Champions League Matchday 6 Tuesday LiveBlog

Thanks to everyone for reading/commenting. And congrats to Al whose guess of 19 goals was closest.

Given the lack of drama, there’ll be no LiveBlog of tomorrow’s games as the qualifiers are all already decided.

Final scores tonight:

Chelsea 2-1 Cluj
Roma 2-0 Bordeaux
Panathinaikos 1-0 Anorthosis
Bremen 2-1 Inter
Basel 0-1 Sporting
Barca 2-3 Shakhtar
PSV 1-3 Liverpool
Marseille 0-0 Atletico

(total goals: 18)

So looks like it’s:

Group A winner: Roma, runner up: Chelsea, UEFA Cup: Bordeaux, Wooden Spoon: Cluj
Group B winner: Panathinaikos, runner up: Inter, UEFA Cup: Bremen, Wooden Spoon: Anorthosis
Group C winner: Barca, runner up: Sporting, UEFA Cup: Shakhtar, Wooden Spoon: Basel
Group D winner: Liverpool, runner up: Atletico, UEFA Cup: Marseille, Wooden Spoon: PSV

Final whistles starting to go.

88′ Inter have pulled one back through Ibrahimovic, but looks like too little too late. Chelsea and Inter will both be in the runners up pot when the games are drawn, so they won’t be meeting each other. Yet.

Just spotted a great sign at the Roma game as Totti subs out: “No Totti, No Party.”

That’s 18 total goals and it’s looking like Al is going to take it. Though two more goals and it’s Rob’s with 20.

83′ Another goal at the Camp Nou. Young Busquets makes it Barca 2-3 Shakhtar.

81′ Rosenberg has made it Bremen 2-0 Inter. Mourinho not so special with second place and Bremen could very well have a UEFA Cup spot.

So that’s 16 goals, and still Laurie with 14. Next nearest is Al with 19.

79′ Totti has put Bordeaux to bed. Roma 2-0 Bordeaux

77′ N’Gog has shown Robbie Keane how it’s done with a goal for Liverpool. PSV 1-3 Liverpool

Laurie now on course to win with 14 goals scored.

76′ Shakhtar have scored again, through Fernandinho. Barca 1-3 Shakhtar. Nice for Shakhtar to finish their CL with a win at the Camp Nou before beginning their UEFA Cup quest.

That’s 13 total goals, which means Toby is winning. But there’s still 15 minutes to go. Seems our total goals competition will have more drama than the actual Champions League. Can we get a sponsorship deal from Heineken too?

71′ Drogba has come off the bench and almost inebtibaly scored for Chelsea. Chelsea 2-1 Cluj.

69′ Karagounis has settled things in Greece. His goal makes it Pana 1-0 Anorthosis, which means the Cypriots will need two goals and a dramatic comeback to qualify. With Inter losing to Bremen, Pana will top the group and Mourinho and co will have to settle for second.

68′ Great strike from distance by Riera to give Liverpool the lead in Eindhoven. So PSV 1-2 Liverpool, and right now Liverpool top the group, Atletico second, Marseille make the UEFA Cup and PSV can go back and concentrate on the Eredivisie.

Time to start thinking about total goals. Right now we have 10 total goals scored, with just under half an hour to go.

63′ More bad news for Mourinho. It’s Bremen 1-0 Inter through Pizarro. Inter no longer guaranteed top spot, if Pana beat Anorthosis (although they’re not right now).

61′ Good news for Chelsea fans. It’s Roma 1-0 Bordeaux thanks to Brighi (who also scored last matchday I believe). Bordeaux gave him way too much time and space in the box. Roma will take top spot and Chelsea second. if it stays like this.

60′ And Barca have pulled one back. Think it’s Sylvinho. Barca 1-2 Shakhtar

58′ Gladkiy’s done it again. Barca 0-2 Shakhtar. Juande Ramos probably seeing if he can sign Gladkiy in time for Saturday.

55′ Kone has just equalized for Cluj at Stamford Bridge, so now it’s Chelsea 1-1 Cluj. Chelsea still on course to go through, but now they’re relying on Bordeaux not scoring against Roma.

My Italian simulcast stream died right before halftime. Possibly of boredom. But this German simulcast is alive and kicking.

45′ Second half underway. Let’s hope for something a little more exciting than the 5 goals we got in the first 45 minutes.

