Champions League Matchday 4 Wednesday LiveBlog

By: chris | November 5th, 2008

Back at it again under the European lights with everyone huddled around their televisions. Or, if you’re in the Western Hemisphere, another two hours featuring absolutely no productivity whatsoever at your place of employment.

Final scores:

AaB 2 – Villarreal 2
Celtic 1 – ManU 1
Fiorentina 1 – Bayern 1
Lyon 2 – Steaua 0
Arsenal 0 – Fenerbahce 0
Dynamo Kyiv 1 – Porto 2
BATE 0 – Zenit 2
Real 0 – Juventus 2

A few surprises here, namely Porto over a seemingly solid Dynamo side at home, Celtic’s draw against ManU and Juve’s win over Real (sounds like Bernd Schuster will be steamrolling the referees in the postgame presser). Other than that, it was largely unexciting and full of expected results.

And it’s all over now, thankfully. Late surge provided some goals, but altogether a very, very boring day. 17 goals in total, which means Al wins the prize and gets to do my laundry this evening. Congrats.

93′ Late drama in Kyiv, Lucho Gonzalez wins it for Porto 2-1.

In Minsk, Danny Alves (Zenit one) just ran through all of Belarus to put the game away down to 10.

92′ Kroos just missed the chance to become a hero with a volley from just outside the six yard box, but hit it wide.

89′ Reveillere just put the points in the bag for Lyon with a strike from 20.

86′ Giggs evens it up in Glasgow on the rebound.

81′ A truly great free kick from Due in Aalborg ties it up at 2 against Villarreal. Curling ball slotted perfectly into the only section of the goal it wouldn’t have been saved.

And young phenom Toni Kroos coming on for Bastian Schweini to make his CL debut, while Klose misses an epic chance to take the points. Things getting exciting in Firenze.

79′ Tim Borowski evens it up for Bayern after being left all by his lonesome in front of Seb Frey, who’s magical, but not that magical.

76′ Opening red card goes to Puygrenier for his second yellow. BATE could yet get back in this thing it sounds.

74′ 2-1 Villarreal now through Franco.

73′ SAFFY getting desperate and bringing on Rooney for Tevez.

71′ Porto even it up at 1 with a set piece.

68′ Another goal for Del Piero in Madrid, who’s currently riding a ridiculous wave of form. 2-0 and that’s nothing short of shocking. Then again, Real did lose to a 3rd division side last week…

65′ Jurgen Klinsmann shaved his head. Not really sure as to the aesthetic effects, but it certainly provides less win resistance when running up and down the sideline celebrating goals. German efficiency and all that.

60′ Now at the 60 minute mark, we’re sitting on 8 goals. Eight. These refs need to start handing out red cards with little or no discretion.

58′ Juventus defenders are firing Madrid bodies around the box, everyone wondering where the PK calls are (especially at home).

53′ Aalborg finally get us going in the second half with a goal through Curth, now 1-1 in Denmark. Absolute barn burner there.

And everyone is back at it in the second half. Time to hit the smelling salts again.

Looks like Berbascoff’s going to be coming on for United. Nani, I presume. Yes, Nani it is.

Now switching to something more interesting, they just found a three tiered spice container with a nutmeg grater on Bargain Hunt. What a find.

Nearly everyone heading to the tunnels now. All games but Arsenal – Fenerbahce (missing Theo and Adebayor, much?) stand 1-0 for a spectacular goal total of….seven. Hoorah.

43′ And now 1-0 to Juninho. Keeper bolted to his right for no apparent reason, ball was hit right where he was previously standing.

42′ The simulcast just switched to the Gerland and Steaua is actually sitting XI behind the ball. Recipe for victory, that.

40′ Beppe Rossi just put Villarreal in the driver’s seat in Denmark, 1-0. Nice little left footed shot from outside the box. Woo. Six.

38′ According to Laurie: “Steaua are playing the most boring game ever played outside of Scotland.”

34′ Pavel Pogrebnyak just put Zenit up 1-0 in Belarus as those two duke it out for the UEFA Cup spot.

28′ Sounds like whoever selected the least amount of goals – doesn’t count if you were late to the party – will win. Approaching the half hour mark and we’re sitting on 4. (That projects to 12, in case you were wondering.)

22′ Artem Milevskiy’s mullet just put Dynamo Kyiv up 1-0 with a simple daisy cutter from just outside the box.

20′ So that was Celtic’s first goal in Europe during the group stages. Oof.

Feel free to thank me for the upturn in events, because at [2:00:48 PM] I said…”I’m hesitant to ask for goals, but this is boring”. You’re welcome.

17′ Alex Del Piero has scored in Madrid. 1-0 there.

16′ And Celtic make it 1-0 on a sweet chip on the outside of the boot from Scott McDonald. Lots of happy Scots and terrified cameramen.

15′ Currently on pace for 6 goals. Who had 6?

10′ Adrian Mutu kicks off the goal scoring/sweaty manpile festivities with a simple finish after a beauty of a cross comes in from his right, landing on the laces. 1-0 to the Purple People Eaters.

6′ Nothing to currently speak on besides lots of head tennis in the Arsenal box. Still no Rory Delap sighting, however.

4′ For some odd reason Celtic – United kicked off 3 minutes later than everyone else. Rotating linesmen, maybe?

Let the games begin.

-2 Lu-lu-lu Lukas Podolski starting in Firenze today. Do you think Jurgen forced him to wear a Die Mannschaft jock?

-3 ESPN is of course showing Celtic ManU – because everyone cares about what is essentially a United friendly – and Rafael has firmly entrenched himself on the list of “dudes who desperately need a haircut”.

-5 Looking around the lineups, very few shockers it seems. Though Arsenal’s starting a midfield fresh out of kindergarten, with Nasri, Denilson, Ramsey and Cesc.

The big news today is the same news as the last matchday, because the teams are the same, all that’s changed are the venues (same deal as yesterday). So the big boy is, once again, Real v Juventus, this time coming from the football mecca known as the Santiago Bernabeu. Juve won the first round 2-1 in Torino, so the blancos will want a spot of revenge. Good times.

Elsewhere, Fiorentina and Bayern will catch a few glances until they don’t; AaB will try not to concede 137 goals to the suddenly vulnerable Villarreal; Celtic will wait to see which United superstar fires in an offside brace; while Dynamo and Porto will wonder aloud “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” and get no reply. Also, rumor has it Fenerbahce have unleashed a special new kit just for today, red and white striped with the sponsor removed in lieu of a large Rory Delap portrait. Mind games abound.

The full fixture list:

AaB v Villarreal
Celtic v ManU
Fiorentina v Bayern
Lyon v Steaua
Arsenal v Fenerbahce (Travis has a Gunners Liverblog here.)
Dynamo Kyiv v Porto
BATE v Zenit
Real v Juventus (Rob’s Liveblog)

Updated Group Standings.
Streaming.
Betting.