Today is the second day of UEFA Champions League Matchday One and features the FC Barcelona-Inter Milan showdown we've all been waiting for.
There are other matches today, seven others to be exact, but most eyes will be on the battle between the defending Champions League title holders and the Serie A champions.
I will be providing commentary throughout the Inter-Barcelona match so please feel free to follow the action here. As always you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions. Also, if you want to discuss the day's other matches, you are welcome to share your thoughts and some play-by-play on those matches in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Commentary after the jump):
———————
FINAL– That's all for today. What did you think of today's match? Feel free to share your thought on this match, and any others from today's Champions League, in the comments section below.
———————
FINAL– Inter Milan 0, Barcelona 0. Doesn't it always happen? You have this highly-anticipated game and it becomes a defensive struggle? Inter showed great discipline and organization in neutraling Barcelona, but not quite in an ultra-defensive Chelsea in the 09 semifinal kind of way.
These teams should have fun with the rest of the group. No games will be as tough as these.
———————
92nd minute– Here's a stat for you. According to the Fox Sports Espanol broadcasters, Jose Mourinho hasn't lost at home as head coach in seven years. We all know he never lost with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. That right there is an amazing record.
———————
91st minute– The free kick can't find a head to send it in.
Two minutes of stoppage time.
———————
90th minute– Chivu fouls Messi, draws a card in the process. Here's a Barca free kick from the right flank, 30 yards away.
———————
90th minute– Last minute, can't be much stoppage time.
———————
88th minute– Inter presses forward, but can't put one on frame.
———————
86th minute– Dangerous Barcelona free kick goes begging. We're looking like we'll end up scoreless here (jinx attempt).
———————
84th minute– Mario Balotelli comes in for Milito. Inter's pushing for the winner at home.
———————
83rd minute– Santon with a great run forward, gets pulled down by Abidal, drawing a yellow. The kid has some skill. There's a reason he's called the next Maldini.
———————
81st minute– Watching Alves vs. Santon should be fun for this last ten minutes.
———————
81st minute– Here comes Inter.
———————
79th minute– Davide Santon is coming in for Sneijder, defensive sub there.
———————
76th minute– Iniesta is coming in for Henry, who did not have a good game today.
Who's had a good game? Walter Samuel. My man of the match right now.
———————
75th minute– Stankovic with a handball in the box that's not called. Tough one to call since his arm was by his side pretty tight.
———————
74th minute– Milito called for offside, barely off, but he was off. Pique got caught up-field on that sequence.
———————
72nd minute– For those wondering, Maicon has had the better match today of the two Brazilian right backs.
Here comes Barcelona with a nice build-up. Henry sends a ball in but the offside flag was up.
———————
71st minute– And there's Andres Iniesta warming up. Can he come in and bring some magic to this game?
———————
9th minute– Barcelona is starting to look comfortable in attack. Inter still hasn't gotten going.
———————
66th minute– Wow, Milito with a nice run at goal but can't get a shot off, stankovic follows and sends a shot just wide.
———————
62nd minute– Dejan Stankovic is in for Muntari.
———————
59th minute– Barcelona is starting to look comfortable in attack. Inter still hasn't gotten going.
———————
57th minute– Barcelona is starting to press, but Inter stays organized.
———————
52nd minute– Dejan Stankovic is warming up. Could be coming in for Sneijder.
Samuel breaks up an Alves cross. He's been everywhere.
———————
50th minute– Barcelona works the ball around and gets to the final third, but can't break through.
———————
46th minute– And we're back.
WOW, Sneijder sends a low shot inches wide.
———————
HALFTIME– Here are other halftime scores:
Liverpool 1, Debrecen 0
Lyon 0, Fiorentina 0
Rubin Kazan 1, Dynamo Kiev 0
Sevilla 1, Unirea Urziceni 0
Stuttgart 1, Rangers 0
Olympiakos 0, AZ Alkmaar 0
Standard Liege 2, Arsenal 1.
———————
HALFTIME– Inter Milan 0, Barcelona 0. Not a pretty game, but a tactically and technically strong game. Inter stays organized and controls the midfield despite Sully Muntari being a turnover machine, while Barcelona struggles to beat Inter's stingy back-line.
As for the Ibrahimovic-Eto'o match-up? Neither has done much today.
———————
45th minute– SAVE CESAR. Messi forces Cesar to tip the shot over the bar. Barcelona corner.
