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Bundesliga Talk has the statistics comparing Schalke to Atletico Madrid for the most enticing Champions League third round qualifying match. Another new article written by Bundeliga Talk correspondent Mark Moll is a piece on the new manager at Hamburger SV, Martin Jol, who lost 2-1 yesterday against Real Madrid in the 2008 Emirates Cup in London.

Prolific writer Lonnie Smetana at Champions League Talk has been busy previewing the most exciting matches in the Champions League third qualifying round stage, the latest transfer market activity in Europe and a roundup of the results from the third round of the Intertoto Cup.

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Yours truly has written an article about the Spanish influence at Swansea City under the website Championship Talk. Shakira Graham meanwhile writes about one of the best supported clubs in England, Derby County.

If you’re a fan of the world’s game, be sure to check out the sister sites on a regular basis.

from ChampionsLeagueTalk.com

With their other first choice centre-back Nemanja Vidic already ruled out for three weeks with a knee injury, Manchester United now face the prospect of Rio Ferdinand missing out the return leg of the quarter-final against Roma after he limped off with 20 minutes remaining in a 2-2 Premier League draw at Middlesbrough on Sunday.

Ferdinand, who reportedly left the Riverside with his left ankle in a cast after apparently injuring himself trying to block the second of two goals by Boro’s Brazilian striker Afonso Alves, will sit out Wednesday’s second-leg at Old Trafford as United look to protect a 2-0 lead – and he is no better than 50-50 to play against third-placed Arsenal in their Premier League clash on Sunday.

United are faced with playing an unproven, untested central pairing comprised of some combination of Wes Brown, John O’Shea and/or Gerard Pique. Brown had a shaky afternoon at centre back in the draw to Middlesbrough and much may depend on the fitness of Mikael Silvestre and Gary Neville.

Roma captain Francesco Totti will miss the match at Old Trafford as he is still suffering a thigh muscle injury. Roma will be upbeat after they beat Genoa 3-2 in the Serie A on Saturday, following goals from Taddei, Vucinic and De Rossi. Vucinic will be key to any chance Roma have of advancing. Facing an untested defence pairing is a likely scenario and one that the Montenegrin will be relishing.

Barcelona, having won 1-0 in Germany, should advance though it is not likely to be by a wide margin. Barca are having problems creating goals at the moment and were held goalless against Getafe in La Liga on Sunday. To their credit Barca created plenty of chances but were quite wasteful in front of goal and hit several posts. For their part, Schalke edged past FC Hansa Rostock 1-0 on Saturday to move up to second in the German Bundesliga. If Schalke can nick an early goal, it should tighten some collars in Barca and make for an interesting finish.

Meanwhile, the Chelsea – Fenerbahce clash has had some spice added in the form of comments from former Chelsea, now Fenerbahce striker Metja Kezman. Kezman was quoted as saying

“If Mourinho had been in charge of this match, of course it would have been different. He’s a very different coach and in his time there were no surprises and no mistakes. Everything worked fantastically. They don’t have the same spirit in the team any more.”

Look for both Kezman and Kazim — the two Yellow Canaries with English experience — to feature during the 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge this week. Veteran defender Roberto Carlos should be back in the side after missing the first leg through injury.

Fenerbahçe SK defeated Kayserisporby a score of 2-1 at the weekend while Chelsea defeated Manchester City by a 2-0 score so both clubs will feel confident heading into the second leg. It will come down to a matter of tactics and I’d have to give the slight edge to Zico based on what I’ve seen so far this season.

Finally, we come to the all-EPL matchup of Liverpool and Arsenal. Arsenal are up against it after conceding an away goal and failing to capitalize more fully on their territorial and posession dominance in the first leg. Liverpool came away from Emirates Stadium with a draw and a vital away goal. The clubs contested another 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Saturday, a result that dented Arsenal’s title ambitions. While admitting to the club’s official web site that Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Aleksandr Hleb were all “feeling tired”, Wenger also said Arsenal’s Champions League adventure was far from over.

I would expect similar tactics from Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez as he employed in the first match. He will likely stick with his 4-2-3-1 system and try to frustrate Arsenal’s approach play by concentrating on Fabregas and Hleb. Liverpool will look for a quick counter-attack and hope to nick a goal while keeping a clean sheet. A 2-1 scoreline is most likely though which way that will go is anyone’s guess !

A message posted in the Liverpool FC forum on the Liverpool Echo’s website has sparked speculation about a fixing of Friday’s Champions League draw in Nyon.

