By DAN KARELL
Everything is up for grabs in both of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League showdowns.
Manchester United, with their Champions League future on the line, face arguably their biggest game of the season when they visit the European and German champions Bayern Munich (2:45pm ET, Fox Sports 1). Pep Guardiola has selected a very attacking squad as the team looks to bounce back from their 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney starts for Man United along with Shinji Kagawa and Darren Fletcher in midfield.
Atletico Madrid look to keep their dream season alive when they host Barcelona (2:45pm ET, Fox Sports 2/Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Deportes) at the Vicente Calderon. Atleti are without Diego Costa and will need his replacement, Adrian, along with former Barca star David Villa, to defeat the Catalan club. Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Andres Iniesta form the dangerous front three pairing that could cause Atleti plenty of troubles.
In South America’s Champions League, the Copa Libertadores, Flamengo takes on Club Leon (Fox Deportes) in their final group stage match. Also in Champions League action, CONCACAF style, Club Tijuana visit Cruz Azul (Fox Sports 1) with the winning side headed to the CCL finals. Xolos lead on aggregate, 1-0.
If you will be watching any of today’s matches, please feel free to leave your thoughts, opinions, analysis and some play-by-play in the comment section below.
Corona, Arriola & Castillo in starting XI for Xolos. Herc not in 18. Vamos Xolos.
Wow, Saucedo is crazy.
Hoping for A. Madrid vs Chelsea and BM vs Madrid.
I’d rather see the special one against Real. That would be interesting. Although any matchup with these four should be good.
Me too, but I suspect for a different reason.
I meant, I want to see Atleti v Chelsea. Because I like the odds of that better than Bayren.
Bye bye, Barca, bye bye.
It will be quite different not to have Man Utd in the UCL until the fall of 2015.
I thought they might pull a Chelsea, but Moyes is no Di Matteo
Barcelona fans are pretty quiet on this comment page
They’re supporting Bayern now.
+1
I always supported Bayern. But… ya 0 Barsca people is weird.
Yeah used to be full of people complaining about ever tackle that went against Barcelona. Now the success is starting to fade a bit and the shine of the famous Barca image has taken a hit with the Neymar transfer and now transfer ban.
I should say im not actually a bayern fan. I am officially Bremen fan but… Bremen isnt much to talk about right now. Haha
Didn’t get a chance to watch game, yet. Bummer, though. Didn’t really expect Barca to win UCL Trophy this year.
“Moyes has a smile in his heart”
What the hell, Wynalda?
I thought for sure that was going wide, considering how slow De Gea was to react, but that ones over
i guess now I know why Mario Gomez was kicked out of Munich in favor of Mandzukic
Gomez can’t do much except score. I mean at all. Manz is a much more complete player
Good assessment of Gomez. Jozy is a similar striker but misses more!
Ridiculous that taking down the last man to goal and delaying a bit on a throw-in earn the same punishment.
I love the game but the rules/refereeing situation continues to be such a bad joke.
Wasn’t the last “man” (defender), the keeper is the last defender and he was right there. So, no red. The “rules/referee” situation is correct, you’re the bad joke.
Learn some soccer. Thanks.
Uh, Tom, you are wrong on this one. I wouldn’t have pointed it out, except your response was unnecessarily mean to RB.
Evra wasn’t the last “man” (defender), the keeper is the last defender and he was right there. So, no red. The “rules/referee” situation is correct, you’re the bad joke.
Dude, that’s not the rule.
“Dude, that’s not the rule.”
Yes, it is. You fanbois are beyond a joke these days, don’t even know the laws of the game. Not one of you can even document your case, just the usual fanboi group grope.
Example of correct application of the laws of the game: Arsenal champions league at home vs Bayern: Arsenal keeper (the last defender) tripped Robben and was (correctly) sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity.
Had an Arsenal defender moved behind Arsenal keeper to, say deflect a shot of the goal line, then it would not be a red card because that defender would become the last man, no longer the keeper.
