A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams In European Soccer

Another week of European Soccer Rankings! What follows is an unabridged, only slightly edited for grammar introduction written by the one and only Blaine Curcio.

Good morning, buon giorno, buenas dias, guten tag, and bonjour, and welcome to another edition of football rankings as prepared by Tom “Purdue Pete” Nielsen and Blaine “Sachin Tendulkar’s Newest Fan” Curcio. Before going into details about the wild week that was, I feel it necessary to mention that David “Pig-Dog” Beckham’s world cup chances are now over due to an Achilles injury, and I’ve consequently been celebrating ever since. Of course, the biggest event in European football this week was the second leg of the Champions’ League round of 16 matches. Tuesday evening saw Bayern Munich lose to Fiorentina 3-2, but advance on 4-4 aggregate with the away goals rule. Tom seemed to believe this makes Germany look good, [Editor’s (Tom’s) Note: I don’t think this necessarily makes Germany look good, but Blaine likes Italy so much and dislikes the Bundesliga so much that I had to rub it in his face via Facebook post-match.] I think that Fiorentina is a rubbish Italian side [He still has them ranked 21st] and the fact that the Bundesliga’s best needed away goals to beat them is sad, and a reflection on the league’s inferiority. Arsenal decided to shatter the men of F.C. Porto with a 5-0 bloodbath at the Emirates, which saw at least three Portuguese jump in front of London double-decker busses after the match due to manic depression. Porto folded about 45 minutes later, and are no longer in existence (that was a lie). Arsenal’s match saw Nicklas Bendtner and his silent “d” in his last name score a hattrick, and saw Arsene Wenger’s legend grow to the status of hero among men. Wednesday night’s CL fixtures were massively hyped going in, with Manchester United owning a 3-2 lead over AC Milan (with 3 away goals) and Lyon coming in as the shocking favorite, having beaten Real Madrid 1-0 in Lyon. United were originally to be playing without the man who is currently the most electrifying man in sports entertainment (a title bestowed upon him by The Rock), Wayne Rooney, due to an injury sustained while saving orphans from a fire. Rooney had a miraculous death-bed recovery the morning of the match, and went out and scored a double, cementing his reputation as the Greek God of premature balding and making world-class keepers look like Paul Robinson. Lyon-Real Madrid ended in a 1-1 draw, which saw Real Madrid ousted from the CL and Florentino Perez put his foot in his mouth after having spent approximately €1 trillion (or roughly infinity Filipino Pesos) on transfers this past offseason, with the intention of winning the Champions’ League. Liverpool continued their miserable season with a 1-0 loss to Lille in the Europa League, which saw Rafael Benitez punch Liverpool owner Tom Hicks in the mouth for lack of transfer funds. This week in the premiership was a fairly standard one. Manchester United’s fans found themselves doing the “easy! easy! easy!” chant after their 3-0 drubbing of Fulham, while Chelsea continued to roll with a 4-1 win over bottom-dwelling (but still legendary because of the cinematic excellence of Green Street Hooligans) West Ham United. By the way, for the record, Wayne Rooney scored yet another brace in their win over Fulham, and continues to go about doing the business of kicking ass and taking names. Arsenal was able to pull off a respectable away victory at Hull City 2-1, while Everton and Birmingham played to a 2-2 draw in B’Ham. Tottenham Hotspur continues to loiter in 4th place (something that would result in a $1,000 fine in Singapore) with a win over Blackburn Rovers. In La Liga the results were not terribly interesting, with Real Madrid cruising to a 4-1 win over Valladolid. Barcelona played vs. 3rd place Valencia at home, which had some potential to be a decent match given Valencia’s respectability. Lionel Messi would have none of that though, and scored a second-half hattrick, stealing the hearts of a thousand Spanish women in the process. This means that Valencia is now in 3rd with 47 points, while Barca and Real are tied at the top with 65. Yes, you read that correctly, they could both go 6 matches without getting a single point, and still be at least tied at the top of the table with Valencia. That’s called parity, my friends. Vegas now puts Real or Barca as winning La Liga as a 103% chance to happen. That’s not an exaggeration, either (yes it is). One of the more interesting things to happen this week was Serie A’s decision to give up on the traditionally defensive style of Italian football entirely, and just go hog-wild scoring goals! The following scorelines, among others, were observed this week in Serie A: 5-3, 3-3, 3-3, 3-2. The last time there were that many scores in Italy was when Gigi Buffon was seen out picking up women in some tiny provincial town like Cittadella after a match during Juve’s spell in Serie B (ba-dum-cha!). Speaking of Juventus, after a roaring start that saw them go up 3-0 on Siena within 45 seconds (it was really 10 minutes), the Old Lady decided to roll over and die, as Siena came back and scored 3 of their own to cause the match to end 3-3. Newly appointed Juventus head coach Alberto Zaccheroni was seen shortly after the match crying in the fetal position in the dressing room shower while Gianni Agnelli’s ghost beat him over the head with an umbrella saying “vafanculo”. Inter Milan’s travel agent was fired this weekend after he mistakenly booked airfare for their youth squad to go play Catania Calcio (current league position: 15th), which led to Catania beating Inter 3-1. This blows the Serie A title race absolutely wide open, as AC Milan now finds themselves only 1 point out of 1st place after a 90th minute Clarence Seedorf goal gave them the full 3 points over Chievo Verona. AS Roma also continues to lurk in 3rd, only 6 points out of first. Genoa and Cagliari played to an 8 goal thriller that ended Genoa 5-3 Cagliari, and saw 7 goals scored in about 25 minutes. Given the Italian style of play, the scoreboard didn’t have room to fit 8 goal-scorers, so they ended up paying some Italian guy to hold up signs indicating the scorers for goals 2-8 (they’d never seen a multi-goal match before). In Holland, Ajax Amsterdam massively outclassed PSV Eindhoven in a battle of Dutch heavyweights (which is equivalent to a battle of English Welterweights at best), as they won 3-1 in Amsterdam ArenA. Twente won again to go 5 up on PSV at the top of the table. In France 2/3 of this weekend’s matches were cancelled due to fan indifference. The fortunate few matches that did happen included Bordeaux’s 0-0 draw vs. Monaco which saw Lille move to within 2 points of the top. The 2nd and 3rd place teams, Montpelier and AJ Auxerre, respectively, drew to a 1-1 draw, preventing each other from leapfrogging Bordeaux. A very quick Bundesliga roundup: Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, and Schalke 04 all won. Munich’s win involved a brace by Arjen Robben in the last 15 minutes to give them the 2-1 win over 17th place FC Freiburg. The three clubs now sit 1-2-3, with Bayern Munich in 1st with 56, Schalke in 2nd with 54, and Leverkusen in 3rd with 53. In the coming week, watch for the 2nd round of CL round of 16 legs, with the obvious crown-jewel of those matches being the massively hyped Chelsea-Inter Milan match. Inter won round 1 at the San Siro 2-1, but Chelsea has stated their confidence in their abilities to pull off the minor upset. Thanks for reading this far, and if you have, odds are you’re currently questioning my sanity.