Halftime scores:

Chelsea 1-0 Cluj
Roma 0-0 Bordeaux
Panathinaikos 0-0 Anorthosis
Bremen 0-0 Inter
Basel 0-1 Sporting
Barca 0-1 Shakhtar
PSV 1-1 Liverpool
Marseille 0-0 Atletico

45′ Ryan Babel has equalized for Liverpool with a header, so now it’s PSV 1-1 Liverpool.

40′ It took him two swings, but Salomon Kalou has made it Chelsea 1-0 Cluj, which will definitely send Chelsea through if they hold on. Right now Chelsea are going through in first, with Roma in second.

36′ Lazovic is celebrating his goal against Liverpool by sucking on a dummy. Either he just became a daddy, or he’s very very immature. It’s PSV 0-1 Liverpool, which right now puts PSV in the UEFA Cup at Marseille’s expense. I think.

35′ Ricardo Quaresma just showed us all why he won the Golden Trash Can award this week, with a useless attempt on goal.

31′ Gladkiy just scored against Barca’s B team, so it’s Barca 0-1 Shkhtar. See Bernd Schuster? They’re not unbeatable. Maybe they’d have put this same XI out for El Clasico too…

26′ Ballack just had easily the worst shot of the night. Maybe of the whole CL 2008/9. It was from distance, but it was higher than a hippy.

20′ We have our first goal. Djalo with a tapin to make it Basel 0-1 Sporting. But doesn’t matter, because even an earthquake won’t change the standings in Group C tonight.

Looks like Materazzi is hurt for Inter. Isn’t he usually the one doing the hurting? Strange night so far.

16′ I’m pulling for Robbie Keane tonight. He’s taking a beating in the press, so would be nice to see him score for Liverpoool.

15′ Not sure who it was, put an Anorthosis player just missed an open goal. He might regret that later tonight.

12′ Still no goals. And Alex just headed the ball straight into the ground and watched in horror as it bounced over the bar. Can I change my guess from 27 to 0?

Lines are now closed for the total goals competition. Final predictions look like this:

Daryl 27
Hawk 26
Peter 24
Rob 20
Al 19
Laurie 14
Toby 13
Nelson 11

Chris has a LiveBlog of Roma vs Bordeaux here.

2′ Looks like Adriano has nailed his own keeper in the Inter vs Bremen game. Julio Cesar down hurt.

Great stream of sumulcast is here, if anyone’s still searching for one. Will try and embed it here if I can figure out how.

0′ And we’re underway.

Ah, the final day of the Champions League group stages. Where all the drama happens. Except not today. And especially not tomorrow. Because we already know 14 of the 16 qualifiers for the next round.

Rob makes a decent argument that it’s all still to play for in terms of who finishes first and second, but as a semi-neutral my pulse remains steady.

What drama there is will mostly happen in Groups A and B tonight. But not Group C. Don’t even look at Group C.

In Group A: Chelsea need a win against Cluj to guarantee progression, but will be OK if Roma beat Bordeaux. Meanwhile, Bordeaux need to beat Roma to get through. So that should be genuinely exciting.

In Group B: Panathinaikos vs Anorthosis might be a bitch to spell, but it could be magnicent to watch. Anorthosis need a win, Pana only a draw. Plus it’s Greece vs Cyprus, so there has to be some drama (let’s hope

Read Rob’s post on Champions League Offside for an excellent summary of all the scenarios.

Here are tonight’s games (with who need what in brackets)

A – Chelsea vs Cluj (Chelsea guaranteed qualification with a win)
A – Roma vs Bordeaux (Bordeaux need a win to go through)
B – Panathinaikos vs Anorthosis (Anorthosis need a win, Pana need a draw)
B – Bremen vs Inter (Inter top the group with a win, Bremen make UEFA Cup if they win and Pana win)
C – Basel vs Sporting (nothing)
C – Barca vs Shakhtar (also nothing)
D – PSV vs Liverpool (Liverpool need better result than Atletico to top group, PSV need better result than Marseille to make UEFA Cup)
D – Marseille vs Atletico (Atletico need equal or better result than Liverpool to top group, Marseille need equal or better result than PSV to make UEFA Cup)

And if the football’s no good, then there’s always our guess the number of goals game. Here’s how it works: you guess how many total goals will be scored in the Champions League tonight, nearest to the mark wins. I’m predicting that the casualness of Group C and D, plus the franticness of Groups A and B will deliver a goalfest. So I’m going high with 27. Anyone else brave enough to take a guess?

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Category: Champions League