The post, received at 10:28 AM (90 min prior to the draw) read as follows.

“RUMOUR going around the draw has been leaked . . . this is no doubt rubbish but if the rumour is true it’s LFC – Arsenal, Chelsea – Fenerbahce and Manchester United vs Roma.

No bookies will take bets on the draw either.

Let the draw commence. Come on!”

The poster claims the he received the advance result from two friends within betting circles.  He was then “frustrated” when he was not allowed to bet on the outcome.

Bookkeepers told the Liverpool Echo that it was common practice not to accept bets on the Champions League draw itself.

UEFA asserts that draw was conducted with “150% honesty.”

The odds of choosing the correct draw at random would have been 104-1.

From ChampionsLeagueTalk.com

Benfica’s struggles continued as they failed to make any impression in Spain, as Getafe progressed to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup with a 1-0 (Agg. 3-1) win thanks to Albin’s gorgeous lob. Getafe’s reward is a quarter-final matchup against my favourites to win FC Bayern Munich. Bayern had for all intents and purposes sealed their passage to the quarter-finals with a 5-0 first-leg win over RSC Anderlecht in Belgium last week. Anderlecht restored some pride by sealing a 2-1 victory in Germany but it was nowhere near enough to prevent Bayern from advancing. With key players Franck Ribéry, Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose making their mark in the first leg, many of them were rested or used sparingly in the second leg. In the last two rounds Bayern have advanced by aggregate scores of 7-3 and 6-2. Will they be able to put up the same impressive numbers against Getafe?

English clubs Everton and Tottenham were both knocked out after losing penalty shootouts. Tottenham managed to overturn a 1-0 deficit against PSV after a barrage of consistent pressure in a match that PSV played with surprisingly negative tactics. Tottenham were rewarded for their attacking mindset as Dimitar Berbatov scored with a perfectly executred volley straight into the bottom corner. With no goals in extra-time, the game went to penalties and Jenas could have won the tie, but saw his penalty saved by Gomes. Chimbonda missed Spurs’ final effort with a terrible attempt.

Everton also overturned a first leg deficit against Fiorentina with a strong performance at home. Goals from Andy Johnson and Mikael Arteta took the game to extra time. Extra time produced nothing so it was off to penalties, where Yakubu (hit the post) and Jagielka (saved) both missed, while the Viola scored all four of their spot kicks to knock Everton out. Everton had numerous chances to win the game outright in normal time were it not for the excellent work of Fiorentina keeper Sébastien Frey.

PSV will now meet Fiorentina in the quarter-finals and I expect a very close match but at this stage I am giving the edge to PSV as they get to play at home in the second leg. There is very little to choose as both sides are evenly matched and it could go either way.

The other English club to make the round of 16, Bolton Wanderers, were also eliminated after losing 1-0 away to Sporting Lisbon. Bolton had come out and attacked strongly despite missing a number of experienced players but Bruno Pereirinha’s goal five minutes from time ended Bolton’s momentum and secured a 2-1 aggregate triumph.

Sporting now will face Rangers FC after they escaped with a single-goal defeat away to Werder Bremen. Having won 2-0 at home in the first leg, Rangers advanced on aggregate score. Bremen dominated both halves of the second leg but the heroics of Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor kept the German side off the scoresheet until the 58th minute when Brazilian playmaker Diego flicked the ball over one opponent and, as other Rangers defenders converged on him, fired a low shot beyond McGregor. At that stage it looked like Bremen would rally to tie the fixture but Walter Smith’s men weathered the storm and advanced. I expect Rangers to play a similar set of tactics against Sporting and I think their squad is just a bit stronger at the moment so I am picking Rangers to advance.

Bayer Leverkusen just edged into the quarter-finals on the away goals rule despite losing 3-2 in their second leg matchup at Bundesliga rivals Hamburger SV. They are matched up against FC Zenit St. Petersburg who overturned a 3-1 loss in Marseille with a 2-0 win at home to advance on the away goals rule. Zenit was powered by two goals from Pavel Pogrebnyak, who is the currently the top scorer in the UEFA Cup with 7 goals.

