Champions League 2008/09

[Benn]

Arsenal beat Roma 1:0

Lyon vs Barcelona 1:1

Milan vs Manchester 0:0 - disappointing for spectators

[Terry]

Sensation: Sporting lost 0:5 to Bavaria.
Expected: Chelsea Juventus 1:0

[Faw_Peter]

C. Ronaldo recently declared to the public that he is confident about Manchester's victory upon Inter in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash.

he said

"We won't make a mistake this time, I assure you, We'll have our fans with us and an even greater belief.

Let's wait for the results

[Steven]

This is the latest European rankings

European Power Rankings (previous rankings in brackets):

1. (2) Liverpool - 22.72

2. (1) Barcelona - 22.50

3. (5) Bayern - 20.29

4. (9) Chelsea - 20.00

5. (6) Manchester United - 19.78

6. (3) Real Madrid - 19.61

7. (10) Metalist Kharkiv - 19.37

8. (4) CSKA Moscow - 19.07

9=. (18) Hamburg - 19.00

9=. (8) Porto - 19.00

11. (15) Arsenal - 18.65

12. (7) Juventus - 18.57

13. (13) Internazionale - 18.23

14. (12) Lyon - 17.93

15. (16) Standard Liege - 17.52

16. (13) Roma - 17.17

17. (-) Panathinaikos - 16.86

18. (17) Atletico Madrid - 16.79

19. (-) Ajax - 16.33

20. (-) Galatasaray - 15.71

30. (40) Manchester City - 13.49

[Dima]

Steven, thanks for posting the ranking. Could you please give a link to the source?
I know of another UEFA Team Ranking 2009 at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2009.html">http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... k2009.html</a><!-- m -->

[Steven]

Sure Dima, here it is, it's the freshest for March 3
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.eu-forums.com/sport/champions-league-2008-09-t1880-50.html">sport/champions-league-2008-09-t1880-50.html</a><!-- l -->

[Dima]

Steven, pardon me, but what years had been used for computing the coefficients you gave us?
It does not look like it's a five-year period (04/05 through 08/09), as they do not agree with the coefficients last updated on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:40:24 CET at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2009.html">http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... k2009.html</a><!-- m -->

More meaningful might be UEFA Team Coefficients computed for 2008/2009.
Source: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/tcoef2009.html">http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... f2009.html</a><!-- m -->

1 Liverpool - 18.2440

2 Bayern Munchen - 17.9375

3 CSKA Moscow - 16.7500

4= Arsenal - 16.2440

4= Chelsea - 16.2440

6= Atletico Madrid - 16.2375

6= FC Barcelona- 16.2375

8 AS Saint-Etienne - 15.9140

9 Manchester United - 15.2440

10 Metalist Kharkiv- 15.1250

11 Juventus - 15.1000

12 Hamburger - 14.9375

13 Olympique Lyon - 14.9140

14 Galatasaray - 14.3500

15 Manchester City - 14.2440

16 FC Porto - 14.2425

17= Villarreal - 14.2375

17= Real Madrid - 14.2375

19 Shakhtar Donetsk - 14.1250

20 AC Milan - 14.1000

[Steven]

sorry for the mistaken link, I deleted a part of it by mistake, here it is again
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03032009/58/champions-league-european-power-rankings.html">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03032009/ ... kings.html</a><!-- m -->

[Terry]

Ashley Cole was recently arrested for swearing against the police. Yesterday he officially apologized for this. Cole began to swear when policemen approached him as they noticed he was drunk. He got away with fee.

[Dima]

This ranking system <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03032009/58/champions-league-european-power-rankings.html">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03032009/ ... kings.html</a><!-- m --> that Steven posted is good because it takes into account domestic games as well as CL and UEFA Cup games. The only thing that I do not like about this system is that they do not give any points for a draw.

A while ago I heard Gerrard had beaten up somebody in a Merseyside bar.

Gerrard, 28, will appear in court on 20 March charged with assault and affray.
The England midfielder appeared before magistrates last month, where he said he intended to plead not guilty to the charges. The incident took place during the early hours of 29 December.

[Faw_Peter]

Rio Ferdinand, Manchester's defender may not play on Wednesday against Internazionale. He picked up an injury in the FA Cup quarter-final win over Fulham. The game is going to be a decisive one, so they can't afford their best players not to play. Who do you think is going to replace him?

[M.Helen]

Finally, Manchester United beat Internazionale 2:0. Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo scored at the beginning of each half.

[Steven]

Jose Mourinho, Internazionale's coach, is suspected of hitting a supporter in the face. The police is now investigating the case. Inter have denied the allegations, while United would only confirm that they are aware of the allegation

[Benn]

Liverpool heroes Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard are among the best players from Champions League last-16 games. - Manuel Almunia (Arsenal) is the best goalkeeper.

[Faw_Peter]

After injuring his right ankle playing for Bayern Munich, Miroslav Klose will almost certainly miss Germany's next two World Cup qualifiers. He will be out for two weeks. At this is a minimum term for recovery, says his doctor. It could last even longer. The coach believes IToni may be fit for the next match

[Faw_Peter]

After the spectacular victory over Manchester United, Liverpool keeps maintaing the first position in ranking with 23.02 points. It's followed by Barcelona and Bayern.

[Nathan]

this is the draw for the Champions League semifinals

[prottos101]

arsenal forever

[tricker]

Barcelona - Bavaria 4:0!!!!!!!!
Liverpool - Chelsea 1:3
Manchester - Porto 2:2
Villarreal - Arsenal 1:1

Looks like Bavaria and Liverpool are not doing well... :?

[Benn]

Since Hidink is Chelsea's manager, this team makes wonders.
As for Bavaria, 4:0 is the most shameful defeat this team ever had in its history. Congratulations :lol:

[Peach]

Klinsmann, Bayern's coach, is now expected to retire by the end of this summer. It was a very shameful defeat.

"I have the strength to continue," he said.

"I will stand up to the criticism, even if it is not pleasant.

"I will not give up. Of course the defeat hurts and it was a lesson for us"

There are still left 24 points to win in the German Bundesliga, so Klinsmann can still make wonders.

[Dima]

Really amazing: Bavaria wins Sporting 13:1 on aggregate in the last 16, and now allows to be defeated 0:4 !
Of course, Barcelona is not Sporting, but sitll it is amazing.

[Nathan]

The match played between CHelsea and Liverpool proved that football is still alive. 8 goals were scored.
Liverpool took the first time with 2:0; in the second time Chelsea scored three goals in row taking over the domination. Later Liverpool scored again and 3 minutes before the end of time Chelsea scored again. Thus, Chelsea qualified into Champsions League quater final

[Laurentine]

UEFA included the Chelsea-Liverpool match in the ranking of ten most spectacular, classic matches ever encountered.
Also, you can watch here the goal of the week.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/18042009/58/champions-league-goals-week.html">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/180 ... -week.html</a><!-- m -->

[tricker]

Guus Hidink introduces a new strategy in his team. Thus, he will introduce a young under-21 England player, Michael Mancienne, in the match against Barcelona next week.