As relative tame as Tuesday's half of the UEFA Champions League Matchday Two was, Today's half has the makings of an unforgettable round.
Four high-profile match-ups headline the eight-match menu, including Bayern Munich-Juventus, Manchester United-Wolfsburg, Real Madrid-Marseille and FC Porto-Atletico Madrid. While Bayern-Juve is the match of the day, seeing Wolfsburg strike force of Edin Dzeko, Grafite and Obafemi Martins up against Manchester United's stout defense is must-see TV.
Here is today's TV schedule:
2:45pm– Fox Soccer Channel- Manchester United vs. Wolfsburg
2:45pm– Fox Sports Espanol- Real Madrid vs. Marseille
2:45pm– Setanta Sports USA- APOEL Nicosia vs. Chelsea
5pm- Setanta Sports USA- Manchester United vs. Wolfsburg (replay)
Today's other matches include: CSKA Moscow-Besiktas, AC Milan-FC Zurich, APOEL Nicosia-Chelsea and Bordeaux-Maccabi Haifa. All eight of today's matches can be seen via DirecTV's Sports Package.
I will be providing commentary on today's matches so please feel free to follow along. As always, If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
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FINAL– Here are all of today's UEFA Champions League scores:
CSKA Moscow 2, Besiktas 1
Bayern Munich 0, Juventus 0
AC Milan 0, FC Zurich 1
Bordeaux 1, Maccabi Haifa 0
FC Porto 2, Atletico Madrid 0
APOEL Nicosia 0, Chelsea 1
Manchester United 2, Wolfsburg 1
Real Madrid 3, Marseille 0
That's all for me. Please feel free to share your thoughts on today's Champions League action in the comments section below.
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FINAL– Onyewu with a solid and active 30 minutes of action. He got a good number of touches, didn't turn the ball over, won balls in the air, even forced a corner when he went forward for the final ten minutes. He wasn't able to create anything as an attacking target, but considering the lack of playing time, he did well for himself coming into a crunch Champions League match. He didn't do anything to make Leonardo think he can't trust him, and Onyewu did enough to lead me to believe that he's still sharp enough to be a force when the USA faces Honduras in 11 days.
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96th minute– ZAMBROTTA OFF THE POST!! FINAL- FC Zurich 1, AC Milan 0. Wow, Milan was so close to equalizing, but fall short.
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95th minute– Last minute and Zurich nearly seals it with a goal but Okonkwo misses.
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94th minute– Leonardo likes to park Onyewu near the area to serve as a target man, but they need to get the ball first.
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93rd minute– Onyewu in the Zurich penalty area waiting for a ball in but there's an offside call. He looked to be grabbed by a defender, but not enough for a call. Onyewu is parked forward now.
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92nd minute– FINAL-Manchester United 2, Wolfsburg 1.
Milan still looking for an equalizer.
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91st minute– Five minutes of stoppage time in Milan/Zurich. Five more minutes for Onyewu to work some magic.
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89th minute– Onyewu forces a corner for Milan. Inzaghi sends it way over.
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89th minute– Two minutes left in United-Wolfsburg and Man Utd looks to be going for a third goal here.
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85th minute– Porto increases its lead to 2-0 on Atletico Madrid, courtesy of Rolando.
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85th minute– Still no score in Bayern/Juve.
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85th minute– Bordeaux finally breaks through vs. Maccabi Haifa, with Michael Ciani providing the finish. Bordeaux 1, Maccabi Haifa 0.
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82nd minute– Milan is still trailing, 1-0. Onyewu seeing a lot of the ball, looks steady.
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80th minute– For those wondering, it was Colombian striker Radamel Falcao with the nifty back-heel goal. I'll post that one later (and no, this one wasn't offside).
Real Madrid is now up 3-0. Ronaldo with his second.
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78th minute- GOAL MAN UNITED!!! michael Carrick with the sweet finish off a nice passing sequence. United 2, Wolfsburg 1.
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77th minute– Porto takes the lead on Atletio Madrid courtesy of a nice back-heel goal.
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76th minute– Onyewu draws another foul. Interesting to see him drawing fouls instead of committing them.
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73rd minute– Onyewu wins a header then holds firm as an offside is called.
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72nd minute– Onyewu with a nice touch to pass the ball wide. Looks comfortable out there.
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70th minute– Onyewu does well to shield a Zurich attacker who's racing in on goal, drawing a foul.
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69th minute– If Onyewu scores an equalizer in this match, the internet may explode. That won't happen though, right (jinx alert).
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68th minute– I have switched to the Milan-Zurich match to see if Onyewu can make something happen and earn more playing time.
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68th minute– If Oguchi Onyewu fouls Onyekachi Okonkwo, the world may end.
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65th minute– Not sure what led to Onyewu's sub in but that was Milan's last sub after two halftime changes. Still 1-0 FC Zurich.
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63rd minute- USA alert: Oguchi Onyewu has come on for Alessandro Nesta in the 60th minute for Milan.
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62nd minute– Kaka converts a PK to make it 2-0 to Real Madrid. That one's pretty much over now.