I’ve questioned his insanity for a couple years now—this only confirms my suspicions. In any event, here are the rankings:

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
3. Manchester United (Eng) 46
4. Real Madrid (Esp) 45
5. Arsenal (Eng) 40
6. Inter Milan (Ita) 39
7. AC Milan (Ita) 36
8. Bayern Munich (Ger) 34
9. Bordeaux (Fra) 32
10. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 30
11. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 29
T12. Schalke 04 (Ger) 26
T12. Valencia (Esp) 26
14. Manchester City (Eng) 25
T15. Benfica (Por) 21
T15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 21
17. Aston Villa (Eng) 20
18. AS Roma (Ita) 15
19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 13
T20.Braga (Por) 11
T20.Montpellier (Fra) 11
22. Lyon (Fra) 10
T23. Fiorentina (Ita) 5
T23. Marseille (Fra) 5
25. Sevilla (Esp) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Juventus (Ita) 3, Panathinaikos (Gre) 3, Hamburg SV (Ger) 2, FC Porto (Por) 1

And here is how the voters voted:

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Manchester United	Chelsea
3	Chelsea	Real Madrid
4	Real Madrid	Manchester United
5	Arsenal	Inter Milan
6	Bayern Munich	Bordeaux
7	AC Milan	Arsenal
8	Inter Milan	Valencia
9	Schalke 04	AC Milan
10	Bayer Leverkusen	Tottenham Hotspur
11	Benfica	Twente Enschede
12	Tottenham Hotspur	Bayern Munich
13	Manchester City	Bayer Leverkusen
14	Bordeaux	Manchester City
15	Montpellier	Ajax Amsterdam
16	Aston Villa	Aston Villa
17	Lyon	Schalke 04
18	Valencia	AS Roma
19	AS Roma	Braga
20	Twente Enschede	Benfica
21	Marseille	Fiorentina
22	Braga	Sevilla
23	Panathinaikos	Juventus
24	Ajax Amsterdam	Hamburg SV
25	FC Porto	Lyon

Next five in for Tom, in alphabetical order: Anderlecht (Bel), Liverpool (Eng), Mallorca (Esp), PSV Eindhoven (Ned), Sevilla (Esp)

Next five in for Blaine, in alphabetical order: AJ Auxerre (Fra), Hamburg SV (Ger), Lille (Fra), Liverpool (Eng), Montpellier (Fra)

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Soccer

This week saw another round of mid-week European matches! Blaine is finally back into the swing of things in Hong Kong and was therefore able to once again contribute to these rankings. He has been over there for about two months now so it will be interesting to see how our rankings start to independently develop without us talking about soccer on a daily basis in the US.

First up on Tuesday there was a good 1-0 win for Bordeaux at Olympiakos with a Michael Ciani goal right before the half. The last thing the Greek side wanted to do was give up a goal at home so red-hot Bordeaux will have a nice lead to take back home to France. Barcelona came from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart, and with the valuable away goal should find a way to advance to the next round. A fantastic Mark Gonzalez strike in the 66th minute drew CSKA Moscow level with Sevilla at home and gives them a chance going into the second leg as the match finished 1-1. The massive match-up of the week came with Inter Milan hosting Chelsea on Wednesday. Alberto Diego Milito scored in the 3rd minute for Inter, but Salomon Kalou equalized in the 51st with the valuable away goal. However, an Esteban Cambiasso goal 4 minutes later gave the Italian leaders the lead again, leaving Chelsea with work to do in the return leg.

