Champions League Round of 16 (1st Leg) Tuesday LiveBlog

Full time everywhere. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. Here are the first leg final scores and scorers:

Arsenal 1-0 Roma
Van Persie

Atletico 2-2 Porto
Maxi Rodriguez, Forlan ; Lisandro (2)

Lyon 1-1 Barcelona
Juninho ; Henry

Inter 0-0 Man Utd

So, seven goals total and a tie between the letters I and – surprsisingly – R.

Congratulations to predictions winner Schaafito who had 7 goals and the letter A (of which there 5), and runner up Steve who had 7 goals and the letter E (of which there were 4).

Full time at The Emirates in a game that Arsenal seem to have dominated. Another good second leg to look forward to.

90+ Arsenal defending a Roma onslaught right now, and waiting for the whistle.

90+ Ronaldo with one last free kick attempt, which Julio Cesar blocked with his chest (accidentally?) and that’s full time at the San Siro. Second leg should be fantastic.

88′ Rooney just went on a slide tackle odyssey with two in a row and got a yellow card for his efforts. Tackles weren’t actually that bad, but the look in his eye said “kill”.

85′ Mourinho looking very calm, leaning against the dugout in that catalogue model way that he does. Inter have looked twice as good this half.

83′ Rooney on for Man Utd, Park off.

75′ Young Balotelli is on for Adriano in the Inter vs Man Utd game. Football Manager 2009 players everywhere raise an eyebrow.

72′ TOR! (watching German simulcast). Lisandro has equalized for Porto, so now it’s Atletico 2-2 Porto. Bad news for the letter e, but a,i,o are all level on 5. That makes Schaafito our current prediction leader with 7 and A.

So now it’s six goals total, with letters i, e, o and a all level on 4 each. That means Rob leads, and I’m crossing my fingers that someone undoes that four way tie with the letters. If we do this again, we might have to ban vowels or something.

67′ Henry has equalized for Barca. Stooping header at the far post, so now it’s Lyon 1-1 Barcelona.

64′ Big question: Would 0-0 be a good result for Man Utd? I say no, because away goals are magic.

56′ Ibrahimovic nearly one on one with VDS, but called for offside. Linesman says Zlatan’s nose was poking beyond United’s defensive line (sorry, that’s a bit harsh).

Quick vid of the Juninho goal, for those who haven’t seen it:

Isn’t the internet brilliant?

47′ Horrible miss from Adriano, who ended up striking the ball with both feet. You’d think the result would be twice as good as a regular shot, but it’s actually not even half as good. Adriano tries to make up for it with what looks like maybe (note the cautious language) a bit of a dive in the area. Ref not interested.

46′ Just one sub from around the games, Mourinho takes Rivas off for Cordoba. You’ve got to have a bad first half to get yourself subbed out of defence.

45′ Second half is go.

Here are the half-time scores:

Arsenal 1-0 Roma
Van Persie

Atletico 2-1 Porto
Maxi Rodriguez, Forlan ; Lisandro

Lyon 1-0 Barcelona
Juninho

Inter 0-0 Man Utd

5 goals total, and I have the letter count as follows:
i – 4
e – 3
o – 4
a – 4

So Wayne is winning right now with 5 goals and the letter A, which means he almost certainly won’t be winning at the end of 90 minutes (sorry).

45′+2 Sorry, missed this. Forlan has apparently made it Atletico 2-1 Porto, right before the whistle.

43′ Either Figo or Toldo just got booked for something they said, desppite the fact they’re both on the subs bench. ESPN2 just confirmed it was Toldo. Wonder what he said. Can anyone lipread + speak Italian?

37′ Van Persie steps up and GOAL. Arsenal 1-0 Roma. And so far all tonight’s goalscorers have had an I in their name. What are the chances?

36′ Arsenal have a penalty.

29′ And the long range free kicks keep coming. Cesar dives to save from C-Ron this time. And then C-Ron heads just – and I mean just – wide of the post. Think it’s fair to say Man Utd are dominating Inter right now.

27′ Giggs was through on goal – with his feet this time – but Julio Cesar was out quickly to save.

22′ GOAL! Porto have equalized, so it’s 1-1 in Madrid. Lisandro with a long range striker. I think. My stream was a bit pixely.

22′ Giggs was just unmarked in the Inter six yard box. Unfortunately Ronaldo’s cross hit the Welshman squarely in the buttocks and Inter cleared. For once, Robbie Fowler’s massive buttocks would have been useful there.

16′ Motta’s just gone very close for Roma against Arsenal. I have a feeling that although Inter vs Man Utd is the most glitzy game, the Arsenal vs Roma game is going to be more entertaining.

