Matchday 5 Recap: The End In Sight

By: chris | November 29th, 2007

Teams Through: Chelsea, Roma, Man U, Milan, Sevilla, Arsenal, Inter

Teams Waving Goodbye Already: Valencia, Benfica, Stuttgart, Dynamo Kyiv, Sporting Lisbon, Slavia Prague, CSKA Moscow, Steaua Bucharest.

Guaranteed UEFA Cuppers: Slavia Prague, Sporting Lisbon

Group A

Besiktas 2 - Marseille 1; Liverpool 4 - Porto 1

Rafa’s men have spent the last two matchdays making sure everybody knows they’re still the best damn team in the group, and it’s hard to argue against them. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’re going to the knockouts via the clusterfuck that is Group A.

Porto 8
Liverpool 7
Marseille 7
Besiktas 6

Everything left to play for. Methinks Rafa’s Spanish Army will be mighty pissed heading to the south of France after being shown up at home by Marseille. (And that Torres guy is pretty decent, eh?)

Group B

Valencia 0 - Schalke 0; Rosenborg 0 - Chelsea 4

Valencia now have time to spend on their climb towards another shot at next year’s Champions League. Probably best. The Chelsea - Rosenborg game was a display in awesomeness, for one team. The Norwegians put up a fight, but this was all Chelsea, all day long. Very reminiscent of the Roma game, supposed to be a decent fight in horrid conditions but turned out they just had their way walking up and down the pitch. (MOTM goes to SWP for that amazing run through and around Rosenborg’s D for Didier’s second goal.) However, Rosenborg still has everything left to play for, as taking any points in Germany sends them into the knockouts.

And two Rosenborg names to remember for the future: Marek Spara, midfielder from Slovakia, and Per Ciljan Skjelbred, who once rejected Rafa’s overtures and is a complete maniac on the pitch. The latter has one hell of a bright future ahead of him.

Group C

Bremen 3 - Real Madrid 2; Lazio 1 - Olympiakos 2

Markus Rosenberg, who was quietly sent to Bremen last January after failing to make a dent at Ajax, spearheaded the Werder assault sans Diego & Frings with a goal and an assist. Who knows, maybe he’s starting to fulfill that big potential? Just in time, too, because they’re now back in the thick of things. If they beat Olympiakos, they’re through. If they don’t they’re not, that simple. If Lazio wins in Madrid (ha!) they go through. With all due respect to the others (well, Olympiakos), I think we can safely assume the world would prefer to see Real and Bremen go through.

Group D

1 Benfica - Milan 1; Celtic 2 - Shakhtar Donetsk 1

Andrea Pirlo clearly reads this site and wanted to give us a little bit more reason to sing his praises on the front page by scoring his second wundergoal this week. Unfortunately, as has been the case with Milan all season, it wasn’t enough, and Milan’s retirement home team left Portugal with a draw. Celtic took out Shakhtar and now only need a point at the better half of the San Siro, which they did last year. The Ukrainians need a Milan win and a win against Benfica, playing for only the vaunted UEFA Cup spot.

Group E

Lyon 2 - Barca 2; Stuttgart 3 - Rangers 2

Armin Veh can be expecting a nice fruit basket from Jean-Michel Aulas and Allain Perrin for getting a late victory over the Frenchies’ new nemesis, Rangers. Barca’s through, but you knew that already. This sets up what will probably be the best game of matchday six: Lyon at the Ibrox. Last time out the Frenchies didn’t make out so well, losing 3-0 at the Stade Gerland and assuming a whole heap of embarrassment. Which means, anything less than a victory means a nice fat UEFA Cup spot for Lyon.

Group F

ManYoo 2 - Sporting 1; Dynamo Kyiv 1 - Roma 4

Roma and Chanmester are through, Sporting has the UEFA spot and we’d all like to thank Dynamo for showing up. And we use the term “showing up” very loosely. Manchester won on a late goal from The Other Ronaldo while Roma put on a clinic for the Ukrainians, spearheaded by the media’s “New Zlatan”, Mirko Vucinic. Hey, last time I checked Zlatan has never scored 19 goals in Serie A, Mirko has - and he was 21 when he did it. I’m just sayin….

Group G

CSKA Moscow 0 - PSV 1; Inter 3 - Fenerbahce 0
PSV and Fenerbahce go head-to-head in the Netherlands, where PSV needs a win to go through. Inter, meanwhile, go through on some goals and Zlatan walking around like he owns the place (he does). CSKA is excited because their season is now effectively over and they can look forward to returning home to ~~Brazil~~ Mother Russia.

Grough H

Sevilla 3 - Arsenal 1; Steaua 1 - Slavia 1

Sevilla: “I shook up the world!” Not only did they hand Arssenal their first loss, they did so by putting a whoopin’ on them, considering pre-match Arsene’s men had conceded a whole zero goals in Europe thus far this year. And not only did Arsenal lose the game, they lost their strangehold on first place in the group. All Sevilla has to do to grab that much ballyhooed first seed is beat Euro powerhouse Slavia Prague. Blame Luis Fabiano when the most exciting games of the tournament, Barcelona v Arsenal, are played in the second round. Bastard.