Hasil Undian 16 Besar Liga Champions:

VfB Stuttgart vs Barcelona
Olympiakos Piraeus vs Girondins Bordeaux
Inter Milan vs Chelsea
Bayern Munich vs Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow vs Sevilla
Olympique Lyon vs Real Madrid
Porto vs Arsenal
AC Milan vs Manchester United

Gruppe A

Der FC Bayern München kann weiter hoffen. Dank Ivica Olic haben die Männer von Trainer Louis van Gaal die “Fußball-Supermacht” Maccabi Haifa 1:0 geschlagen. Nun müssen die Bayern “nur” noch bei Juventus Turin gewinnen…

FC Bayern München – Maccabi Haifa 1:0

Girondins Bordeaux – Juventus Turin 2:0

1. Girondin Bordeaux 13

2. Juventus Turin 8

3. FC Bayern München 7

4. Maccabi Haifa 0

Gruppe B

Der VfL Wolfsburg hat es nicht geschafft, sich vorzeitig für das Achtelfinale zu qualifizieren. Gegen ZSKAMoskau traf Dzeko zwar schon nach 19 Minuten zur Führung der Niedersachsen. Necid (58.) und Krasic (66.) drehten das Spiel und sorgten für den verdienten Gastgebersieg. Wolfsburg muss nun möglichst gegen Manchester United gewinnen. ZSKA Moskau reist nach Istanbul.

ZSKA Moskau – VfL Wolfsburg 2:1

Der VfB Stuttgart kann es doch noch! Bei den Glasgow Rangers bewahrten sich die Schwaben die Chance auf das ChampionsLeague -Achtelfinale. Rudy brachte Stuttgart schon nach 16 Minuten in Führung und gab der Mannschaft von Markus Babbel etwas Sicherheit. Nach der Pause erhöhte Kuzmanovic zum alles in allem verdienten 2:0-Erfolg. Am 09.12. kommt es nun in Stuttgart zu einem echten Endspiel gegen Unirea Urziceni, das den FC Sevilla mit 1:0 nach Hause schickte.

Gruppe G

Glasgow Rangers – VfB Stuttgart 0:2

Unirea Urziceni – FC Sevilla 1:0

1. FC Sevilla 10

2. Unirea Urziceni 8

3. VfB Stuttgart 6

4. Glasgow Rangers 2

Gruppe E:

Trotz eines 1:0 in Debrezenwird der FC Liverpool nicht in der ChampionsLeague überwintern. Selbst ein Sieg m letzten Spiel gegen Spitzenreiter AC Florenz rieicht nur noch für die EuroLeague-Qualifikation.

AC Florenz – Olympique Lyon 1:0

VSC Debrecen – FC Liverpool 0:1

1. AC Florenz 12

2. Olympique Lyon 10

3. FC Liverpool 7

4. VSC Debrecen 0

Gruppe F

Es bleibt spannend: Am letzten Spieltag empfängt Inter Mailand den  russischen Meister Rubin Kazan, Dynamo Kiew empfängt den FC Barcelona.

Rubin Kazan – Dynamo Kiew 0:0

FC Barcelona – Inter Mailand 2:0

1. FC Barcelona 8

2. Rubin Kazan 7

3. Inter Mailand 6

4. Dynamo Kiew 6

Gruppe H

Sollte Olympiakos Piräus gegen die schon qualifizierten Guners verlieren, könnte sich Standard Lüttich bei einem Sieg gegen den AZ Alkmaar über die Achtelfinal-Teilnahme freuen.

AZ Alkmaar – Olympiakos Piräus 0:0

FC Arsenal London – Standard Lüttich 2:0

1. Arsenal London 13

2. Olympiakos Piräus 7

3. Standard Lüttich 4

4. AZ Alkmaar 3

Fett: Für´s Achtelfinale qualifiziert.

#1:
You might be interested in this movie tonight on ZDF (Thanks Doris for the link!)

ZDF – Die Seele eines Mörders – heute 20:15
http://fernsehfilm.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/16/0,1872,7915344,00.htm

#2: Stammtisch this week

Thursday 19. November, 19.30
Eclipse, Heßstr. 51, Munich

#3 Get ready for the Championsleage:

25. November: FC Bayern Muc – Maccabi Haifa!
Unfortunately Ive seen no more tickets are available where most of us sit in blocks 334, and 335…but we might try to sneak into the Fan Block of Macccabi Haifa though…more info next week

#4: Pre Cristmas Events.