Sully Muntari is having a shocker today. He's a good bet to be subbed out.
———————
44th minute– Jose Mourinho deserves some credit for his team imposing its style on this match.
Still not seeing much of Sneijder though.
———————
41st minute– Barcelona finally forces some mistakes, but Keita sends a shot wide on an open goal.
———————
40th minute– Both defenses have been very sharp today. Final third is a tough hurdle for both sides.
———————
37th minute– Walter Samuel is playing very well today.
———————
36th minute– Henry cuts inside looking for some space and gets tackled cleanly by Lucio. Not the trademark ball movement from Barca so far. Inter's doing well to close down space.
———————
34th minute– Maicon really has unsettled Henry today. Nice side-battle to see which Brazilian right back can have a better game, Maicon or Dani Alves.
———————
33rd minute– Henry with an uncharacteristic poor touch leads to an Inter chance that Sneijder sends high.
———————
32nd minute– Eto'o and Puyol with a bit of a clash. They'll be going at it all day.
———————
29th minute– SAVE Valdes. Good shot from Milito, but Valdes smothered it.
———————
29th minute– It's amazing how many times Messi has been left unmarked. He's going to make Inter pay eventually.
———————
27th minute– Inter has slowed the pace down and has slowly taken control.
———————
23rd minute– Stuttgart leads Rangers 1-0. On the bright side for U.S. fans, DaMarcus Beasley is on the bench for Rangers.
———————
21st minute– In other matches, Standard Liege leads Arsenal 2-0. No word on whether Arsenal will try to appeal to UEFA to have the score changed to 0-0 at halftime (Sorry Gunner fans, couldn't resist).
———————
20th minute– What's scarier than having Messi running right at you? Walter Samuel does well against his fellow Argentine though.
———————
19th minute– Inter's midfield is pushed a bit too deep.
Inter corner.
———————
17th minute– Still waiting for Wesley Sneijder to get involved in this one. He's quiet early.
———————
17th minute– Inter starting to find a flow.
———————
12th minute– Maicon is WIDE with a shot. Inter's first foray forward.
———————
9th minute– Barcelona is starting to look comfortable in attack. Inter still hasn't gotten going.
———————
8th Minute– Ibrahimovic with a chance that goes wide.
Ibrahimovic's touches draw loud whistles from the Inter fans. I hope he doesn't have some Adebayor-like celebration ready.
———————
5th Minute– The referee is wearing a white shirt and looks like he just stumbled onto the field. Not sure about that look but the uniforms of the teams playing forced that look. Where's the neon green when you need it?
———————
4th Minute– I would complain about not being able to watch this match in HD, but considering the vast viewing options we have now for Champions League it would probably be unfair to complain.
———————
3rd Minute– Barcelona wants to play this one at a fast pace today.
———————
2nd Minute– WOW, took Messi one minute to have a dangerous run and hard shot at Julio Cesar. Good save.
———————
1st Minute– And we're off
———————
PRE-GAME– Iniesta is on the bench for Barca, but I have a feeling we'll see him today.
As for Inter, think that bench has enough talent?
———————
PRE-GAME– Here is the FC Barcelona starting lineup:
——————-Ibrahimovic—————–
———–Henry —————Messi———-
————Keita—————Xavi————-
———————-Toure———————-
Abidal——–Pique———Puyol——–Alves
———————-Valdes———————
BENCH– Jose Manuel Pinto, Rafael Marquez, Maxwell, Andres Iniesta, Jeffren Suarez, Pedrito, Sergi Busquets.
This is a 4-3-3 folks, so please no "Why is Barcelona playing a weird 4-5-1" questions.
———————
PRE-GAME– Here is Inter Milan's starting lineup:
—————Eto'o———Milito——————
——————–Sneijder————————-
———-Zanetti————-Motta—————-
——————–Muntari————————-
Chivu——Samuel——-Lucio————Maicon
——————-Julio Cesar———————-
BENCH– Francesco Toldo, Davide Santon, Ivan Cordoba, Patrick Viera, Dejan Stankovic, Esteban Cambiasso, Mario Balotelli.
I am with Tolik on the last point. As irritating as John Harkes can be, he’s got nothing on the Ukranian commentator I listened to on the internet feed. That was purely amateur hour. So, things could certainly be worse.
