Anybody catch any games last night?

Arsenal 2 - Juventus 0

Benfica 0 - Barça 0

I saw the Gunners manhandle Juve...quite a good match and great to see Arsenal's shambles of a defense hold up again. Eboue looked great showing up on the wing and made a couple of big stops.

Wish I had seen some highlights of the Barça game though. Sounds like Benfica's keeper was on top of his shit.

Looking forward to Lyon-AC Milan tonight as pretty much all French soccer fans are amped for it. Should be a good time at the pub tonight...no Juninho though which will be interesting for the Lyonnais. And then there's Inter - Villareal but I won't be witnessing any of that.

Eboue has been really impressing me lately. I think he will be an exceptional player. They certainly don't seem to miss Ashley Cole so much now.

Lyon will hopefully be a great game. Like the way they play the game. Always been a fan of Wiltord, and looking forward to seeing Fred.

Arsène Wenger loves Eboue and you can really see why lately. Ashley Cole, Lauren, Campbell...if you had said they'd be missing all these players you would not have guessed that they'd look so organized in the back four, but damn. 7 consecutive clean sheets, and Juve didn't even really produce any scares last night.

And funny you say that about Wiltord...aside from Juninho, he's probably the Lyon player that I most look forward to seeing play.

So many people have knocked Arsenal & Wenger this season, but this guy knows what he is doing. Best manager for years. The new signings, Adebayor(sp) and i forget the name of the young midfielder he got from France, touted as the new Viera, will come into there own in the next couple of seasons. Hleb looks a great buy. Regardless of Henry's future, i think they will be a huge force to reckon with in the near future.

Even when Wiltord was at Arsenal and supposedly struggling i thought he was a great player. So underrated.

Enjoy the game.

people that have been ripping on arsenal this year just haven't been paying attn. sure they, started off terribly, and they're paying for it now by heading towards missing ECL if they don't shape up. the truth is they've been wo their best defenders for a long time; they suffered from not having viera and fabregas is only just starting to shine as he truly can.
their european form has been great all year. it's just an off year in the premiership for them...no worries.

and i totally agree about all the young/new signings. hleb is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. i bought him on a FIFA playstation team a couple of years ago and he became such a monster for me. the same thing is going to happen in real life. i'm heading home to cook dinner and start drinking to be appropriately buzzed for kickoff. bon match!

cant beleive i studied instead of watching these

i mean i do have exams next week and want to make it into med, but still

I'm just pissed the Arsenal - Juve game wasn't on where I'm at. Been an Arsenal fan for quite a few years and really wanted to see the return of Viera and how things went. Sounds like a fantastic game. Channel carrying Champions League around here showed Barca-Benfica instead.

damn, I missed these. Usually at least one game from each round gets shown on free-to-air here, but they're at ungodly hours of the morning so I often forget/sleep in etc

How was the Benfica-Barca game? Surely Barca dominated? I didn't even see the news last night so missed the highlights.

Being a Barca fan it's kind of getting to that stage where everyone agrees that they're the best team in Europe and should win it, but also a chance that they'll be rumbled by a lesser team that can get in and disrupt their play and catch a lucky break.

from what i've heard, the benfica keeper was pretty shaky and barca probably should have won, or at least scored. didn't see the match though so can't really say.

lyon-ac milan was pretty good last night despite the fact that it was goalless (the major flaw of soccer in my roommates' eyes) lyon hang in there pretty damn well and coupet saved the day for him. he had like 4 or 5 saves on shevchenko, of which 2 or 3 were pretty magnificent. it was good to see him on top and his shit, and after the game he and andriy swapped unis. it was a nice moment. it'll be tough for the lyonnais to go into the san siro and score an away goal though. either way it should be awesome. lots of fun to see inzaghi get called offsides all the time. Kaka and Seedorf were both a lot of fun to watch last night...so goddamn fast.

I ended up watching only the first half. Those damn italians sure know how to ruin a game for me. I hope the game opened up a bit in the second half as i found it a dreadful bore. I'm going to check out the highlights later.

I hope your boys turn them over in Milan but i cannot see much getting through their defence.

as much as milan had the ball in the first half, lyon did in the second half. they were just constantly playing with it ~35yds from goal and hardly had any opportunities. fred came in and took like 2 incredibly prissy shots that just rolled right into dida's arms. one good header opportunity on a crosse but again, right at dida. they really needed a home goal. i found the match pretty entertaining despite the rossonieri's style.