For each of the 4 Sat/Sundays before Christmas + Chanukkah we will come up with a Special for you.

1. Advent:
**********
Nov 29, a winter trip to a picturesque and to definitely one of the nicest and Xmas Markets in Germany: Fraueninsel, Chiemsee;

Event Link:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178691694005&index=1

2. Advent
*********
And of course a week later the ultimate Nikolaus Party! Check for updates: Please bring a small gift less than 5 Euro for the big bag of the Nikolaus and a bottle of good vine!!

Event Link:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178240819318&index=1

XX

Ines + Carolin

A last gasp strike at the Stade De Gerland left a lot of Kop hearts broken all over the world. Liverpool now have to win their remaining 2 matches convincingly and hope that Lyon beat the Viola to enable them to qualify through the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

All Liverpool fans will however take heart from a battling performance in Lyon. True, that it was not the most fluent performances from a side which has struggled in recent times, but the Reds showed a lot of character and were willing to fight it out. They completely dominated the first half and had it not been a series of amazing saves from the Lyon keeper, Hugo Lloris, Liverpool would have been 3 ahead at the break; the attempts coming from Insua, Kuyt, Voronin and Torres.

This was, however, not the case and both teams went in at halftime at par. The Lyon coach has surprisingly put up a squad quite different from the one he fielded at Anfield. Two injuries caused a couple of substitutions within the first half for Lyon. Liverpool were already without a lot of players from the starting lineup out injured. The squad though, included a half fit Fernando Torres and captain Jamie Carragher as right back. As usual, the Reds captain did complete justice to the position he was put into.

Neither team could get a foothold into the game until the 83rd minute. It took a wonder strike from the boy who showed a lot of promise, but never fulfilled it – Ryan Babel – to break the deadlock. It should have been that way till the end, but a late strike from Lisandro broke Liverpool hearts leaving everything to chance for the Merseysiders to qualify through the group stages.

With only meagre resources with which to architect a win, I feel Rafa did a fabulous job of getting the result that we got in Lyon. Any other manager would have given up all hopes of a win. Rafa had said before the game that, when we walk through a storm and emerge on the other side, we should hold our heads high. We are walking through a catastrophic storm right now, and yes, we are emerging with our heads held high. Go for it Liverpool.

YNWA!!!

Irgendwie scheint da ja noch was zu schlummern beim VfB. Sah ich mich vor Wochen noch genötigt, die von allen als sicher gehandelte Annahme einer möglichen Entlassung Markus Babbels im Vorfeld zu verurteilen, bin ich im Moment wieder zuversichtlich. Zwei Unentschieden gegen jeweils die Favoriten Bayern München (Liga) sowie den FC Sevilla (Championsleague) werfen die Frage auf, woher die dafür notwendige Substanz kommt und wo sie in der Liga die ganze Zeit über steckt. Es heißt, gegen Sevilla wäre sogar ein Sieg drin gewesen.

Wie auch immer: wenn der VfB es schafft, diese Leistungssteigerung bis zum Wochenende gegen Mönchengladbach zu konservieren, ist eine Mini-Serie von “ungeschlagen in den letzten 3 Pflichtspielen” geschafft und Markus Babbel kann aufatmen.

It was not going to be an easy game.  Footballing pundits had already given their opinion on how detrimental a failure in this particular game at Anfield could prove to be for the Kop. And none of them believed Liverpool could get a victory here without the inspirational Steven Gerrard and marksman Fernando Torres. How right they were!!!

Liverpool tried to start in aggressive fashion and keep the ball against a fluent Lyon side. However, it was the visitors who would almost go ahead courtesy Brazilian striker Lisandro. It was only the athleticism of Pepe Reina that saved Liverpool from an early embarrassment. This failed attempt by Lyon seemed to have injected some life into Liverpool. From here on in the first half, the Reds kept most of the possession and dominated proceedings. This did not mean that Lyon did not pose a challenge. They always looked threatening when coming ahead and one was particularly noticeable, Sidney Govou. I would say that what Steven Gerrard is to Liverpool, Sidney Govou is to Lyon.

