Champions league 2013-2014

[Chazza]

Michael Essien and Darren Fletcher have both been omitted from their clubs' 25-man squads for the Champions League group stage.

The Ghanaian had been reunited with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea after spending last season on loan at Real Madrid but has been an unused substitute in three of the Blues' first four matches this term and now has missed out on the opening phase of continental play.

Fletcher, meanwhile, has made only 13 appearances for Manchester United since his 2011 diagnosis with ulcerative colitis and looks set to spend more time away from the pitch.

The 29-year-old was hoped to be nearing a return to action but his lack of inclusion in David Moyes's group-stage squad indicates the Scot may not be ready to play until 2014.

Previously in August, Fletcher had stated that he had been practicing self-imposed exile from the Red Devils' training ground in Carrington as he waited for his surgeon to clear him to return to training.

Youngster Adnan Januzaj, who caught the eye in United's tour of Asia this summer, is also left out of the Champions League squad, while new faces Marouane Fellaini and Wilfried Zaha have made the cut.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914/champions-league/2013/09/04/4238089/essien-and-fletcher-omitted-from-champions-league-squads?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

[Daffy Duck]

Özil-Inler or Oscar-Mertens (at the same price) for the CL fantasy football team?

[Muddled]

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

1945

Manchester United v Bayer Leverkusen
Viktoria Plzen v Manchester City
Bayern Munich v CSKA Moscow
Benfica v Anderlecht
FC Copenhagen v Juventus
Galatasaray v Real Madrid
Olympiakos v Paris SG
Real Sociedad v Shakhtar Donetsk

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

1945

Chelsea V FC Basel
Schalke 04 V Steaua Bucharest
Marseille V Arsenal
Napoli V Borussia Dortmund
Athletico Madrid V Zenit St Petersburg
Austria Vienna V Porto
AC Milan V Celtic
Barcelona V Ajax

[RedReet]

Big game for Arsenal, think they might need to beat Marseille.

[Assassin]

I'm really happy all of our rivals are busy week in week out with European games this season.

[Neil Young]

According to the great man, they're very reliant on Kiessling.

Sami Hyypia and Bayer Leverkusen are out to upset Manchester United again

The former Liverpool captain is gunning for his old rivals again after an impressive start to his management career in Germany

Marcus Christenson
The Guardian, Monday 16 September 2013 21.03 BST

Markus Babbel once told a group of journalists that he had walked into the Liverpool dressing room after a defeat against Leicester City in 2001 only to find Sami Hyypia crying in a corner. When the Finnish defender was asked about the incident nearly a decade later he said: "Sometimes games can be very emotional. And sometimes, afterwards, one has the feeling of not having done enough, to have let down your team-mates," he told the German magazine 11Freunde in 2010.

"That was one of those days that I did not feel good [about the game]. It is absolutely no shame to be crying in the changing room. I think this story just tells how important football is for me. But it is fair to say that this approach to football at times made it difficult for me to be a professional footballer."

With comments like that it is easy to understand why Hyypia, now in charge of the Bayer Leverkusen side facing Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday night, became such a favourite during his 10 years at Liverpool. He could have stayed on as a coach but decided that he wanted to carry on playing and joined the German club in 2009. There he set about changing a culture which he found extraordinary.

"I noticed already in pre-season that the players weren't talking to each other after games. In Liverpool we were always talking after games, especially the player you were playing next to. We went through the different situations and said 'The next time it would be better for me if you did this … and so on.' But in Germany no one seemed to speak to each other. The game was over, no one said anything, just went to their cars and put their iPods on."

Slowly Hyypia started to communicate with his Leverkusen team-mates. The club took notice and, when Robin Dutt left the club in April of last year, the Finn and the Under-19 coach at the club, Sascha Lewandowski, were appointed joint caretaker coaches. It was an arrangement that made the old Gérard Houllier-Roy Evans combination look straightforward. Hyypia was Team Chef – as it is called in Germany – and Lewandowski was Chef Trainer. The latter, as he had a training licence, would do the coaching during games, the press conferences and the training sessions. Hyypia would do individual training with some of the players and did the pre-match press conferences.

It was a project doomed to fail and, after a season full of speculation, Lewandowski stepped down to leave Hyypia in sole charge. He has led Bayer to four wins out of five in the Bundesliga this season and the team have responded well to losing their creative spark André Schürrle to Chelsea. The midfielder Sidney Sam, who can also play in attack, and the forward Stefan Kiessling have responded to the added pressure by scoring four goals each in the opening five league games.

The 29-year-old Kiessling is a particularly interesting player. He has been scoring regularly for the past three seasons without any recognition from the national coach, Joachim Löw, and his patience finally snapped last month. He said that he would never play for Germany again as long as Löw was the coach. "I want to take away the pressure [and make sure] that this issue is not brought up time and time again. I can now fully concentrate on Bayer.

"For three years now, there has not been any contact or any info on why I am not good enough for the national team. I am not the guy to cause a stir, but I want to finally bring this issue to an end."Kiessling has no such issues at Leverkusen, where his manager has showered him with the kind of praise his goals deserve. "Without Kiessling we would really struggle," Hyypia admitted last month.

The Finn won four times as a player at Old Trafford but said in the 11Freunde interview that he does not miss anyone from Liverpool and prefers the quieter life in Leverkusen. Asked whether Liverpool was a tough city, he recalled an incident in his first season at Anfield: "I was sitting in this restaurant when I suddenly heard some shots go off. It was myself, Christian Ziege and Sander Westerveld. Like lightning we went down on the floor. We couldn't quite see what was going on. There were two entrances and we couldn't see either of them from our corner. There was an argument with a doorman. Someone was shot in the leg. We finished our meal in silence."

So Leverkusen is more sedate? "Yes, but those things are not important to me. I don't need nightclubs," said Hyypia. "Things that are important to me are infrastructure and good training facilities and I have got that here." Infrastructure rather than nightclubs rather sums up Hyypia's character but, if Leverkusen pull off an unlikely victory at Old Trafford he may just allow himself a beer.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...chester-united

[Neil Young]

So who else thought we were in the Champions League thread?

[RichC]

Good read though

[RichC]

Bayer haven't started too well.

[magicalbarnes]

Old trafford seems empty, about 10000 empty seats

[RichC]

Should have been offside and then Valencia impeded the keeper obv the goal stood

[Boogs]

Van Persie is such an utter cunt it's unreal.

[Leyton388]

Van gob****e should have got a red for that.

[Leyton388]

Scum fans signing anti LFC songs. LOL

[badpiggy]

Van Persie is such an utter cunt it's unreal.

He manages to stand out in a long line of rancid ******s that have played for them. Hah rooney cunts himself!