First time I had seen Eboue and I thought he was superb. I didn't actually think Arsenal played that well though (although they were clearly on top) until they scored the second goal and Juventus lost the plot and fell to pieces. Although I think Camoranesi is a pretty good player his attitude was an absolute disgrace. If I was the manager of Juventus he'd be looking for a new club right now.

It seems to me at Champions League level, players only play for their own reputations and mega salaries and once they have that they aren't much interested in winning trophies or being in a successful team. How else can you explain teams like Real Madrid, Juventus or Inter Milan being so desperately poor with the squads they have?

Arsenal have a team of hungry unproven youngsters and I'd take them to beat complacent disinterest superstars anytime. Most of the Juventus team looked like they were pissed off at having leave their yachts to play a game of football.

Touré also looked good. The patchwork defense is working out pretty well for Arsène.

And yeah, I feel pretty much the same way as you when it comes to Champions League but I still love it. It's more because of players like Ronaldinho that just love the game so much and genuinely want the trophy. It's because a team like Lyon can come across as underdog...just so many great moments and while there are tons of players to hate, there are just as many to love.

Can't say a lot right now as I'm in the midst of typing a 10 page paper on the limits of wind power in French but I'd just like to get the ball rolling again> I'll be back to this before long.

thanks for the bump bob.

basically a great night of football last night, unless if you're juventus or pavel nedved. could juve have been caught offsides more times? so many in the first half alone. arsenal's defense was just so damn stifling...champions league shutout record i believe now. henry is probably my favorite player to watch. just so silky every little thing he does. he had one sick touch last night where he just barely touched the ball with the exterieur of his foot, spun 270 degrees, and freed himself towards goal with just the one touch. good strike, better save though.
i love lehmann also. such a clinical goalkeeper. so confident, so strong, has been making incredible decisions.
what else...ronaldinho fails on a pk but redeems himself in the other match.

the ac milan - lyon match was great.

that's about all i have to add as i'm a total n00b to european football.

I live a stone's throw (literally) away from the new home stadium of FC Dallas (Pizza Hut Park), which is where last year's MLS Cup was played. They're also going to host this year's MLS Cup, as well. I actually watched the first game of the season last weekend, for no other reason than it was cool to watch something take place on live major network television that I could actually hear by opening a window. Drunk Mexicans are loud.

Pizza Hut Park?

Pizza Hut Park, haha. Sorry mate thats funny. The season has only just started over there eh. I will see if i can pick any games up over here.


I felt for your boys cmanhatan4. So Ac Milan/Barcelona & Arsenal/Villareal. I think im going for Milan all the way although they bore the hell outta me. Milan/Villarreal final.

That prediction is probably gonna come back and bite me on the ass but i fancy Villarreal to make that final.

It's no Papa John's Pavilion, I'll give you that, but it do exist...

http://www.pizzahutpark.com

Looking forward to seeing Arsenal get to the final. Not saying it will be easy, but it was still the best draw possible of who's left.

Oh...and Dallas should be pretty good this year...but I'm not taking any sides in MLS until St. Louis gets a team.

i mean, it would be just the thing to happen to the gunners, but i think and hope they pull through. it's just so good of a story witht the back four they've been starting and it would be so great to redeem themselves in CL seeing as how they may not even earn a spot next year due to their poor early form in the premiership.

ac milan - barca will be incredible games. i hope to god barca wins. that would be an incredible final to watch.

I didn't see any of the games this week.

Shevchenko is one of my favourite players (and I grew up watching the earlier Milan side of the late 80's and early 90's) so I have a soft spot for them but I think I'll be rooting for Barcelona.

I've got a feeling they aren't going to win the trophy everyone thinks has their name on it, though.

Arsenal/Villareal. Well, Villareal scraped past the worst Rangers team since the mid-eighties to get to the quarter finals so I don't think they are an especially good side. You'd expect Arsenal to get through that one.

I might have to crack my FC BARCA hat from six years ago.... And only I would study in Madrid and OPENLY choose to walk over both Atletico and Real in order to cheer for Barcelona. Though, to Atletico, they were particularly shite that year and ended up demoted, so it was really just choosing Real (the Yankees) or Barca (the Dodgers).

Not really a choice, there. No offense, Dov.