Liverpool managed to go ahead on 41 minutes courtesy Yossi Benayoun who was the man trying to guide a very scrappy Liverpool midfield. Credit has to be given to Fabio Aurelio for the excellent cross into the box which caused numerous problems to the Lyon defence and resulted in the only goal for Liverpool in the match. Liverpool went into the break 1-0 ahead. The home fans expected a much better performance from their team in the second half, but it was Lyon who stole the show. A goal on 72 minutes and another one deep in injury time from the Lyon super subs meant that Liverpool now have to win the remaining three games in the Champions league convincingly to go past the league stages.

Several things were clearly seen in this game. For instance, Liverpool no longer have the free flowing game of football that we were seeing last season. Surely this has not been caused by the absence of just one man Xabi Alonso. No, there is more to this than meets the eye.  There seems to be an absolute lack of awareness about where the other team members are. Most players look up to see where their nearest teammate stands before passing on the ball. Also, there seems to be no anticipation amongst the players that the ball is going to be played to him and no runs across.  In my opinion, this is nothing but the lack of teamwork. Yes, individual skills have to be improved, but football is a team game and if the players in a team cannot read each other’s minds, there will be no success for that team.

In comparison, the Lyon players were so well aware of each other placement that when they had the ball, Liverpool almost never managed to get it back cleanly. Another surprise was the team selection. You can see from the teams Rafa has been putting there, that he is trying to build a young team. What with players like Lucas and Insua getting regular first team appearances, and Ngog getting the look in once in a while. But, the question we must ask here is; is this being done at the expense of losing out in the top four slots in the league and an early exit out of the Champions league?

Rafa has been saying a number of things to defend himself and his team selection. He has been trying to mould Lucas to place in the place of Xabi Alonso. Lucas though seems to be following in the footsteps of Nani i.e. contributing nothing in every game. To be very frank, he only showed one good bit of skill till date, and that too in this game against Lyon, when cornered near the left corner of the field. He is weak in possession and needs to improve his tackling and defence capabilities on a whole. Maybe it is a little too early to be giving him a regular place on the team.

Also, considering that Liverpool now have a few strikers, namely Torres, Voronin, Babel and Ngog; its a wonder why Rafa never plays 2 of them up front. Its always better to have 2 up ahead who can score than one. Dirk Kuyt has been working as the makeshift striker during El Nino’s absence, but the guy is not really a striker. Mind you, he works like a horse in the field, but Liverpool could do with someone having a little more imagination up front.

Rafa – as everyone knows -  is a defensive minded manager. If he plays 2 strikers, he can put defensive midfielders out there and shore up his defence to take care of a counter attack from the opposition.

That said, Rafa knows the team better and the strengths and weaknesses of each player better than anyone else. Lets hope that he does some out-of-the-box thinking and starts getting those results that the fans always expect from the Reds.

***If I were Rafa, i would consider the following lineup against ManUtd on Sunday.

————————————————————————————————

Torres             Voronin

Aurelio                Benayoun                 Kuyt

Mascherano

Insua             Agger          Carragher         Kelly

Reina

————————————————————————————————

I would prefer Kelly to Johnson since Kelly has shown very good defensive qualities as well as looking good while moving forward.

And Voronin might seem to be a waste of money to many, but he has shown glimpses of his abilities during his time on the field. I would definitely put my money on him to score at least once every two games provided he plays regularly.

IPL champions deccan chargers are eliminated from the champions league.

trinided and tobago beat deccan chargers by 3 runs

complete scorecard of the match is below

Um Himmels Willen. Vorweg: Diesen Beitrag werde ich via E-Mail an Tino Polster, Werders Mediendirektor und Dr. Hans-Jürgen Croissant, Senior Vice President von Sky schicken.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himmel_(planetär)

Seit Jahren geben die Medienunternehmen, die die Ausstrahlungsrechte der verschiedenen Fußball Wettbewerben halten, vor sie seien am Dialog und an den Wünschen der Kunden interessiert. Aus Sicht eines (ehemaligen) Kunden hat sich das Angebot aber erheblich verschlechtert, trotz mancher Erweiterung.