The Europa League saw all of its Round of 32 second legs played. Benfica smashed Hertha Berlin 4-0, the first of their 4-0 wins for the week, and they will be moving on to the next round, 5-1 on aggregate. Panathinaikos stunned AS Roma with a 3-2 win at Roma to advance to the Round of16 on a 6-4 aggregate win. Their three goals came in a 5 minute span to end the first half, two from Djibril Cisse (notorious for playing incredibly well against me in FIFA) and one from Sotiris Ninis. PSV Eindhoven beat Hamburg SV 3-2 but were still knocked out indifficult fashion on the away goals rule. Fulham held off Shakhtar Donetsk with a 1-1 result in Ukraine to advance to the next round 3-2 on aggregate. Liverpool bounced back from an early deficit to beat Unirea Urziceni 3-1 and 4-1 on aggregate. Everton was not able to hold onto their 2-1 lead from leg 1 as they lost 3-0 at Sporting Lisbon to end their European run. German sides Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen both won their games 4-1 against Villarreal and Twente respectively to propel themselves on in the competition. The rest of the scores mid-week were Galatasaray 1-2 Atletico Madrid (2-3 on aggregate), Marsielle 3-1 Copenhagen (6-2), Fenerbahce 1-1 Lille (2-3), Hapoel Tel-Aviv 0-0 FK Rubin Kazan (0-3), Juventus 0-0 Ajax Amsterdam (2-1), SV Salzburg 0-0 Standard Liege (2-3), Valencia 3-0 Club Brugge (3-1).

On the weekend, Manchester United won the first trophy in England this year with a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium in the Carling Cup final. James Milner took an early lead for Villa on a fair penalty call but Michael Owen equalized for United just 7 minutes later. Red-hot substitute Wayne Rooney won it for Manchester United with a goal in the 74th minute. In the Premier League, the big game for the weekend was the first game of the weekend when Manchester City waltzed into Stamford Bridge and came out with a 4-2 win on the heels of a brace for both Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy. Arsenal handled Stoke City with a 3-1 win on the road after an early Danny Pugh goal for Stoke. Arsenal scored twice in second half extra time to take the victory, which was marred by a horrific injury to Aaron Ramsey in the second half. Tottenham held off streaking Everton with a 2-1 victory at home. American Landon Donovan missed a big chance in this game that would have pulled Everton even. Liverpool held off Blackburn at home with goals from Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres in a 2-1 win. After this weekend’s action, Chelsea sits only one point ahead of Manchester United, while Arsenal is just three points back of the leaders. Tottenham occupies the last Champions League qualifying spot in fourth but is 12 points off the pace. Manchester City is lurking in fifth, even with Tottenham points and well behind in goal differential, but with a game in hand. Liverpool is a point behind City in sixth, while Aston Villa is just three points behind Liverpool with two games in hand, still very much in the hunt for the final Champions League qualifying spot.
In Spain, Barcelona kept their lead in La Liga with a 2-1 win at home over Malaga. Real Madrid remains two points back with their 5-1 thrashing of relegation-threatened Tenerife on the road. Third-place Valencia lost in grand fashion, 4-1 at Atletico Madrid, who may be turning it around a bit as they use their momentum from their advance in the Europa League. Luckily for Valencia, Sevilla was unable to capitalize with a 0-0 draw at home to seventh-place Athletic Bilbao, so Sevilla is three points back of third. Mallorca took advantage of these dropped points and jumped to fifth with a 2-1 win at Valladolid as Deportivo La Coruna lost 1-0 at Villarreal.
Inter Milan remained in first in Serie A with a win after three straight draws. Inter held off a desperate Udinese side 3-2 on the road. AC Milan remains just 4 points back with a 3-1 win over visiting Atalanta, while AS Roma is now 7 points back after a 2-2 draw at sixth-place Napoli. In a huge match, Palermo surprised Juventus 2-0 at Juventus to pull into the fourth and final Champions League spot in Serie A. Palermo is now two points ahead of both Juventus and Napoli. Sampdoria failed to take advantage of the lost points in this section of the table as their hot streak cooled off with a 1-0 loss at mid-table Parma. Sampdoria is still lurking one back of Juventus and Napoli.
Bayern Munich finally took the lead in Germany with a solid 1-0 win over visiting fourth-place Hamburg SV. Bayer Leverkusen continued their season-long unbeaten run with a 0-0 draw against Cologne but now sits two points back of leading Bayern. Leverkusen currently has 13 wins with 11 draws, and the exact 50-20 goals for-goals against rate as 15-7-2 Bayern. Schalke 04 picked up some ground on Leverkusen with a 2-1 win against fifth-place Borussia Dortmund and is now just two points back of second place, 8 points ahead of Hamburg, so they are solidly in the third and final Bundesliga Champions League spot.
In France, leaders Bordeaux were idle for what feels like the tenth week in a row (in reality just the second), and they are now level with Montpellier, who defeated Stade Rennes 3-1. Bordeaux has a 13 goal advantage in goal differential and two games in hand so they are still solidly in front of Ligue 1. The battle for the third Champions League spot is still fierce, as third-place Lyon is just two points behind Montpellier, a point ahead of Marseille and two points ahead of Lille. Lyon was vaulted into third with a 2-0 win over Nice as Lille dropped points with a 2-1 loss at AJ Auxerre. Marsille moved into fourth with their 3-0 win at Paris Saint-Germain.
In the classic Old Firm match, Rangers came away with a 1-0 win at home on the back of a stoppage time goal by American Maurice Edu. Rangers now sit 10 points ahead of second place Celtic with a game in hand, in what will surely prove to be an insurmountable lead. The big three won in the Netherlands: First place PSV Eindhoven 5-1 over RKC Wallwijk, second place Ajax Amsterdam 4-0 over FC Utrecht, and third place Twente Enschede 2-1 over NEC Nijmegen after an 85th minute Bryan Ruiz goal. PSV remains one point ahead of Twente and 7 ahead of Ajax. In Portugal, leaders Braga were victorious 3-1 over Olhanese while Benfica remains one point back after a 4-0 win at Leixoes. Fourth-placed Sporting Lisbon easily handled third-place FC Porto 3-0, but Sporting is still a distant fourth, 11 points back of Porto. In the top of the table clash in Austria, leaders Red Bull Salzburg won 1-0 at Rapid Vienna and are now 5 points clear at the top.

