Open Thread: CL Matchday Two.

Bukharov v. Samuel

Here we are again… the Champions League. A chance to see Arsenal, Liverpool and Inter Milan in action, and only one of these teams is struggled in Russia earlier.

Inter and Rubin Kazan finished at 1-1, and after Sampdoria’s shock 1-0 win over Mourinho’s men at the weekend, there could potentially be another wave of gloriously insouciant and passive-aggressive post-game comments from The Special One (scroll down in that article, his comments are totally worth it).

That is a Christmas come early several times over, and for our resident Gooners and Reds, the gift of further victories in the early stages of the group would be mighty nice as well.

Meanwhile, we must restrain ourselves from mocking Rangers too much; after a shockingly competent draw at Stuttgart, the Pope’s Boys get a visit from Sevilla and their charitable Islamic striker and mosque savior (he ponied up 750,000 of his own money to guarantee plans for a mosque in Sevilla), Fredi Kanoute. Should be a good ‘un.

Predictions, lineups and a full list of fixtures after the jump.

Debrecen v. Lyon (Group E)
Though the Hungarian side put up a fair fight at Anfield (well, let me clarify; 20 decent minutes of footy sprinkled amid 70 minutes of LFC target practice around the goal), they’ll do well to hold a potent Lyon side from scoring in their own backyard. Lisandro Lopez should thrive.

Debrecen 0, Lyon 2

Fiorentina v. Liverpool (Group E)
Are LFC as focused on this game as they should be? One group game with 4 still to come, and a visit to Stamford Bridge looming on Sunday. Surely it’s understandable if the lads are licking their chops a bit at facing a Blues team without Cech and possibly Ashley Cole? Fio are good, but not the same without Felipe Melo… that said, Liverpool’s center backs have been wretched so far this season and it’s not a good time to try to become the first English team to win at the Stadio Artemi Franchi, with Mascherano and likely Benayoun to be absent from the festivities. Can coke fiend Adrian Mutu and his goalscoring chums Stevan Jovetic and Alberto Gilardino make happy ruin of Skrtel and Carragher?

FIORENTINA (4-2-3-1): Frey; Comotto, Dainelli, Gamberini, Gobbi; Zanetti, Montolivo; Marchionni, Jovetic, Vargas; Mutu.
Subs: Avramov, Kroldrup, Donadel, Castillo, Jorgensen, Pasqual, De Silvestri.

LIVERPOOL (also in 4-2-3-1): Reina, Johnson, Insua, Carragher, Skrtel, Lucas, Gerrard, Benayoun, Aurelio, Kuyt, Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Voronin, Riera, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Spearing, Plessis.

Fiorentina 1, Liverpool 1

Barcelona v. Dynamo Kiev (Group F)
A no-brainer. The Ukrainians will be passed to death, and now would be a good time for Zlatan to shake that utterly English notion that he disappears in big games. After all, he’s only gone and scored in every game thus far for Barca.

Barcelona 3, Kiev 1

Rangers v. Sevilla (Group G)
There’s no way the Scots can pull out two epic European nights in a row, can they? Former Spurs midfielder loiterer Didier Zokora will aim to wreck the Pope’s XI along with Kone, Confed Cup hero Luis Fabiano, and Javier Chevanton.

Rangers 1, Sevilla 2

Unirea Urziceni v. Stuttgart (Group G)
No brainer. The Krauts cannot, nay, WILL NOT, stumble twice in a row in this powder-puff group normally reserved for Manchester United.

Unirea 0, Stuttgart 2

Arsenal v. Olympiakos (Group H)
So what if approximate 3,711 Gunners players are out with injury? So what if the Greeks are laden with grafting, hard-working types? Throw the form books out the window and bet on the class and aesthetics of Wenger, despite Diaby’s best efforts to ruin the whole pretty plan and shatter it into a million pieces. Sans Bendtner, Denilson and Almunia, you still fancy the North Londoners to prevail, though that Liege game was a bit shaky, wasn’t it?

ARSENAL: Mannone; Eboue, Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy; Fabregas, Song, Diaby; Rosicky, Arshavin, Van Persie.
Subs: Szczesny, Sagna, Senderos, Eduardo, Vela, Ramsey, Gibbs.

OLYMPIAKOS: Nikopolidis; Zewlakow, Papadopoulos, Mellberg, Raul Bravo; Zairi, Torosidis, Ledesma, Dudu, Leonardo; Diogo.
Subs: Pardo, Domi, Galitsios, Stoltidis, Oscar, Mitroglou, Papadopoulos.

Arsenal 3, Olympiakos 1

AZ Alkmaar v. Standard Liege (Group H)
The Eredivisie side have been choking it hard lately, losing 4 of their first 8 games in league play to some thoroughly rubbish teams (NEC Nijmegen, ADO Den Haag, Heracles Almelo and Utrecht, for those keeping score at home). They really miss that pixie-looking midfielder Demy de Zeeuw, don’t they? Meanwhile, Liege has plenty of buzzards in midfield, and their workrate alone should see them earn a win on the road.

AZ 1, Liege 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ü75 breaking in here to give you a quick update on ESPN’s coverage of the U-20 World Cup. Of course, they are only showing the US group games, and they can’t even get that right.

As usual, I am multi-tasking. I turn the game on just before halftime, just in time to see the US celebrating the first goal of the game, 30 seconds into first half injury time. I keep the TV on through halftime and go about my UF duties online. The commercials segue into the match itself.

The US is attacking right from the outset of the second half. I look up to watch a couple of sequences, hoping to see a second goal that should ice the game. At the 60 minute mark, I catch the FIFA pop up showing the score–2-nil–and the times when the goals were scored. Figuring I had just missed the 47th minute goal while engrossed in something else, I backed up the DVR. What I found horrified me.

When ESPN rejoined the match, they did so at the 47:30 mark. These amateurs flipping the switches missed 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the damn match. It was long enough that even the replays of the goal, scored barely a minute earlier, had ceased. Unbelievable!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~