Ich habe 2003 ein Premiere Abo abgeschlossen. Für eine einmalige Zahlung von 100€ gab es Premiere Start für ein Jahr und eine D-Box für das Kabelnetz. Bei Premiere Start wurde wöchentlich ein Spiel der ersten Bundesliga übertragen. Für nur weitere 30€ monatlich schloss ich ein Abo ab mit den Pakten Film und Sport. Bei Film gab es auf 7 Kanälen Filmausstrahlungen. Bei Sport war die Bundesliga zu Hause, aber auch die Championsleague und andere sportlichen Highlights wie die Formel 1. Mich interessierte immer nur Werder, aber mit 30€ und dem Filmpaket war ich sehr zufrieden und begeistert Live miterleben zu können, wie Werder 2004 Meister wurde und fortan in der Königsklasse spielte.

Dann zog die Bundesliga 2006 zu Arena. Neuer Preis für die Bundesliga 20€ im Monat. Keine Championsleague und sonst nur für mich völlig uninteressante “Sporthighlights”. Die Championleague verblieb bei Premiere, es gab sie im Pakt Fußball Plus. Andere Sportarten gab es in einem weiteren Paket. 30€ für alle Bundesliga und Championleague Spiele plus das gesamte Filmangebot – davon konnte man schon damals nur noch träumen. Arena ist mittlerweile Vergangenheit (wie mein Abo) und Premiere heißt jetzt Sky. Sky hält Mittlerweile die Übertragungsrechte auch für den DFB-Pokal und die Euroleague ab dem Viertelfinale. Fast jedes Spiel von Werder, welches ich sehen möchte wird von Sky ausgestrahlt. Die Bundesliga gibt es zudem von der Bundespost Telekom auch über das Internet. Eigentlich verlockend wieder einzusteigen, wären die Preis- und Abomodelle nicht so eine Katastrophe. Möchte ich bei Sky die Bundesliga sehen, muss ich ein Paket von Sendern abonnieren, die ich gar nicht haben möchte. Ich gucke eh kein Fernsehen und habe mittlerweile nicht einmal mehr einen Fernseher, was mein nächstes Problem ist. Denn Sky überträgt die Bundesliga nur über Sattelit und Kabel. Andere Spiele gibt es als kostenpflichtigen Stream auch über das Internet. Warum aber kein Internet-Abo für die Bundesliga? Weil die Telekom die Rechte hält, das Abo aber nur den eigenen V-DSL Kunden anbietet. Da ich bis 2011 an 1&1 gebunden bin sonst damit auch zufrieden bin, kommt beides für mich nicht in Frage. Wäre das Sky Abo nicht so unattraktiv könnte ich ja über die Neuanschaffung eines Fernsehers nachdenken, aber für 32,90€ ein Abo bestellen, wovon mich das meiste nicht interessiert und ich nur die Bundesliga bekomme, das kommt für mich einfach nicht in Frage. Möchte ich DFB-Pokal, Championsleague und Euroleague sehen muss ich noch einmal 12€ oben drauf legen. Toll, wenn Werder wie letzte Saison zwei Finale erreicht, nicht toll, wenn es einmal nicht so läuft. Ich bin in erster Linie Werder Fan und möchte als von Werder sehen, ich habe weder Zeit noch Lust alle anderen Begegnungen zu sehen. Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass ich damit nicht alleine bin.

Aus Sicht eines Werder Fans wäre es traumhaft, wenn es ein Sky-Werder-Abo gäbe. Das Abo umfasst dann alle Spiele von Werder Bremen (oder von Schalke, Bayern, Bochum St.Pauli…), sonst nichts. Der monatliche Preis richtet sich nach der Anzahl an Wettbewerben an denen Werder teilnimmt. Meinetwegen 15€ für die Bundesliga und jeweils 5€ für die Pokalwettbewerbe. Fliegt der Verein raus, ist das Abo automatisch beendet.
Sicherlich wäre der Umsatz pro Abonnent geringer – dafür dürfte die Anzahl der Abonnenten entsprechend steigen. Die Vereine könnten viel direkter in das Marketing eingebunden werden, was in beidseitigem Interesse wäre, da die Vereine nicht unerheblich von den Fernsehgeldern abhängig sind.

Ich wünsche mir neue kreative Angebote, die mich als Kunden nicht gängeln, sondern das liefern, was ich wirklich sehen möchte. Dafür zahle ich dann auch gerne Geld.
Die Fernsehanstalten, die Verbände und die Vereine sollten sich einmal dringend zusammen setzten.