Here are the rankings, along with some comments by Blaine, including a Portsmouth rant at the end.

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
T2. Inter Milan (Ita) 47
T2. Real Madrid (Esp) 47
4. Manchester United (Eng) 44
5. Chelsea (Eng) 42
6. AC Milan (Ita) 39
T7. Arsenal (Eng) 35
T7. Bordeaux (Fra) 35
T7. Bayern Munich (Ger) 35
I've made it no secret that I think the Bundesliga is garbage. I hate the style of play, the media attention they get despite being a 2nd rate league, and the fact that its in Germany, the most overrated country in the world. That being said, Bayern Munich have been so incredibly impressive thus far in 2010 that I just had to write about them. They're yet to lose a match since the New Year (the Western New Year, that is), and have drawn only once. They have 8 wins. Upon further examination, they haven't lost since a Champions' League fixture November 3rd vs. Bordeaux. Oh by the way: their last Bundesliga loss was September 26th. What?! Yes. September 26th. As in, they haven't lost in the Bundesliga since before my 21st birthday. Are they goddamned serious? Because that's just a ridiculous run. They now sit at the top of the Bundesliga, and I don't see them forfeiting that post any time soon (or ever). Hats off to the boys from Allianz Arena, their run is simply ridiculous, incomprehensible, unprecedented, etc., etc.
T10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 31
T10. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 31
12. Manchester City (Eng) 30
Watched the City-Chelsea match the other night, and while the final scoreline looked pretty for City, the match was far from so one-sided. Chelsea completely dominated the first half, with City getting incredibly lucky to equalize just before the half on a shot that Petr Cech could have saved in his sleep. City did, however, play a marvelous 2nd half, capitalizing on every mistake Chelsea made. Chelsea's loss was their 3rd in their last 115 matches at The Bridge, which shows how impressive a 4-2 (essentially 4-1, Chelsea were gifted a penalty at the end) win was by City. Overall from this match, despite the fact that City were outplayed in the first half by a wide margin, we can say that they're a legitimate Champions' League threat, and that Mancini has bought himself some time. Also, it should be noted that Tevez continues to look spectacular every time he touches the ball, he's more or less proven to be a top-10 (perhaps top-5) player in the Premiership.
13. Schalke 04 (Ger) 24
14. Valencia (Esp) 21
T15. AS Roma (Ita) 18
T15. Benfica (Por) 18
T15. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 18
18. Twente Enschede (Ned) 13
T19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 11
T19. Lyon (Fra) 11
21. Sevilla FC (Esp) 9
T22. Braga (Por) 8
T22. Liverpool (Eng) 8
24. Montpellier (Fra) 7
25. Aston Villa (Eng) 6

Also Receiving Votes: Galatasaray (Tur) 4, Marseille (Fra) 4, Napoli (Ita) 3, Mallorca (Esp) 1

And here is how the voters voted:

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Real Madrid	Inter Milan
3	Inter Milan	Real Madrid
4	Manchester United	Manchester United
5	Chelsea	Chelsea
6	Bayern Munich	AC Milan
7	AC Milan	Bordeaux
8	Arsenal	Tottenham Hotspur
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Arsenal
10	Bordeaux	Manchester City
11	Schalke 04	Bayern Munich
12	Manchester City	Bayer Leverkusen
13	Tottenham Hotspur	Twente Enschede
14	Benfica	Valencia
15	Lyon	Ajax Amsterdam
16	AS Roma	PSV Eindhoven
17	Valencia	Schalke 04
18	PSV Eindhoven	AS Roma
19	Montpellier	Sevilla FC
20	Liverpool	Benfica
21	Aston Villa	Braga
22	Marseille	Galatasaray
23	Braga	Napoli
24	Sevilla FC	Liverpool
25	Mallorca	Aston Villa