From FIFA’s Laws of the Game 2013/2014. Listed under Sending-off Offences:
“Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick”
FIFA never actually discusses the “last defender” in it’s rules in regards to fouls. The “last defender” thing comes into play only as one factor for a ref deciding if an obvious goalscoring play was denied.
So in fact, you are still wrong because FIFA does not specify anything about last defenders/goalies, etc. Sorry pal.
”FIFA never actually discusses the “last defender” in it’s rules in regards to fouls.”
Buddy, don’t make me laugh, are you kidding me? Yes, FIFA does discuss it, and I just explained what they discuss in my posts above.
Go to any USSF or FIFA ref clinic and take the day to sit there and learn, then come back and tell me how silly your comments are, holy smokes.
no. any mention to the ‘last defender’ was taken out of the laws of the game a while ago. now the ref only must decide whether it’s DOGSO or not. and the keeper has never been regarded as the ‘last defender’, because fifa decided that a one-on-one between shooter and keeper was always OGSO.
seriously, why is it always the ignorant commenters who are the biggest @ssholes?
Go read the FIFA RULES, you dope.
Holy smokes indeed.
haha wow, no I understand how you formulate your opinions on “Bardley” and the US team. You have no idea what you’re talking about, and it’s pretty embarrassing that you attack others’ so vehemently considering this dearth of knowledge.
This is so embarrassing for you Tom. So embarrassing.
He went left and then more left!
United tries to not bunker for the first time in the game and get scored on instantly.
Exactly
Um Bayern wouldnt need 2 more goals silly commentator. 4-3 aggregate is bayern through.
Wynalda is painful and that was a straight red card.
Nope
I’d imagine those who wanted to see all-out attack from Man U should get their wish over the next twenty minutes.
Lucky luck man Evra is.
How is that not a straight red card? Ridiculous.
How are you not a happy panda?
Taking slowleftarm’s advice.
Muting the game. This guy is insufferable.
Done.
Muted.
Hopefully we can say the same for you.
And for you
Thanks for keeping us updated. We were all worried
i wish PSG had won yesterday. I loathe Chelsea and Man United so much
Wynalda telling Guardiola how to set his team up tactically is mind numbing.
So Man U’s strategy worked perfectly except they forgot not to immediately concede after scoring.
Mueller’s goal comes down to this. They stopped play 100% defense. Robben had a lot of tome.
Time
WOW that Evra shot was sick.
WOW Bayern answered so quick I missed the goal live.
Urg, rooney isnt healthy is he. I feel like Phil Jones just takes up too much space for Riberyto actually run around.
Evra giveth and Evra taketh away.
Considering how much you all are complaining about the MU match, and how good the Spanish match is, might I suggest you are all watching the wrong match?
Aupa Atleti!
And I love Howard Webb. No blood, no penalty. No wonder the Barca players look confused when he blows the whistle.
Well both teams just scored over here. Maybe we will getba game now. I would switch but I dont have the other channel.
Who is this tool on the half time show?
Judah Friedlander
The World Champion
Wynalda is clueless.
How is this a great strategy for United? THEY NEED A GOAL OR THEY’RE OUT.
Perhaps United aren’t playing to move on, but just to keep the score line respectable enough Moyes doesn’t get fired.
It seriously looks like that, which is nuts.
Remember, that they are basically one goal down after 90 minutes, with 90 minutes to go.
They might be able to squeak a goal in on a counter, but they are not capable of coming back against Bayern from what would basically be 2 goals down
I mean… it might work but its boring and we all saw what happened when PSG tobdrfend the whole game. Bayern act like they need a goal more than Manu…
Keep it tight and try to steal a goal in the second half. Sounds a perfectly reasonable strategy for me. However, I’m not looking to write endless comments complaining about everything.
So is Man Utd doing better in the last 45 minutes to score?
Wynalda is an idiot.
How is this a great strategy for United? THEY NEED A GOAL OR THEY’RE OUT.
wish Michael Bradley was still playing in the Champions League
If a team in the UCL was willing to pay him $6m a year for the next several years I’m sure he would be.
