Champions League Match Day 4 (Nov 3rd, 2010) - Preview of Groups E and F
After an exciting first phase of the Match day 4, the action will continue tonight in the Champions League as AC Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal and Ajax will be in action.
Last night saw Manchester United, Valencia and Tottenham register convincing wins over their opponents while Barcelona, Panathanikos and Copenhagen drew their group games.
Following is a preview of Groups E and F of Champions League:
Group E:
CFR Cluj vs. Bayern Munich
FC Basle vs. AS Roma
The Group E of Champions League is a tantalizing place with only Bayern Munich having a 100% record in the competition compiling 9 points from three matches while all the other three teams tied on three points.
Last year’s runners up Bayern are almost certain to go through from this group barring a catastrophic turn of events in the remaining group fixtures.
Tonight, Bayern will travel to Romania to take on minnows CFR Cluj in a tie for which Luis Van Gaal’s side are overwhelming favourites.
Bayern, despite having won all their matches in this group, are not in the best of forms domestically and are languishing in the mid table in the German Bundesliga. The tricky trip away to Romania comes at a time when the club president Uli Hoeness and coach
Luis Van Gaal are embroiled in a public feud over the coach’s team selection and the use of some of his fringe players.
Bayern are currently seventh in the domestic league table and although, a 402 win at the weekend lifted them to 7th but they are still 10 points adrift of the league leaders. Van Gaal will be looking to wrap the qualification into the last 16
with a win tonight in Romania so that he can turn his attention to the domestic league and guide his team upwards in the table where they have not started the defence of their title in an ideal manner.
In the other match of the group, Caludio Ranieri’s AS Roma will travel to Switzerland to take on FC Basel in another all important clash. Roma may well have to deal with the tricky fixture without the services of their talismanic skipper, Francesco Totti
who is out nursing a shoulder injury. Ranieri’s men will have to make sure that they win tonight in Switzerland if they are to harbour any hopes of making it to the next round. Same can be said about FC Basel as a loss for either side can spell doomsday for
them in the competition.
Clubs
Pld
W
D
L
F
A
+/-
1
FC Bayern München
3
3
0
0
7
3
4
9
2
FC Basel 1893
3
1
0
2
5
5
0
3
3
CFR 1907 Cluj
3
1
0
2
5
6
-1
3
4
AS Roma
3
1
0
2
3
6
-3
3
Group F:
Chelsea vs. Spartak Moscow
MSK Zilina vs. Olympique de Marseille
Chelsea will welcome Spartak Moscow to Stamford Bridge in an all important clash of Group F. The London Blues can book a berth in the last 16 of the Champions League tonight with a win as they currently have 9 points while a win for the Russians will mean
that the top of the group will be tied at 9 points each.
While a draw would also be enough for Chelsea to progress to the next round, they will be without the services of French winger Florent Malouda, who is out injured and also Frank Lampard, who is still some way from his return to first team after a hernia
operation.
In the other match of the group, Marseille will take on Hungarian minnows with the hope that they can eliminate them from the competition and in return bolster their hopes of qualification.
The French side will be hoping that Chelsea do them a favour by beating Spartak so that a win for the French side will put the two teams tied at 6 points and all to play for when the two sides meet on match day 5.
Clubs
Pld
W
D
L
F
A
+/-
1
Chelsea FC
3
3
0
0
8
1
7
9
2
FC Spartak Moskva
3
2
0
1
4
2
2
6
3
Olympique de Marseille
3
1
0
2
1
3
-2
3
4
MŠK Žilina
3
0
0
3
1
8
-7
0
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