Next five in for Tom, in order of how good I think they are: Ajax Amsterdam (Ned), Twente Enschede (Ned), FC Porto (Por), Panathinaikos (Gre), FK Rubin Kazan (Rus)

Next five in for Blaine, in order from most awesome to least awesome: Wayne Rooney (Eng), Mallorca (Esp), Lyon (Fra), Palermo (Ita), Juventus (Ita)

A special mention goes out to Guadalajara of the Mexican Primera Division, who has started the season 8-0-0. I've watched several of their games so far and they are a very impressive looking team, with a goal differential of 19-6 to start the season. In attack they are led by Javier Balcazar with 8 goals already, and they have a strong supporting cast of Adolfo Bautista, Alberto Medina, Omar Bravo, Hector Reynoso and Xavier Baez. They've been known to break out the 4-2-4 and they use it well.

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Soccer

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)

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

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Another edition of the Weekly Soccer Rankings! Sorry about the relative lateness. A friend and I found a store called the Soccer Shack in Lafayette. It looks like it could be a real good store, just opened today and we were the first sale, but they couldn’t take credit yet so I couldn’t buy my US National Team slippers. I also memorized a speech for this morning about red cards in soccer. It turns out that receiving a red card decreases the expected number of goals your team will score for the rest of the game by 2/3, while it increases the expected number of goals your opponent will score for the rest of the game by 5/4. In any event, big congratulations to Egypt for winning the African Cup of Nations with a 1-0 victory over Ghana. Blaine also wants me to give a shout-out to Rushden and Diamonds for their massive 6-1 victory over Hayes & Yeading. I bet that may be the last Hayes & Yeading reference in this blog so enjoy it all you Hayes & Yeading fans. Though as the club was formed in only 2007, there may not be many of you out there. Here are Blaine’s thoughts for the week:

A big guten tag to all you fraus and herrs out there, and wilkomen to this week’s rankings provided by Tom and Blaine. It was a relatively uneventful week, with my rankings remaining, for the most part, unchanged. The first order of business is bringing up the massive week that Manchester United had (that’s not even really bias, though I am biased, they really just had a huge week). Their first match was a Carling Cup semifinal 2nd leg against archrival Manchester City. City had won the first leg 2-1, meaning United had to outscore them by at least 1, or by 2 should City score 2+ goals (away goals rule). United scored twice to go ahead 2-0 and seemingly clinch a spot in the Carling Cup final before Carlos Tevez scored for City late to make it 2-1, thus making everything even in both legs. In stoppage time, however, Wayne Rooney broke the hearts of countless Manchester City fans with a brilliant goal, giving United the match, 3-1, and a spot in the final at Wembley vs. Aston Villa. United then continued their good form with a huge win last night over Arsenal. Arsenal came in playing moderately well, and, being at the Emirates, it appeared that the match was slightly favoring Arsenal. United, however, jumped out to an early lead on a magnificent piece of play by Nani, and never looked back, winning comfortably 3-1. They now sit in 2nd, one point behind Chelsea with one more match played. Chelsea continued to roll with a 2-1 win over Burnley, while City rebounded from the United loss to win 2-0 vs. Pompey. Spurs were able to draw away vs. a respectable Birmingham side, and Liverpool crept up into 5th place with a win over Bolton. In Spain, both Barcelona and Real Madrid won, 0-1 and 1-3 vs. Sporting Gijon and Deportivo de La Coruna, respectively. There was a huge upset in La Liga this weekend (which looks less huge on paper) with 3rd place Valencia falling to 4th place Sevilla. The clubs, while close in the table, have been miles apart on form lately, with Valencia’s last 5 going D, W, W, W, D, and Sevilla’s going L, L, L, L, W. Sevilla is now 3 back of Valencia in 4th place, with Barca and Real miles ahead of everyone. In Germany, both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen continued their smoking hot form with comfortable wins, and Schalke also won to continue the remarkably close 3-horse Bundesliga race. They now sit with 44 points (Leverkusen), 42 points (Bayern), and 41 points (Schalke), all with 20 matches played. Certainly it will be an interesting 2nd half of the season. In France, Bordeaux continues to pace the field, sitting 6 points atop the table, with surprise Montpelier sitting in 2nd, Lille in 3rd, and perennial Ligue 1 powerhouse Lyon sitting in 4th. Both AS Monaco and AJ Auxerre are tied with Lyon for 4th with 39 points apiece. Lyon’s weekend was a good one, with a comeback win over PSG to keep their hopes of a brilliant league comeback alive. In Italy, Roma continued to get goals from unexpected places, with Stefano Okaka coming to the rescue with an 88th minute winner vs. Siena. Roma now sit in 3rd, 3 points clear of 4th place Napoli. Juventus finally did the inevitable and sacked Ciro Ferrerra, fueling rumors of a Rafa Benitez move to the Old Lady after this season. The coaching change produced no immediate results, with a 1-1 draw being all Juve could salvage at home vs. Lazio. Inter’s match vs. Parma was postponed, which is a shame, as it was at Parma, who were playing quite well, and could have given Inter a run for their money. AC Milan only managed a draw at home vs. Livorno, further diminishing their hopes of a Scudetto. Napoli and Genoa drew 0-0 in a snoozer, though Napoli continues to refuse to lose, having not done so in a Serie A match since October 4th. Yes, October 4th. Since then its been W, W, D, W, D, D, D, W, D, W, W, W, D, W, D. Ridiculous. Well at any rate, that’s about all the time I’ve got today, time to head to class. For all of you braving the Chicago winter, just keep in mind, I’ll be on a beach in The Philippines in about 2 weeks!
Auf Wiedersehen!