Much as we like to think this ever happened, Michael Bradley did not ever actually play in the Champions League, nor did he play for a team that was in the Champions League.
People see Bradley dominate Mexico’s D-team and they think he’s been playing Champions for years.
Weird how Mexico’s D team is far better then there A team.
That wasn’t Mexico D, that was the Tijuana Travelling All-Stars and Bardley was gassed after 30 minutes. Bardley was completely dominated by Tijuana’s two midget midfielders in the second half. Klinsi’s plan to push Bardley up the park and play a high line with the back four is doomed vs Ghana, imo.
In the unlikely event that Ztom and Ted Tran are actually two people, I’m beginning to think they may actually BE the two midgets who were playing for Mexico.
LOL because more than one person can’t have a different opinoin that the rest of the sheep
Yeah Ted is right… ZTom uses the word “midget”… Ted Tran is angry but he never does that. Swing and a miss, Ali.
Well hopefully Herrera takes something closer to that D team to Brazil and leaves the “A team” home.
but he did play for a team that will be…. does that count for something?
seriously? wasn’t he playing CL at Borussia Mo-gladbach?
O/T but how is Wynalda thought of in the BUndesliga? I know he spent a few years there 20 years ago but considering he does a lot of CL coverage and it features more and more German clubs, just curious
Probably no one remembers him.
but wasn’t he a top scorer or was that in the 2nd division
There were 10 United players in their own box right there. Looked like only Rooney was outside it.
No, Wynalda, a player doesn’t have to touch the ball to be offside.
No wonder we sucked so bad in ’98.
What did we do to deserve Gus Johnson and Eric Wynalda? We’ll apologize. Just please make it stop.
Has Gus broken out a “Top of the key!” yet?
boom shakalaka
Yes I was just wondering which is worse: woefully biased commentators like yesterday or a team like Gus Johnson & Eric Wynalda…
Howard Webb makes the most bizarre calls. He blows the whistle and both teams stand there trying to figure out what the call was
Eric Wynalda telling Pep Guardiola he doesn’t know how to break down a compacted defense ranks with the dumbest things I’ve ever heard a professional sports commentator say.
It’s up there with John “the team with the most points wins the game” Madden.
Wynalda is the moron who says 2-0 is a dangerous score for the team that’s winning. No, Eric, Bayern is not in a worse position than United.
Remember our match against Brazil in the Confederations Cup? Or the Gold Cup final versus Mexico?
2-0 is dangerous because a 1 goal lead isn’t enough to relax, but 2-0 changes the way players approach the play.
This is true, even this past friendly against Mexico we saw what could happen.
He’s right
Yep, Bayern should have held on to that 1 goal advantage. What in the world were they thinking??
Nothing like Manchester United playing 11 men in the box.
Bradley tactics FTW, god I’m glad the plague is gone…
This is worse than Bradley, honestly.
HA! no, Bradley bunkered to the likes of Costa Rica ects, this is Bayern
There’s no obligation to attack non-stop from the opening whistle. They’ll have to stop defending at some point since they go out if it’s 0-0.
Goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Koké!!!
Athletico Madrid!!!
top 5 strikers in the world?
choose from following. Let’s leave out Messi/Ronaldo as they’re wingers
Lewandowski?Suarez? Sturridge? Mandzukic? Higuain? Cavani? Ibrahimovic? Van Persie? Rooney? Falcao? Kiessling? Mario Gomez? Benzema? Tevez? Diego Costa?
oh i forgot Balotelli
Didn’t we just do this?
Jack McBean.
well obviously Jozy is the best one
Soccer!
what will we do about Altidore?
if he doesn’t score in Brazil, his best opportunity may be Belgium or return to Holland/Turkey
but a few goals/great performances in Brazil could snag him a mid table club in France or Italy or Germany
i swear, the “what will we do about Altidore?” comments are the weirdest kind of spam. i just don’t see what the end-game is.