Whoever said that Liverpool were back to their winning ways, will have to eat back those words quickly. Yes………..I am talking about myself. Unfortunately, looks sometimes are very deceptive. When the Kops thrashed Hull City 6-1 (To read a review of that game, click here), it seemed like they were back to winning ways, also winning 5 other games along the way. However, this run of 6 wins n all competitions was to end on a miserable note.

Liverpool, fresh from their Hull game, started off strongly attacking from the word go and were utilizing the flanks well. They did not create any significant chances, but it looked like another simple outing. Things started changing though, 10 minutes into the game. The Viola created their first real opening around the 12th minute, and from there on there was no looking back for them. The kept pushing and to their and their supporter’s content, Liverpool kept making mistakes in midfield and conceding possession.

The first goal came courtesy a mistake from left back Emiliano Insua (you might remember Rafa tipping Insua to make the Argentine national team) who played the youngster Jovetic onside for his first Champions league goal. If Insua keeps making these kind of mistakes, he is not going anywhere, leave alone the Argentine national team.

Before the Reds were able to regroup, they received another shot to the arm in the form of the second goal from the Viola; the much touted Glen Johnson to blame for this one. The only person who looked to be really committed on the field was Jamie Carragher; and he was naturally furious with the attitude of his other teammates in defence and midfield.

(To view the game highlights, click here.)

The second half did not produce too many surprises. Liverpool attacked the Fiorentina goal as expected, but were never really able to mount a scathing attack. Somehow, the Liverpool midfield looks listless and out of ideas when it comes to the big teams and big games. With a genuine provider missing from the lineup, I am sure Rafa would be eagerly waiting for Alberto Aquilani to get fit.

Liverpool play their next game away to Chelsea in the premiership (who lost 1-3 away to Wigan). Chelsea will no doubt be looking to consolidate their position in the league and give the Reds a torrid time. Will Liverpool be able to come out of the pit they seem to be digging for themselves? Keep watching!!!

MatchDay-1 (although I still dont understand why they call it day-1 when it is day-2) saw Liverpool host Debreceni VSC (the Hungarian champions) at Anfield. There were some other really promising matches lined up as well, but we will not cover them here.

After a pretty poor start to the new Premier League season, Liverpool have been able to prevent their campaign from stuttering and sliding any further by winning 2 matches back to back. Fans were hoping that they would continue the same scoring form that sa3w them slot 4 past Burnley the past weekend.

The match started with Liverpool clearly looking to dominate from the start. However, in the first quarter of the match there were hardly any chances worth mentioning. It was pretty even-stevens and Debreceni gave a pretty good account of themselves by stifling the Liverpool midfield. The match starting gaining in momentum after about 20 minutes with Liverpool starting to attack on a continued basis and exploiting gaps in the Debreceni midfield. There was a period from the 30-35 minutes when it was all Debreceni and they created a couple of decent chances. However, this spell ended fairly quickly.

Liverpool though, it seemed that left their scoring boots hanging back at home. They managed to score only in time added on (in the first half) and that too through a rebound off the Debreceni keeper after Fernando Torres’ shot was parried. Dirk Kuyt was there to slide the ball home and give Liverpool the edge at half time.

Debreceni started the second half in menacing fashion and looked ready to take the game to Liverpool. But, again it was a case of weathering the storm for Liverpool and they came down to dominating possession after about 10 minutes. The second half saw more chances being created by the home team, but somehow they were never able to take any advantage of those chances.

The game ended 1-0 for a mighty relieved Liverpool and their supporters. You could see that the fans were disappointed from the lack of goals. Debreceni will be happy to go home conceding just one goal at Anfield and will look to better their performance when these two teams meet up again on matchday-5.

Liverpool have to find the goal scoring form that saw them dominate every opponent at the fag end of last season. The player that most impressed in this match (and has made me eat my words) is Lucas, He partnered Steven Gerrard in midfield and was a really instrumental in creating a lot of chances that saw the Merseysiders almost score.

Its back to the drawing board for Rafa Benitez to try and figure out how they can improve on their performance yesterday, when they travel to Italy on September 29th to face a highly rated Fiorentina team.

To read the review for Besiktas v ManUtd click here

To read the review for Inter v Barcelona click here

File: Marseille-Milan.avi
Filesize: 1406.26 Mb
Play length: 01:53:23
Commentary: russian (V. Utkin)
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Audio: 48 kHz, MPEG Layer 3, 2 ch, ~128.00 kbps avg

NTV+ online

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Rapidshare:

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