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
T3. Inter Milan (Ita) 45
T3. Real Madrid (Esp) 45
5. Manchester United (Eng) 43
6. AC Milan (Ita) 38
7. Arsenal (Eng) 37
8. Bordeaux (Fra) 34
9. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 32
10. Bayern Munich (Ger) 29
T11. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 28
T11. Valencia (Esp) 28
13. Manchester City (Eng) 25
14. AS Roma (Ita) 24
15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 23
16. Schalke 04 (Ger) 21
17. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 20
18. Aston Villa (Eng) 19
19. Benfica (Por) 14
20. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 13
T21. Braga (Por) 9
T21. Sevilla (Esp) 9
23. Napoli (Ita) 6
24. Lyon (Fra) 5
T25. Fiorentina (Ita) 2
T25. Montpellier (Fra) 2

Also Receiving Votes: Liverpool (Eng) 1, Galatasaray (Tur) 1

The table with how we voted will be in soon! Check back later, for now here is a little hint of how we voted:

Next five in for Tom, reverse alphabetical order: Mallorca (Esp), FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Deportivo La Coruna (Esp), Borussia Dortmund (Ger), Anderlecht (Bel)

Next five in for Blaine, in order of how likely the team is to win the Champions League ever (most to least): Juventus (Ita), Liverpool (Eng), Genoa (Ita), with Rushden and Diamonds (Eng) and Egypt in a tie for last.

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Soccer

Big week of soccer! If you can’t figure out who wrote this intro…well then you probably don’t know us, in which case welcome to the blog!!

Shalom, and a warm welcome to another breakdown of the week’s European football action as told by Tom and Blaine. This week saw a fair number of upsets, grudge matches, Herculean efforts, and flops, so the rankings have been shaken up just a bit. The first big match of the new week occurred Tuesday (at 4:00am Hong Kong time, mind you), when Manchester United battled Manchester City in a Carling Cup match. It was the first leg, held at the City of Manchester Stadium, and City was able to pull off the 2-1 victory over the Mighty Reds. Both City goals were scored by Carlos Tevez, the former Manchester United striker who’s been no stranger to controversy since him move to City. During Tevez’s celebration, United legend Gary Neville let him know his displeasure at his antics by giving him a one-finger salute, which will likely lead to a fine by the FA. The second leg is due to be played in a couple of days. On the weekend, Manchester United bounced back with a 4-0 trouncing of Hull City to put them at the top of the table, albeit with more games played than Arsenal and Chelsea in second and third. Elsewhere in the Premier League, Liverpool showed that they aren’t complete garbage with an impressive, 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs continued their poor week with a draw against Leeds United in the FA Cup after conceding a 96th minute equalizer. Another enormously important match this week was the always intriguing Milan derby between Internazionale and AC Milan. AC Milan was coming into the match playing as well as any club on the planet, acting as more or less a freight train running through opposing defenses, and as a steel reinforced wall holding out their offenses. Inter was playing reasonably well, and sitting at the top of the Serie A table. A win for AC would have put them 3 back of Inter with game in hand, very much within striking distance. Inter went ahead early on with a 10th minute Milito goal, but then were dealt a blow when Wesley Sneijder was given a red card. That didn’t change much though, as Inter went up 2-0 on a 65th minute Pandev goal before a meaningless 90th minute red to Lucio and missed PK by Ronaldinho ended the match 2-0. Inter now sit 9 points ahead of Milan, although Milan does have a game in hand, making first a possibility, albeit an unlikely one. The 2 huge Spanish clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, both rolled to easy wins in La Liga, with Madrid beating Malaga 2-0 and Barca beating Valladolid 3-0. Sevilla regained some semblance of dignity with a 1-0 win over Almeria, which was their first La Liga win in like 8 months or something, and as a congratulations to them I’ve decided to rank them 25th. For those who are paying close attention (and I doubt very much anyone is paying this close of attention), Sevilla was ranked 4th awhile back in these very rankings (or at least in mine). AS Roma continued their very hot form with a win over reeling (and my God, do I mean reeling) Juventus. Juve has now dropped to 6th in Serie A, with Roma and Napoli sitting in 3rd and 4th, respectably, and dark horse Palermo in 5th. Roma have still not lost a Serie A match since October. Not a whole lot of note happened to our Dutch representatives, as Ajax and PSV Eindhoven both won, while Twente drew. This moves PSV into 1st in the Eredivisie, putting Twente in 2nd and Ajax in 3rd. Bayern Munich enjoyed a respectable away win vs. Werder Bremen at 3-2, and Bayer Leverkusen extended their stay at the top of the table with a 3-0 win over TSG Hoffenheim. Bayern Munich is breathing right down their necks, though, only 2 back of first and playing in brilliant form. Also, don’t count out Schalke 04, who are only 3 back of Leverkusen and have been hanging around the top of the table all season. That’s about it for this week. The Champions League knockout stage starts in a couple of weeks, that should be absolutely epic. In the meantime, just remember, don’t eat the yellow snow (I sure won’t be, cause its 60 degrees here every day, in January!)

