge of the fun days of yore. Their striker Frederic Kanouté has been constantly efficient at home the last few seasons, and he’s entered his season officially two week ends ago. The Slavia Prague are a great team with an extremely rigorous style of play, but believe it or not, the size of the pitch tomorrow will be a great disadvantage for the kind of game they’ll be in Spain to play. The losing streak of the Sevillans is bound to stop at one point or another. I’m willing to bet it’s going to be tomorrow night.