Hooray! Champions League Third Qualifying Round is here

By: Bob | August 14th, 2007

If you were to ask me which soccer league in the world I enjoy following the most I would likely respond in diplomatic fashion that I enjoy them all. That is the truth. I even get fired up watching 8-year-olds play in the park near my house. That said, there is something about the Champions League that puts a little extra giddy in my giddy-up.

I know that the competition is ruining domestic cups in Europe and helping the rich to get richer. I know that the quality of play is often spotty. I know that it can seem like a choreographed exercise in commercial sponsorship. I still dig it.

One of the reasons I enjoy the Champions League is that it features matches between teams that play with contrasting styles. It isn’t like some domestic leagues where the formula for victory is to play the same style as everyone else. I also like the competition because it introduces me to new players from teams that I otherwise would not ever see play.

That is especially the case in the early qualifying rounds of the Champions League where you have obscure teams battling it out for the right to move on to play familiar teams. That is the point we are at this week. The third round qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday features teams like the Czech side Slavia and the Finnish club Tampere. At the same time, Celtic, Arsenal, Sevilla and Lazio are fighting for the right to advance to the group stage where the money and the competition go up a couple notches.

Good stuff. The only difficulty is figuring out how to watch as many games as possible at once while also maintaining the charade of doing work.

Here’s the third round Champions League schedule. If you are looking for a place to watch it online for free, I recommend this site. It works best if you use Internet Explorer as your browser and if you master Chinese.

Tuesday, August 14

Lazio-Dinamo Bucuresti
Rangers-Crvena Zvezda
Benfica-København
Valencia-Elfsborg

Wednesday, August 15

Sevilla-AEK
Toulouse-Liverpool
Sarajevo-Dynamo Kyiv
Fenerbahçe-Anderlecht
Sparta-Arsenal
Zürich-Beşiktaş
BATE-Steaua
Tampere-Rosenborg
Spartak Moskva-Celtic
Bremen-Dinamo Zagreb
Salzburg-Shakhtar
Ajax-Slavia

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Category: Champions League

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Varang

Arsenal have played well to get a 2-0 advantage going into the home leg of their tie against Sparta Prague. Its a formality at the Emirates and am waiting for the draw for the Fourth Round to see who are Gunners up against...
Go Gunners!!!
mele419

oh, also ESPN does show the Champions League matches Matt, but usually not until the quarter finals, I believe...
mele419

I think i was the one who introduced you to livefooty! Or was it Martha I introduced...? Well, either way that site is amazing for free football.

And now on topic:
I always get excited to see some new teams I don't know, which is why I love the CL. And like you said, the contrasting styles of play between teams makes it that much more interesting. While again, like you said, it has it's downsides, but really I can't help but love it! I'm very, very excited to see this years group stages onward!
matt

honestly...why can't espn show this instead of one of their 67 faux-news-debate shows in the afternoon? do we really need outside the lines first take instead of tommy talking about bulging bags for an hour and a half?

go valencia.
Sam

Come on Toulouse!