Biggest Riser: AS Roma from T19th to 16th.

Biggest Faller: Schalke 04 from T12th to 17th.

There was very little movement at the top this week. All that happened was Arsenal falling into 7th and Manchester United moving into a tie with AC Milan for 5th place.
Here are the rankings:

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
3. Inter Milan (Ita) 46
4. Real Madrid (Esp) 45
T5. AC Milan (Ita) 40
T5. Manchester United (Eng) 40
7. Arsenal (Eng) 38
8. Bordeaux (Fra) 35
9. Valencia (Esp) 31
10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 30
T11. Bayern Munich (Ger) 28
T11. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 28
T13. Manchester City (Eng) 24
T13. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 24
15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 23
16. AS Roma (Ita) 22
17. Schalke 04 (Ger) 20
18. Aston Villa (Eng) 17
19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 16
20. Benfica (Por) 12
T21. Braga (Por) 6
T21. Deportivo La Coruna (Esp) 6
T21. Napoli (Ita) 6
24. Marseille (Fra) 5
25. Lyon (Fra) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Mallorca (Esp) 3, Genoa (Ita) 2, Borussia Dortmund (Ger) 1, Sevilla (Esp) 1

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Chelsea	Inter Milan
3	Real Madrid	Chelsea
4	Inter Milan	Real Madrid
5	Manchester United	AC Milan
6	Arsenal	Valencia
7	AC Milan	Manchester United
8	Bordeaux	Arsenal
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Bordeaux
10	Bayern Munich	Tottenham Hotspur
11	PSV Eindhoven	Twente Enschede
12	AS Roma	Manchester City
13	Schalke 04	Bayer Leverkusen
14	Tottenham Hotspur	Bayern Munich
15	Valencia	Ajax Amsterdam
16	Manchester City	Aston Villa
17	Benfica	PSV Eindhoven
18	Twente Enschede	AS Roma
19	Aston Villa	Schalke 04
20	Deportivo La Coruna	Napoli
21	Ajax Amsterdam	Marseille
22	Lyon	Braga
23	Mallorca	Benfica
24	Braga	Benfica
25	Borussia Dortmund	Sevilla

Next five in for Tom, in reverse alphabetical order of the team’s country: FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Napoli (Ita), Montpellier (Fra), Liverpool (Eng), Anderlecht (Bel)

Next five in for Blaine, in order of how many goals the team (or player) scored on the weekend: Wayne Rooney (Eng)-4, Galatasaray (Tur)-1, Juventus (Ita)-1, Lyon (Fra)-1, Fiorentina (Ita)-0

FA Cup Roundup
Full Results from Round 4:
Home Team Listed First
Preston North End 0-2 Chelsea
Reading 1-0 Burnley
Southampton 2-1 Ipswich Town
Aston Villa 3-2 Brighton
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Crystal Palace
Everton 1-2 Birmingham
Portsmouth 2-1 Sunderland
Bolton Wanderers 2-0 Sheffield United
West Bromwich Albion 4-2 Newcastle United
Notts County 2-2 Wigan Athletic
Cardiff City 4-2 Leicester City
Derby County 1-0 Doncaster Rovers
Accrington Stanley 1-3 Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Leeds United
Stoke City 3-1 Arsenal
Stoke humbles a somewhat weakened Arsenal side, leaving Chelsea as the only remaining "Big Four" club remaining in the competition.
Scunthorpe United 2-4 Manchester City

Round 5 Draw:
Wolverhampton Wanderers/Crystal Palace v Aston Villa
Manchester City v Stoke City
Derby County v Birmingham
Bolton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur/Leeds United
Chelsea v Cardiff City
Fulham v Notts County/Wigan Athletic
Reading v West Bromwich Albion
Southampton v Portsmouth

