Welcome to another week of European Soccer Rankings!! Blaine just got back from his break in the Philippines, so I am flying solo here once again.
It was a week highlighted by Champions League and Europa League action mid-week. In the Champions League, Manchester United secured a huge 3-2 win at AC Milan with 3 valuable away goals. The excitement of the win was somewhat dampened by a late Clarence Seedorf goal and Michael Carrick red card, but United certainly have the edge going into the second leg at Old Trafford. Lyon secured a surprising 1-0 over visiting Real Madrid on the back of a fantastic Jean Makoun goal. Bayern Munich secured a vital 2-1 home win over Fiorentina thanks to an 89th minute Miroslav Klose goal. FC Porto defeated Arsenal at home 2-1 on the heels of this strange strange goal. In the Europa League, Juventus secured a good 2-1 win at Ajax Amsterdam on the back of a brace from Amauri, while fellow Italian side AS Roma lost 3-2 at Panathinaikos in heartbreaking fashion, as Panathinaikos got 84th and 89th minutes from Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Djibril Cisse respectively. All three English sides won: Everton 2-1 over Sporting, Fulham 2-1 over Shakhtar Donetsk, and Liverpool 1-0 over Unirea Urziceni, all at home. It was a good week for Belgium, as both Club Brugge and Standard Liege scored good home wins in the Europa League, 1-0 against Valencia and 3-2 against Salzburg respectively. Anderlecht also held Athletic Bilbao to a 1-1 draw in Spain.
On the weekend there were some interesting results in the domestic leagues. In England, Manchester United suffered a 3-1 loss at Everton with late goals from young guns Dan Gosling and Jack Rodwell sealing the deal for the Toffees. Arsenal and Chelsea both handled their opponents with 2-0 wins, home against Sunderland and at Wolverhampton, respectively. Manchester City and Liverpool played out to a dull 0-0 draw in a match vital for European placement, while Aston Villa and Tottenham took advantage with a 5-2 win over Burnley and 3-0 win at Wigan respectively. The rest of the scores were: West Ham 3-0 Hull City, Portsmouth 1-2 Stoke City, Blackburn 3-0 Bolton, Fulham 2-1 Birmingham. The leaders both ran away with big wins in La Liga, as Barcelona saw off Racing Santander 4-0 and Real Madrid dismantled Villarreal 6-2. Sevilla scored a vital 3-1 win at Mallorca in a match that saw 3 red cards including two for Sevilla. Deportivo La Coruna defeated Xerez 2-1 to hold onto a European qualifying spot for next season, and Valencia did the same with a 2-1 victory over Getafe. In Italy, Inter Milan continued their puzzling string of draws against mediocre teams with a 0-0 home draw against Sampdoria. They have a mid-week game against Chelsea and must hope that the goals start coming or they will be in trouble. AC Milan defeated Bari 2-0 and AS Roma bounced back from mid-week disappointment with a 1-0 win at home against Catania. Juventus defeated Bologna 2-1 and Fiorentina was victorious over Livorno by the same scoreline. In Germany the leaders both stumbled to draws on the weekend, Bayern 1-1 at Nurnberg and Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 at Werder Bremen. However, Schalke did not take advantage of the chance to pull within a point as they lost at Wolfsburg 2-1. Hamburg SV did not capitalize either with a 0-0 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. Monpellier lost at St. Etienne 1-0 while Marseille (3-1 against Nancy Lorraine), Lyon (4-0 at Sochaux) and Lille (2-1 at Stade Rennes) all pulled a little bit closer to idle leaders Bordeaux. PSV Eindhoven followed up a disappointing 1-0 loss against Hamburg with another disappointing 1-1 draw against Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie. Both Twente Enschede and Ajax took advantage with wins. In Portugal, FC Porto stunned Braga with a 5-1 beat down to pull within 5 points of Braga in the table. Guadalajara continued their red-hot run in the Mexican Primera Division with a 1-0 win at Pachuca and 3-2 win against Puebla this week. They have started the season on a 7 game win streak and already lead their group by 8 points.
Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 25
The current top team in Europe is in for a test when they travel to Stuttgart mid-week, a team that has won six of seven in the Bundesliga.
2. Chelsea (Eng) 24
The EPL leaders held the fort Saturday and now lead by 4 points over trailing Manchester United.
3. Real Madrid (Esp) 23
A questionable performance mid-week against Lyon was followed up by a 6-2 shellacking of Villarreal, easing doubts at the Bernabeu.
4. Manchester United (Eng) 22
United followed up the impressive 3-2 win at AC Milan with a very much unimpressive 3-1 loss at Everton and have a busy week ahead with a Premier League match mid-week against West Ham along with the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa on Sunday.
5. Inter Milan (Ita) 21
A three game streak of draws is of some concern, but they can put away all doubts with an impressive mid-week performance against visiting Chelsea in the Champions League.
6. Bayern Munich (Ger) 20
7. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 19
8. AC Milan (Ita) 18
9. Arsenal (Eng) 17
10. AS Roma (Ita) 16
11. Bordeaux (Fra) 15
Bordeaux was given the week off to prepare for their trip to Greece to face off with Olympiakos Tuesday in the Champions League.
12. Schalke 04 (Ger) 14
13. Manchester City (Eng) 13
14. Valencia (Esp) 12
15. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 11
16. Lyon (Fra) 10
17. FC Porto (Por) 9
Porto had a fantastic week with a solid win over Arsenal and an annihilation of Braga in the league.
18. Aston Villa (Eng) 8
19. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 7
The week was not kind to the Dutch, as PSV stumbled in the league and against Hamburg, while Ajax lost to Juventus. Twente Enschede’s 1-0 home win against Werder Bremen helped them save face, but it appears we may have been too high on the Dutch in this poll.
20. Benfica (Por) 6
21. Montpellier (Fra) 5
22. Sevilla (Esp) 4
23. Liverpool (Eng) 3
24. Twente Enschede (Ned) 2
25. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 1
Also Receiving Votes: None
Next five in for Tom, in order of how good I think they are: Lille (Fra), FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Braga (Por), Mallorca (Esp), Guadalajara (Mex)
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