European Soccer Rankings and Champions League Preview

Welcome to another week of European Soccer Rankings!! Blaine is in the Philippines or something for Chinese New Year, so I am flying solo here.

It was a weekend of FA Cup action in England. There were no massive surprises but there were a couple strong teams forced to a replay. Manchester City was held to a 1-1 draw at home against Stoke, Tottenham was held to a 1-1 draw at Bolton, and Aston Villa was held to a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace. Chelsea defeated Cardiff City 4-1 and Fulham rolled over Notts County 4-0. Other winners included Portsmouth and Birmingham, while West Bromwich-Reading will go to a replay. In Spain, Barcelona suffered their first loss of the season, a surprising 2-1 defeat at 11th place Atletico Madrid. Real Madrid easily handled Xerez 3-0 on the road to pull within just 2 points of leaders Barcelona. Valencia stumbled to a 1-1 defeat at Sporting Gijon while Sevilla won 1-0 at home over Osasuna to pull within 4 points of 3rd place Valencia. As in Spain, the leaders in Italy lost points on the weekend as Inter Milan was held to a 0-0 draw at high-flying Napoli, who is currently in 4th place in Serie A. AC Milan coasted to a 3-2 defeat of Udinese on the heels of a Klaas-Jan Huntelaar brace in a warm-up for the massive mid-week match against Manchester United. AS Roma held onto their second place position with a 4-1 win over Palermo, but they still sit 7 points behind leaders Inter Milan. Sampdoria defeated Fiorentina 2-0 and Juventus secured a thrilling 3-2 win over Genoa in other Serie A action. In Germany the status quo held as Bayer Leverkusen defeated Wolfsburg 2-1 and Bayern Munich defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-1. Those two squads remain tied atop the Bundesliga table with 48 points from 22 games. Schalke 04 remained 3 points behind the leaders with their 2-0 win at home against FC Cologne. Hamburg rolled to an impressive 3-1 at Stuttgart to remain in the hunt for a Champions League spot. In France, leaders Bordeaux rolled to a 3-1 win against St. Etienne on the back of a Wendel brace. Montpellier stretched their win streak to 4 games with a 1-0 win at home against Grenoble to remain within 3 points of the leaders. Lille, Lyon, Marseille, and AJ Auxerre all won as well, incredibly giving the top 6 in France a win for the weekend. In Scotland, Rangers took advantage of Celtic’s 4-4 draw by defeating Hibernian 3-0 to take a 10 point lead in the table, effectively ending the race in Scotland this season. Twente Enschede, Ajax Amsterdam, and PSV Eindhoven were all victorious for the weekend, albeit only by a combined 4 goals.

And here are the rankings:

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 25
2. Real Madrid (Esp) 24
3. Chelsea (Eng) 23
4. Manchester United (Eng) 22
5. Inter Milan (Ita) 21
6. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 20
7. Bayern Munich (Ger) 19
8. AC Milan (Ita) 18
9. Arsenal (Eng) 17
10. AS Roma (Ita) 16
11. Schalke 04 (Ger) 15
12. Bordeaux (Ita) 14
13. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 13
14. Valencia (Esp) 12
15. Manchester City (Eng) 11
16. Benfica (Por) 10
17. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 9
18. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 8
19. Montpellier (Fra) 7
20. Aston Villa (Eng) 6
21. Lyon (Fra) 5
22. Braga (Por) 4
23. Twente Enschede (Ned) 3
24. Sevilla (Esp) 2
25. Liverpool (Eng) 1

Also Receiving Votes: None

Next five in for Tom, in order of how good I think they are: Mallorca (Esp), Napoli (Ita), FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Lille (Fra), FC Porto (Por)

Champions League Preview
It is finally time for the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League! It will be held over 4 weeks this time around instead of 2 weeks, which means we just get more weeks with some tasty European matches. All times are 14:45 ET, and the home team is listed first. Return legs will be played March 9-17.

Tuesday, February 16
(8) AC Milan v (4) Manchester United
David Beckham faces off with his old team Manchester United in a match-up of two of the strongest teams in Europe.
(21) Lyon v (2) Real Madrid
Lyon will look to compensate for a somewhat dissappointing domestic campaign by taking on the giants of Europe in Real Madrid.

Wednesday, February 17
(7) Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
These are two teams going in opposite directions in their domestic campaigns. Bayern Munich has been skyrocketing in the table while Fiorentina has been plummeting.
FC Porto v (9) Arsenal
FC Porto had no luck against English side Chelsea in the group stage, and will need a lot of luck to get past Arsenal in the knockout stages.

Tuesday, February 23
Olympiakos v (12) Bordeaux
Olympiakos got through to the knockout stages by virtue of a somewhat weak group and will have to work hard to take down high-flying Bordeaux, who has been dominant in both the league and in Europe this season.
Stuttgart v (1) Barcelona
Stuttgart is floundering in the middle of the Bundesliga table, so this match-up could define their entire season. Continuation in the tournament for Stuttgart would be stunning.

Tuesday, February 24
CSKA Moscow v (24) Sevilla FC
CSKA Moscow is back in action after a very long lay-off as Russia runs a summer league. It will be interesting to see what kind of form they are in and if they can pull off a minor upset against Sevilla.
(5) Inter Milan v (3) Chelsea
The leaders in Italy face off with the leaders in England. Jose Mourinho will look to haunt his former employer.

Europa League Preview
The Europa League will be heating up the next two weeks as the Round of 32 plays out. First legs will be played on February 18 (Everton-Sporting Lisbon on the 16th) and second legs will be played on February 25 (Benfica-Hertha Berlin on the 23rd). Home team in the first leg is listed first.

Everton v Sporting Lisbon
(18) Ajax Amsterdam v Juventus
Club Brugge v (14) Valencia
FK Rubin Kazan v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Lille v Fenerbahce
Standard Liege v SV Salzburg
(23) Twente Enschede v Werder Bremen
Villarreal v VfL Wolfsburg
Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht
Atletico Madrid v Galatasaray
FC Copenhagen v Marseille
Fulham v Shakhtar Donetsk
Hamburg SV v (13) PSV Eindhoven
Hertha Berlin v (16) Benfica
(25) Liverpool v Unirea Urziceni
Panathinaikos v (10) AS Roma