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UEFA Champions League: Your Running Commentary

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It's the final day of the UEFA Champions League group stage, meaning that there is high potential for drama across Europe.

Much of the focus will be centered on St. Jakob Park in Switzerland, where FC Basel will try to do the unthinkable and prevent Manchester United from making it to the knockout round. The Chicharito-less Red Devils would advance with a victory or a draw.

Manchester City, meanwhile, needs to come up with a victory over Bayern Munich and hope that Villarreal can notch its first points of the tournament and beat or draw Napoli in order to reach the knockout phase.

Elsewhere, Trabzonspor, Lille and CSKA Moscow duke it out for second place behind Inter Milan in Group B, while already-clinched Real Madrid uses its match against Ajax as a dress rehearsal for this weekend's league match against Barcelona.

If you will be watching any of Wednesday's UCL matches, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action (TV schedule is after the jump):

WEDNESDAY'S UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ON TV

2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – FC Basel vs. Manchester United

2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Ajax vs. Real Madrid

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Villarreal vs. Napoli

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Inter Milan vs. CSKA Moscow

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Lille vs. Trabzonspor

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Benfica vs. Otelul Galati

2:45 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/DirecTV – Dinamo Zagreb vs. Lyon

Comments

  1. Comments sections are more heavily frequented by people experiencing Schadenfreude than happy people 😀

    I’m mostly going by Eurosnob friends of mine. They often scoff at those who follow MLS for having an inferior soccer mind, but can’t name anyone outside of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, or Liverpool.

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  2. If Chicharito plays Man U would have advanced, not a doubt in my mind. Like you said, say what you want but all that matters is that he scores goals.

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  3. The same Genk team that drew with Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen, and Valencia, later lost 7-0 to Valencia. Was that game fixed as well?

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  4. Wow. And I thought I was the only one who wasn’t drinking the Chicharito Kool-Aid. The next time he scores from outside 12 yards will be the first. He makes beautiful runs and has a deft finishing touch, but he cannot dribble, pass, or shoot from distance.

    Of course, he’s a striker, and he scores goals, so you can’t criticize too much, but still. The next Hugo Sanchez he is not.

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  5. Very nice: the horticuluralists, lumberjacks, and other mistakes of nature from Manchester United are out…hahaha, enjoy Europa League. I heard Harchester United plays there as well. Anticipating another loss to City in the FA Cup and Manure guarantees a tropheyless season as early as January 7, 2012!!!

    Smalling, Evans, Jones, Fletcher, Carrick: Team Lumberjack.

    Giggsie: pure quality, but 72 years old.

    De Gea: what a misunderstanding of a goalie.

    Chicharito: can score from the 6-yard box with his neck, buttox and other bizarre parts of his body, but with attrocious first touch and inability to make a simple pass to a teammate, his limitations have become painfully clear.

    Evra: a great winger, problem is: he is a fullback, and a true liability when defending.

    Rooney: wasn’t he the guy the English media claimed that he was better than Messi 3 years ago? England will be better off without him next summer.

    A beautiful night for football.

    In a way, Basel did Manure a favor and spared them the humiliation of 1:8 loss to Real/Barcelona in the knockout stages.

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  6. Stop whining. Ajax lost 3-0. the disallowed goals happened after they were down 1-0 anyway. Who’s to say if they had tied it up Madrid wouldn’t have romped them anyways? They were playing at home vs. Madrid’s B squad and couldn’t do squat. Their own fault man.
    Lyon put on a show in Zagreb. They’re a much deeper and stronger squad than Ajax. End of story.

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  7. I won’t be surprised to see an investigation… if you watched the Lyon game it looked like Zagreb threw the match. They just stood and watch.

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  8. Lyon wasn’t even running to score goals, the defense stood and let them score. You cannot convince me they didn’t throw that game.

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  9. I’m inclined to agree. It might be a good thing if something like this happens to a team of Ajax’s stature; there’s a better likelihood of an investigation than if it happened to Levski Sofia or some other fish out of water.

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  10. Okay the idiot commentator on Fox is upsetting.

    “You can have sympathy for Ajax but don’t forget you make your own luck and they didn’t.”

    What the hell does that mean? They had 2 legitimate goals disallowed against the second best team in the world. How do they have any control over that? It’s not luck it’s complete incompetence or even worse a fix.

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  11. Ajax has 2 legitimate goals inexplicably disallowed… and Dinamo Zagreb randomly gives up 7 freaking goals to Lyon? No. I’m not buying it. This stinks to high hell.

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  12. This game matters since Lyon just evened up goal differential.

    Even one of the legitimate goals that were disallowed would have put them through.

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  13. Head official is getting in on the Ajax hate as well. Arbeloa puts his studs through the back of an Ajax player’s legs before the ball gets there and not even a call.

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  14. Anybody besides me notice that STUPID burst of quickness yaya Toure just exhibited to get to that ball and score? Gorgous work…

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  15. Just saw the Ajax replays… same official for both calls? That’s highly suspicious at best. Decisions weren’t even discretionary they were flat out made up.

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  16. I remember Tim Howard falling out of favor with SAF when he made a mistake that cost them in the Champions League. I wonder if De Gea may have hurt his standing today.

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  17. I mean these calls are so bad that you might start asking is this game fixed? Same official and two egregious decisions that were not even arguable.

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  18. Looking for a tie breaker explanation here. Yahoo reports that benfica had qualified for the knockout rounds prior to today’s games.

    How would benfica edge united for second if both teams were to lose today by the same score? Is aggregate head to head a tie breaker in the group stage?

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  19. Manchester City continue to lead Bayern at the half 1-0 and it easily could have been more. All City the first 45, looking confident defending and really pushing forward against a Munich defense that seems to be consistently on its back foot.

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  20. Ajax have two LEGIT goals called back incorrectly for offsides. Madrid scores two goals that are correctly given for two onsides shots. Game should 2-2 at half. Absolutely horrible decisions by farside AR. Or as our english friends might say, he’s having a SHOCKER. Feel bad for Ajax fans

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