15′ Summary of Inter vs Man Utd so far: Inter player fouls Utd player outside area. Man Utd player shoots from distance but doesn’t score. Rinse and repeat.

Those predictions in full:

Wayne: 5 goals, letter A
Rob: 6 goals, letter O
John: 6 goals, letter S
Steve: 7 goals, letter E
Schaafito: 7 goals, letter A
Daryl: 8 goals, letter I
Ian: 8 goals, letter O
Chris: 9 goals, letter T
Joe: 9 goals, letter A
Derek: 10 goals, brought to you by the letter R.
Adam: 11 goals, letter O
Peter: 12 goals, letter T

7′ Fantastic GOAL in France. Juninho just curled in a free kick from a wide angle and it’s Lyon 1-0 Barcelona. Game on! More good news for the letter “I” too. Just saying.

4′ We have GOAL in Madrid already. 1-0 Atletico. Maxi Rodriguez scores after Aguero set him up. And the leading letter is… I. Yes!

3′ Ronaldo takes a free kick while the entire San Siro boos him and Blackburn fans nod in agreement. Straight at Julio Cesar though.

0′ And we’re off. Predictions now closed, will get the full list up soon.

T minus two minutes… Duh-duur, dur-dur-Duuur. The Chaaampioooonssss. Duh-duh-duh-dur.

T minus 5 minutes to kick off… Here’s my viewing situation, just so you know. Inter vs Man Utd on ESPN2, Arsenal vs Roma on Veetle and the all singing all dancing Premiere simulcast.

Gather round kids, it’s the Champions League Round of 16 LiveBlog.

It’s exciting, and at the same time it sort of isn’t. On one hand, it’s big big names in big big games today (plus Atletico vs Porto). On the other hand it’s only the first leg, and so nothing really gets decided today. Unless someone opens at least two cans of whoop-ass on their opponent.

Here are today’s games:

Click the team links for previews:

Arsenal vs Roma
Atletico vs Porto
Inter vs Man Utd
Lyon vs Barcelona

There’s also some pre-match banter between the Inter and Man Utd bloggers here and a LiveBlog of Arsenal vs Roma on Roma Offside.

We’re going to stick with tradition and ask for your total number of goals scored today predictions.

I’m going with 8 total, but it could very well be lower. Or higher. Because we don’t know yet.

And because it’s a bit tighter than when we had eight simultaneous games, we’ll have a random tie-breaker too. Which letter of the alphabet will feature most in goalscorers names? For example, if Ibrahimovic scores, then that’s three “I”s.

Some rules I just made up: you can copy someone’s prediction for number of goals, and you can copy someone’s prediction for most goalscoring letter of the alphabet. But you can’t copy both, otherwise your answer is identical and we have problems. Sound fair?

rules update: The letter count includes surname (basically the name on the back of the shirt, or more specifically, the names on the UEFA Matchcentre teamsheets) only. Just so there’s no confusion.

So… I’m going with 8 total, and – for the hell of it – the letter “I”.

Lineups:

Atletico: Franco; Seitaridis, Antonio Lopez, Pablo Ibanez, Ujfalusi; Maxi Rodriguez, Paulo Assuncao, Raul Garcia, Simao, Aguero, Forlan
Porto: Helton: Fucili, Cissokho, Bruno Alves, Rolando; Lucho, Fernando, Raul Meireles; Rodriguez, Hulk, Lisandro

Lyon: Lloris; Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso; Makoun, Toulalaln, Juninho; Keita, Benzema, Ederson
Barca: Victor Valdes, Daniel Alves, Pique, Marquez, Puyol; Xavi Hernandez, Toure, Busquets; Messi, Eto’o, Henry

Arsenal: Almunia; Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy; Eboue, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri; Bendtner, Van Persie
Roma: Doni; Motta, Loria, Mexes, Riise; Taddei, De Rossi, Brighi; Perotto; Totti, Baptista

Inter: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Rivas, Chivu, Santon; Zanetti, Cambiasso, Muntari; Stankovic; Ibrahimovic, Adriano
Man Utd: Van der Sar; O’Shea, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Flethcer, Carrick, Giggs, Park; Ronaldo, Berbatov

Interesting things: So Man Utd’s defensive injury worries were all a smokescreen? Becasue both Evans and O’Shea are starting. Will be fascinated to see young Santon in action for Inter. Heard good things about him. Totti apparently tempted fate by joking about straining his flexor, and then strained his flexor in training. But he still starts for Roma vs Arsenal.

LiveBlog starts from the top of the page. See you up there.

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Category: Champions League