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UEFA Champions League: Your Running Commentary

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By FRANCO PANIZO

The UEFA Champions League Round of 16 resumes on Tuesday with two matches, and one of the teams looking to pick up a victory and ease some of its mounting pressure is Manchester United.

United will pay a visit to Greek club Olympiakos (2:45 p.m. ET, Fox Deportes/Fox Soccer 2Go) in the first leg of their knockout phase series and are hoping that they can shed the inconsistency that has plagued them in the Premiership season. The Red Devils are coming off a 2-0 win in league play, so they do have some momentum in their favor.

In the day’s first match, Zenit St Petersburg host Borussia Dortmund (12 p.m. ET, Fox Deportes/Fox Soccer 2Go). Dortmund will be aiming to bounce back from a 3-0 defeat to Hamburg SV, but Zenit St Petersburg surely have other things in mind.

If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to leave some play-by-play and analysis in the comments section below.

Enjoy the games.

Comments

    • What are you talking about totally not a yellow. Right, I saw him wave his finger. Couldn’t have been a nasty foul because Rio is slow.

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  1. Wow RVP should have gotten that…. That even more embarrassing. That should have been a goal. That’s the whole point of having a player like RVP.

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  2. It is horrible listening to these announcers dismiss the beautiful flick from Dominquez as a “lucky deflection”. Ridiculous commentary, Olympiacos deserves to be ahead, and they have been the superior side.

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    • Yeah, that was actually a stunningly incredible goal. A heal flick moving forwards with your back to the goal to wrong foot the keeper.

      And all they could say was oh “what a lucky deflection, but you know he’ll claim it.”

      They’re ridiculous. Makes me want United to lose and lose bad.

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  3. What has happened to my poor, poor United? What am I watching?! This is such a pathetic display. Stale, static, no movement, no creativity, no invention and United just sit back in their 3rd and invite the pressure… I keep waiting for the switch to flip, but I’m just not seeing it. Really uninspiring.

    Go home Moyes! You’re drunk!

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    • Thing is united have played like this for a while now. Like years. They were organized in the back and had the talent (c.ronaldo, rooney, rvp) to score on the few chances they created.

      They’re still good for a goal a game with rooney and rvp, but their back line is an aging, indifferent shambles.

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      • Yes, I will agree that they’ve never been too afraid to sit in their 3rd and invite pressure, but they did so with a lot more organization and then would hit you in the face on the counter with speed and movement. But now they get balls in those same areas and they just stand around, stare at one another and play it back.

        But I disagree with the rest of your assertions. Case in point, they were on the verge of defeating Real Madrid last year with an outstanding performance. And obviously they won the league. You don’t do that by being stale, inept and uncreative. This team’s performance is miles behind what the squad was capable of last year.

      • Yeah last year’s results really don’t back up anything I said, huh?

        I guess I’ve got nothing other than SAF is a witch.

      • SAF was magic. If Moyes has taught us anything, its that SAF could make average players good and Good ones great.

      • Umm… sure? I guess I should apologize about not recognizing the aging backline comment, but my initial talking point was about the lack of creativity. I was just point out that winning the league by 11 points — with 89 total points — and a GD of +43 probably doesn’t back up your claim. Not to mention being on the verge of CL progression with a very thorough and deserving tie with Real Madrid (even Mourinho agreed) if not for Nani’s stupidity (or lack of luck). Last year’s results don’t appear anywhere close to what has been on display this year. But sure, SAF is a witch.

        Sidenote to all: Naturally the first comment I make on here in months has offended someone and I should therefore be subject to some form of their sarcasm/arrogance. Does anyone just speak normally to one another?

      • Moyes does need to go but they need to wait till the summer. No point in doing it now. There is no one of any quality to replace him. None that I can think of anyway. At the same time, many players need to go. They need 2 or 3 new defenders and 1 proper CM.

      • Trawler I actually was backing off my initial claim. I went and looked at last year’s table and saw united’s ridiculous GD and goals scored. Obviously those stats didn’t align with my eyeball test at all.

        And really there’s very little difference in makeup between last year’s squad and the current one. Hence the SAF witchcraft business.

    • United had sooo many bodies in the box. Wasn’t anyone watching the guy running up to the top? Someone had to be out of position on that play.

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  4. The opening 10 minutes was Olympiakos taking the game to United pretty substantially.

    The commentating for the first 10 minutes was some pretentious British announcers pretending like they needed to explain to a rec team what soccer tactics are.

    Really FOX, you would think the team United was playing was some bums off the street.

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  5. So happy we get to listen to Fox put British announcers on the match who spent the first 10 minutes telling us why the Greeks don’t deserve to be on the same field as the might Manchester United.

    God how does anyone watch this as a non united fan.

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  6. Hulk was awesome against Dortmund, and if he plays like that for Brazil with other world-class talent during the World Cup he is going to make headlines.

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    • Would spurs have been given automatic entry into the champions league for having an american on the roster? I can never remember how those rules work.

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  7. Well, for anyone not watching this game, Dortmund up 4-2, with Zenit’s first goal coming from a play in which two players were offsides and the second from a wrong penalty decision by the ref, who is letting Zenit players repeatedly pound on Dortmund players with yellow-card fouls with only one yellow card handed out by the 73rd minute. Worrying that yet a another Dortmund player will end up severely injured before the game is over.

    And Lewandoski has been brilliant. I’m gonna cry the first time I see him in an FC Bayern jersey,

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  8. That’s an odd penalty… He gives a pen for contact well after the play made a bad pass/shot.

    Normally they don’t give penalties for things like that. If you get the shot off, It pretty much not given. The yellow was a bit much in any case.

    Ah, Dortmund 4th goal.

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  9. to the above poster

    I do wonder what guys like McBride or Dempsey or Bradley or Donovan or Gooch might have done in the CL. I can totally see McBride emulating a Drogba role for Chelsea. I believe Drogba dominated the CL even more than the PL

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  10. The downfall of MANCHESTER UNITED. HOW SWEET WILL THAT BE?

    a return to the CL for the Reds and perhaps Arsenal will finally win the title

    Best PL season in years? am i right?

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  11. why are there no Yanks playing in the CL?

    is there really still bias against American players in Europe?

    Guys lke Bradley and Dempsey and Howard should have had bigger interest than the clubs they’re currently at,

    Reply

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