I am taking Zenit to win this matchup. Zenit won the 2007 Russian Premier League, which means they will compete in the group stage of the Champions League 2008-09. Zenit have been coached by “The Little General”, Dick Advocaat, since 2006 and he was the first foreign coach to guide a club to the Russian championship. While big summer signing Pogrebnyak has been key to the team during their UEFA Cup run, the main man for this side is midfielder Andrey Arshavin. Arshavin was the only member of the squad to start all 30 leagues matches, and he posted 10 goals and 11 assists. Quick, skillful, and equally deadly with his passing and finishing, the 26-year-old may draw attention from other European clubs this summer.

Another key member of the Zenit squad is another big-money summer signing Anatoliy Tymoschuk. Tymoschuk moved to Zenit from Shaktar Donetsk a fee rumoured to be about €15 million. He usually plays as a holding midfielder and provides strength, stamina and tackling to the Zenit midfield.

Here are the quarter-final matchups (my picks to advance are bolded)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen v FC Zenit St. Petersburg
Rangers FC v Sporting Clube de Portugal
FC Bayern Munich v Getafe CF
ACF Fiorentina v PSV Eindhoven

The semi-finals would then setup like this:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen/FC Zenit St. Petersburg v FC Bayern Munich/Getafe CF
Rangers FC/Sporting Clube de Portugal v ACF Fiorentina/PSV Eindhoven

From ChampionsLeagueTalk.com

The draw for the Champions League Quarter-Finals was held today at UEFA headquarters in Nyon and the big news was that we will be treated to a rematch of AS Roma and Manchester United, which promises the most attractive football from both sides.

The first leg of the quarter-final ties are scheduled to be played April 1/2 with the second leg on April 8/9. The semifinal ties are scheduled to be played April 22/23 with the second legs contested on April 29/30.

Quarter-Finals (my picks to advance are bolded)
Arsenal FC v Liverpool FC
AS Roma v Manchester United
FC Schalke 04 v FC Barcelona
Fenerbahçe SK v Chelsea FC

The semi-finals then setup like this:
Arsenal/Liverpool vs. Fenerbahçe/Chelsea
Schalke 04/Barcelona vs. AS Roma/Manchester United

Chelsea, semi-finalists in three of the last four campaigns, visit Fenerbahçe SK and have to be favoured to advance to the semis based on both their experience and their current form. Chelsea have conceded just once under Grant in the Champions League and should feel confident going into this fixture. It is not be an easy draw for Chelsea but at this stage there are no truly “easy” matchups to be had. The key will be the trip to Turkey, if Chelsea can come out of that match level, they should be able to win the fixture and progress to the semi-finals to face either Arsenal or Liverpool. Chelsea have yet to win the Champions League since Roman Abramovich took over the club and it is rumoured that unless they do so this season, current manager Avram Grant will be replaced at season’s end.

Roma will again seek to avenge the 7-1 thrashing they suffered last season but I have to question their team unity at this point. It has been well documented in the press that Francesco Totti and Brazilian midfielder Mancini have had a long-running personal feud. Now added to that, defender Christian Panucci had an altercation with midfielder Alberto Aquilani during a recent training session. Manchester United were less than impressive in getting past Olympique Lyon and will need to step their game up if they are to get past Roma.

The Arsenal – Liverpool tie could get ugly as the two sides also face-off in the league in between the quarter-final legs. Many observers will favour Liverpool as one could argue that they are able to concentrate solely on the Champions League but they have not locked up a Champions League place for next season so that’s a bit of a fallacy. Liverpool need to keep putting points on the board to hold off Everton who are currently level on points but trailing in goal difference. I was impressed by the way both clubs handled their respective Italian opponents in the last round and if the Torres-Gerrard combination can continue to click, Liverpool will be difficult to deal with. However, I think the midfield is where the tie will be won and lost and Arsenal have a more definite midfield. You know who will be out there and the players will know what’s expected of them. Can the same be said for Liverpool? Not really.

Both sides are likely to go with a 4-5-1 variant so I wouldn’t expect a high-scoring affair. I’d favour Arsenal in this tie simply based on the team chemistry and the overall consistency in their form this season. The two sides drew 1-1 in league play earlier this year.

I am picking Barcelona to advance over Schalke for a number or reasons. For starters, I think their squad is stronger even without Lionel Messi, who will miss both legs of this tie. One must also look at the fact that Barcelona get to play the second leg at home, which is a big advantage. Schalke are likely to adopt similar tactics to the ones they used against Porto in the last round. The German side fought for a home win and clean sheet, then defended that lead in the return leg. Against a side of Barcelona’s quality, it is a big ask. They have numerous ways to break down defenses and it will be a major upset if they do not advance.