I watched Dynamo – Rubin thanks to the P2P
a general link: http://myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=football
Dynamo came back from 0:1 at half time to win 3:1. Rubin’s goalie Ryzhikov impressed very much. Sheva is still only coming back to form, but his return to home-grounds in Dynamo will work well for him, I think. His work-rate was impressive. Leading 3:1 he was sliding (cleanly) to take a ball back at the oppositions 1/3. Good job. All-in-all quality of the players is less then Barcelona and Inter, but the game was way more entertaining. I don’t think these two will be pushovers. As Dynamo’s fan, I was quite happy.
And guys, stop complaining about quality of the American play-by-play guys. The Russian commentator was terrifyingly awful. I never heard anybody that bad. After awhile I just had to mute the bustard.
Inter did a nice job of obstructing the passer as he runs for a return ball. Pepe needs to make an adjustment here by having the passer make a clearing run instead of an attacking run.
Barcelona always looked dangerous, Inter only occasionally.
their*
ibrahimovic is worthless for barcelona. he is completely and utterly wasting all of there talent and good possession. he barely moved that entire game. With the space he would have added to the field if barcelona had been a man down, barcelona would’ve won by 2 goals at least.
I’m impressed by my own prescience
DK leads the group, at least for the time being!!
Cool! No MLS games during the world cup next year! About time!
@ japan:
Best song ever!
And your Group F Leader is…
Dynamo Kiev!
He came when Henry left, Eddy Eddy
He broke his leg but now his back, Eddy Eddy
Give him the ball, and he will score
Unlike that (jerk), Adebayor
Eduardo da Silva, Arsenal’s #9
3-2 arsenal!!!!!! Eduardo!! eat it Aaron.
I am in in Bremen, Germany, watching the Sky Sports feed on tv which keeps switching back and forth between games.
I couldn’t figure out who Lüttich was–I guess that’s Standard Liege!
So:
Lüttich 2 | 2 Arsenal
Arsenal get a goal off of a horrible call, 2-2.
diving, or simulation, is part of the game, plain and simple (not really cheating per se = at its worst, it is plain ridiculous, see Rivaldo at the 2002 world cup, but skillfully done, Eduardo, perhaps, it is a weapon… cheating is using your hands, see Maradonna)… if the ref catches you, you should be carded for it. however, it is a bit harsh to punish it after the fact the same way you would punish violent conduct.
it needs to be punished because otherwise, players are essentially encouraged to dive all the time… I don’t think people should really single out Eduardo — ALL top quality attacking players do it – Ronaldo, Eto’o, Ibra, Gerard, Rooney, Drogba, you name it…
I put it to the refs because they are a human element intrinsic to the game (until and unless they institute some sort of in-game replay where refs can review plays in some situations – i.e. close goal/no goal calls, dives, violent tackles, etc.).
Eduardo is the man. Diving is so rampant, I don’t know who you support Aaron, but they too are a bunch of diving cheats. Hopefully Wenger gives Wilshire a chance.
i don’t understand why eduardo is being singled out. Have there not be others that have dove in the box before? I seem to see it EVERY soccer game…
Arsenal on the board finally… I still wish ill on Eduardo.
2-1, Bendtner
Kuyt just before halftime. 1-0 Liverpool.
in the past five years, Arsenal has sold Toure, Diara, Flamini, Vieira, Gilberto Silva, etc. OOPS!.
wow, just wow. in the last 110 minutes of football Arsenal have conceded goals
Arsenal down 4-0…Any chance Gooch wishes he was somewhere else right now?
beasley is on the bench! hoooray
(SBI-That’s very weird. Can you at least see the Champions League Mix channel?)
Yeah, I can actually watch the game if I keep it on the mix channel, but that’s pushing it.
This is called Karma, Arsenal. Soccer gods are mad at you, with good reason.
Arsenal is down 2-0 to Standard already…
Standard up 2-0 on the Arse?
arsenal down 2 – nil already
(SBI-It’s on 469 and 624.)
I’ve checked those two, and they are showing cartoons. Yesterday Zurich – Real was on those channels and it worked fine for me but today not so much… guess I’m screwed.
(SBI-That’s very weird. Can you at least see the Champions League Mix channel?)
I predict a scoreless draw.
DirecTV isnt showing this for me, is anyone facing the same problem?
(SBI-It’s on 469 and 624.)