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62nd minute– Wow, Rooney nearly makes it 2-1 when he curls a short corner just above the far corner. Nice idea.
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61st minute– Real Madrid 1, Marseille 0. Yes, it's Cristiano Ronaldo with the goal, and Marseille is in trouble after a red card to Souleymane Diawara.
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60th minute– Great game this is shaping up to be. United keeps on pressing.
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60th minute- GOAL MAN UNITED!!!!! Ryan Giggs scores on the free kick, which was deflected. It hit the wall and beats Benaglio to the far post. Manchester United 1, Wolfsburg 1.
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59th minute– Dangerous free kick for United about 23 yards from goal, just to the right of the arc. Giggs territory.
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58th minute– Game on now. United's feeling the heat and Wolfsburg is looking confident.
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57th minute- GOAL WOLFSBURG!!! And it's Edin Dzeko with the header, beating Evra easily to head home from eight yards out. Wolfsburg 1, Manchester United 0.
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55th minute– SAVE BENAGLIO, one-handed stop on an Anderson shot. Great save.
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53rd minute– Still no goals in any of the day's marquee matches. Get the cofee ready.
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47th minute– Ricardo Costa gets a foot on a corner kick but his shot goes high.
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46th minute– And we're back. No subs for United or Wolfsburg.
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HALFTIME– Here are the other halftime scores:
Bayern Munich 0, Juventus 0
AC Milan 0, FC Zurich 1
Bordeaux 0, Maccabi Haifa 0
FC Porto 0, Atletico Madrid 0
APOEL 0, Chelsea 1
Real Madrid 0, Marseille 0
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HALFTIME– Manchester United 0, Wolfsburg 0. Man Utd won't be happy with a tie right now, but Wolfsburg will take it.
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45th minute– No goals yet, but we've seen some nice sequences in the United-Wolfsburg match.
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43rd minute– Nice passing sequence for United, but Rooney's shot is weak.
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39th minute– Grafite with a beautiful turn on Vidic, forcing Vidic into a foul and a yellow card.
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36th minute– Way too many bad passes from Wolfsburg. They're practically begging Man United to convert one into a goal.
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32nd minute– Camoranesi comes VERY close for Juve, but Butt saves it for Bayern (stop laughing).
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31st minute– Great end-to-end stuff at Old Trafford. United's getting the better of the play, and I doubt this stays scoreless.
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30th minute– SAVE BENAGLIO!!! Stops a clear look from Carrick off a beautiful Berbatov pass.
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27th minute– Grafite and Dzeko have been quiet so far, in part because Man Utd is controlling the midfield.
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25th minute– Valencia SO close, gets a wide-open look in the area but pulls it wide left.
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25th minute– Chelsea scores to take a 1-0 lead on Nicosia, courtesy of Anelka.
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23rd minute– Zurich with a shot that misses high by inches. What's the over/under on days Leonardo lasts if Milan loses today? I say 1.5.
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21st minute– Owen comes off, Berbatov comes on, and Capello wishes he was watching Bayern-Juve instead.
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20th minute– Wow, Franck Ribery just ripped Juventus' defense to shreds and misses a chip by inches. I may have to switch to Bayern-Juve.
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15th minute– Michael Owen is apparently hurt and will be coming off for Dimitar Berbatov. Not exactly a great development for Owen, who was hoping to impress Fabio Capello, who is in attendance.
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12th minute– FC Zurich 1, AC Milan 0. What will it take for Oguchi Onyewu to get some playing time? Yes, he is on the bench for Milan for those of you wondering.
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10th minute– For those of you MLS fans who think Stefan Frei is a stud with a great national team future, the main man standing in his way is Wolfsburg's Benaglio, Switzerland's No. 1
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9th minute– The rain is pouring pretty heavily at Old Trafford.
No scoring in the other matches yet.
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7th minute– I will switch to minutes in this match since all the games started at about the same time.
Early clash between Vidic and Grafite. That's a dream match-up and Vidic gets the better of the first challenge.
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2:50pm– Gentner with an early chance after a bad clearance by Vidic, easy save for Kuszczak.
Here is Wolfsburg's lineup:
———-Grafite———-Dzeko————–
Gentner———Misimovic———–Hasebe
——————–Josue———————-
Schaefer—-Madlung—Costa———Reither
———————Benaglio——————–
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2:47pm– I will be updating all of today's games throughout so please stop reading if you're one of those "I'm waiting to watch the game later so don't tell me the score" people.
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2:45pm– Man United-Wolfsburg is underway.
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2:44pm– Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic vs. Edin Dzeko and Grafite. Who ya got?
Here's the Man Utd lineup:
———-Owen——-Rooney————–
Giggs——Anderson—Carrick——Valencia
Evra———Vidic——Ferdinand—–O'Shea
——————-Kuszczak———————
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2:42pm– Man United will start Michael Owen today, but Ben Foster is on the bench.
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2:30pm– Bayern Munich-Juventus is the match of the day but count me among those who are most looking forward to Wolfsburg vs. Manchester United. Edin Dzeko and Grafite are amazing strikers and today's match at Old Trafford could be their coming out party.
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