A Friday isn't a Friday without a Sports Issue

Итак, объявление номер раз. Все Sports Issues я теперь буду писать а) нерегулярно и б) на sports.ru, где это более приемлимо. Объявление номер два: я теперь буду писать (ну, пописывать) на fanbase.com, но, думаю, на английском языке, а посему могу и тут дублировать порою. Так что спорт в блоге всё равно останется, но всё же пятничная рубрика будет в основном посвящена другому. Ну и третье объявление: сегодня в блоге я как раз пишу свою "статью" с фенбейса. На аглицком.

I'm going to write my personal overview of the UEFA Champions League draw and make some predictions. It will be one of the scarce articles in English, as the only language i'm eager to write in is Russian (i don't know English too well to write articles, i can onle write posts). And yeah, i always write "i" in lower case.

Group A - Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa.
One of the groups with two equal top-teams. It's almost 100% that Bayern and Juve will progress to 1/16, and Bordeaux has its path to League Europa or how the hell it is called now. Maccabi has almost no chance in this company; and only Platini's desire to have more champions in the Champions League made it possible to have an Israeli team at the group stage. As for the first place in the group, i think Juventus will take it over the renewed Bayern Munich - too many changes have been made to the Bavarian squad this summer, and Juve becomes stronger and stronger each season.

Group B - Manchester United, CSKA, Besiktas, Wolfsburg.
Group B looks like a group of three teams that will fight for the second place. Only combined effort from CSKA, Wolfsburg and Besiktas can make MU resign from the group B's throne. And i predict that the Brits will be accompanied by the Germans, as Wolfsburg's squad is full with accomplished midfielders (such as Josue), juggernaut strikers (Grafite, Dzeko) and even World Cup holders (Zaccardo and Barzagli). Russian side can offer only some players that remember winning the UEFA Cup 4 years ago, all of them being kind of... depressed or something. If Vagner Love doesn't start putting the balls (not those balls) in the net, the German champions will just outscore CSKA. Besiktas is obviously the worst team in the group, but they can beat the opponents on one or two occasions and slip into the Eurocup spring. But my prediction is: #2 - Wolfsburg, #3 - CSKA, #4 - Manchest... oh, no, Besiktas, right.

Group C - Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, Zurich.
I don't know what FC Zurich plays like. I've never seen the Swiss side on the pitch, so they are really a mystery to me. On the other side, Milan without Kaka and Real Madrid'09 are also great mysteries. Who knows (apart from Leonardo and Pellegrini) what these teams may offer to the opponents. Yet their names sound too solid for Olympique and even Zurich (oh, God, even Zurich!) to beat the third team in Italy or the second in Spain. R.Madrid will win the group, but what plays will they show? Or what shows will they play? By the way, Zurich is the only champion in this group. And propably the only team that will not be promoted into the next round of the European cup competitions.

Group D - Chelsea, Porto, Atletico, APOEL.
In Russia we remember Maniche mostly for his stint in Dinamo Moscow, and his transfer is still the largest one incoming in terms of roubles. But Maniche (now playing for FC Koln) was once a part of FC Porto, then Chelsea, and then Atletico Madrid. Now all these teams are able to play without him. Chelsea are even able to win the group without him. Porto and Atletico will fight for the second ticket to the play-offs without him. Something tells me that Porto will win this fight (without him). Belluschi-Falcao-Farias have played nicely together in River Plate in 2007, let's see what they can produce in Portugal. And Cyprus - last year Anorthosis almost made it to the 1/16, but even failed to move to the UEFA Cup. APOEL will fail too. Furthermore, i predict that they will win zero matches and get one damn point. OK, may be two. But that's it.

Group E - Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen.
Liverpool is a team that can win all 6 matches or with equal probability advance to the Europa League. For the Reds the Champions League is no more a priority - they've won it in 2005 and played in the final in 2007. The Merseysiders long for the EPL championship since the last time they won it was 1990 (yep, almost 20 years ago). I was all but two years old then. Last year the Reds won the group, now i think they'll finish second. Lyon and Fiorentina will meet at the group stage for the second straight year, and this time the result will be the same: Olympique Lyonnais - to the knockout stage, Fiorentina - to the Europa League. Debrecen's only objective is to remind the European football fans about the Hungarian football (unheard of since Videoton and Lajos Detari) and possibly provide some more Magyar talents to Liverpool (they already have Nemeth, Gulacsi and Simon - all from MTK).

Group F - Barcelona, Internazionale, Dynamo Kyiv, Rubin.
Last year the former Russian champions Zenit debuted in the Champions League. They had a very difficult group: the Spanish superclub Real Madrid, one of the three Italian cornerstones - Juventus, and a post-Soviet pal BATE from Belarus. Now, the current champion Rubin Kazan (the most eastern team in the history of the CL group stage) faces even a more difficult situation - the more stable Spanish Superclub (and current Champions League and La Liga and Copa del Rey title holder) Barcelona, another calcio grand, but this time it's 4-awesome-straight-times-Seria-A-winner Inter Milan, and another post-Soviet pal - but not from Belarus. Dynamo Kyiv is one of the strongest teams in Eastern Europe (definitely top 5) and after three very upsetting years in Europe they long for the play-offs. But the Ukranians will finish third, losing some points to Rubin, after Barca (1st) and Inter (2nd).

Group G - Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea.
The weakest team from the first pot. The weakest team from the second pot. Always unstable Stuttgart. Unirea has a way better chance for the Eurocup spring than CFR Cluj last year. Anyway, it's very strange to see a Romanian team not from Bucharest in the Champions League for the second straight year. Group G is the most even of all eight, and Sevilla and Stuttgart are almost equal forces now. Sevilla is just a tiny bit stronger, but no team from group G can progress to the second knockout stage. Rangers will lose the Europa Leaugue ticket to the Romanian side - at least one Eastern European team must surprise.

Group G - Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos, Standard.
Can anyone see a problem for the English team? I can't. AZ Alkmaar have come a long way to the Dutch champioship title, but that's not enough for the Champions League. I even predict that they'll finish third, and Olympiacos will advance to the 1/16. The Legend has a nice squad that is stronger than AZ (besides, the Dutch side also lost de Zeeuw this summer). They also have head coach Temuri Ketsbaia, who pushed Anorthosis to the group stage last year (by the way, defeating Olympiacos). I haven't watched the Belgian championship for a while, so only a few Standard Liege players are familiar to me. Well, they have Mutombo in their squad, i guess this one can make a difference. The Liegeois team is an automatic underdog. Or a dark horse?

ramays:0