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Good day and welcome to yet another edition of the Weekly Top 25 European Football Clubs. This week saw a few interesting matches, starting with Chelsea’s 7-2 massacre, drubbing, manslaughter, or whatever else you want to call it, of a respectable Sunderland club. To make that score even more correct, one of Sunderland’s 2 goals was more or less a stoppage time charity goal, so let’s just call it 7-1.5 or so. Manchester United finally got back to their old ways with a convincing 3-0 win over Burnley, although their unimpressive first half (0-0 at halftime) left much to be desired. It’s tough, however, to complain about a 3-0 win, so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was a good solid match. Juventus continued their remarkably bad form with a 1-0 loss to Chievo Verona, making that 4 losses in their last 5 Serie A matches. They now sit in 5th, 13 points behind leaders Inter Milan. AC Milan, on the other hand, continues to look like the AC Milan of 2004, with an impressive 4-0 win over Siena where Ronaldinho scored a hattrick. This could bode as bad news for Manchester United, as they’ll be playing Milan in the Champions’ League knockout stages. Another club who appears to be sneaking up on the Serie A leaders is AS Roma, who won their 6th straight Serie A home match this weekend to move into 3rd. New signing Luca Toni had a brace, and they comfortably won 3-0. In Spain, Real Madrid suffered a crushing defeat to Bilbao, 1-0. This defeat was made even worse by the fact that La Liga leaders Barcelona crushed Sevilla 4-0. Speaking of Sevilla, what the heck happened to them?! After climbing as high as 3rd in La Liga (possibly 2nd, not entirely sure), they’ve now lost a whopping 4 in a row and sit in 6th, 16 points behind Barcelona. Valencia continues to scorch anyone brave enough to play them, with a 4-1 win over Villareal this weekend. They’ve now climbed to 3rd, and David Villa appears to be playing on another planet with the form he’s been on lately. In Germany, Bayer Leverkusen continued its unbeaten run on the season with a 4-2 win against Mainz. They remain a point ahead of Schalke 04, who were 1-0 winners against Nurnberg, and two points ahead of Bayern Munich, who is on a five-match win streak in the Bundesliga after a 2-0 win against TSG Hoffenheim. Bordeaux remains far atop Ligue 1 in France after a 1-1 draw against a strong 4th place Marseille team. Sitting seven points behind Bordeaux in second place is Lille, who won 3-1 over Paris Saint-Germain. One point behind Lille is Montpellier who defeated Nice 1-0 after a tough midweek loss to AS Monaco in Ligue 1 action. Rangers extended their advantage in the Scottish Premier League to 9 points over second place Celtic. Rangers defeated Hamilton Academical 1-0 and Celtic drew last-place Falkirk 1-1.

Biggest Riser: AS Roma, who went from receiving 1 vote to 19th place in the rankings on the heels of a 10 game unbeaten streak in Serie A.

Biggest Faller: Juventus, who fell from 12th to 21st after their 4th loss in 5 games, 1-0 at Chievo Verona. AS Roma and Juventus meet up in Turin next weekend in a match-up of teams going in opposite directions at the moment.

1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
3. Inter Milan (Ita) 45
4. Real Madrid (Esp) 44
T5. AC Milan (Ita) 42
T5. Arsenal (Eng) 42
7. Manchester United (Eng) 38
8. Bordeaux (Fra) 34
9. Valencia (Esp) 33
T10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 31
T10. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 31
T12. Bayern Munich (Ger) 26
T12. Schalke 04 (Ger) 26
14. Twente Enschede (Ned) 25
15. Manchester City (Eng) 20
16. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 18
17. Aston Villa (Eng) 16
18. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 15
T19. AS Roma (Ita) 12
T19. Benfica (Por) 12
21. Juventus (Ita) 10
T22. Braga (Por) 9
T22. Fiorentina (Ita) 9
T24. FK Rubin Kazan (Rus) 4
T24. Lyon (Fra) 4
T24. Napoli (Ita) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Mallorca (Esp) 2, Marseille (Fra) 1

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Chelsea	Inter Milan
3	Real Madrid	Chelsea
4	Arsenal	AC Milan
5	Inter Milan	Real Madrid
6	AC Milan	Arsenal
7	Manchester United	Manchester United
8	Bordeaux	Valencia
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Tottenham Hotspur
10	Schalke 04	Bordeaux
11	Valencia	Twente Enschede
12	Tottenham Hotspur	Bayer Leverkusen
13	Bayern Munich	Bayern Munich
14	Benfica	Ajax Amsterdam
15	PSV Eindhoven	Manchester City
16	Twente Enschede	Schalke 04
17	Manchester City	Fiorentina
18	Aston Villa	Aston Villa
19	Braga	PSV Eindhoven
20	AS Roma	AS Roma
21	Juventus	Juventus
22	FK Rubin Kazan	Napoli
23	Ajax Amsterdam	Lyon
24	Mallorca	Braga
25	Lyon	Marseille

Next five in for Tom, in order of how much I want to visit the team’s home country: Deportivo La Coruna (Esp), Hamburg SV (Ger), Lille (Fra), Anderlecht (Bel), Dynamo Kiev (Ukr)

Next five in for Blaine, in order of how much I want to attend a match at that team’s home stadium: Galatasaray (Tur), Werder Bremen (Ger), Genoa (Ita), FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Benfica (Por)

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Finally, another edition of the European Soccer Rankings! Most leagues have been taking their winter break and some are still off but soccer is starting to heat up in what should be a thrilling end to the season and lead-up to the World Cup. Here are some words from our world-traveler Blaine:
A wonderful Cantonese evening to you all in the west still suffering through Monday morning. After a brief break that coincided with the winter break of every European league not called the Barclays’ Premiership, we’re back on this week with some new rankings. Firstly, however, I’d like to address on a very serious note the deeds that took place last week at the Africa Cup of Nations. For those who haven’t heard, the Togolese national team bus was shot up by rebels while traveling to a match vs. Angola, resulting in 3 deaths and multiple injuries. While I don’t care for getting up on the podium and talking about other people’s business, I’ve just got to say that it’s really getting old when people use sports as an outlet for their political and social views, especially when it results in the loss of human life. I’m about done with that rant, so now that that’s over with, let’s look at the glorious side of the Africa Cup of Nations. Last night, Mali was losing 4-0 to host Angola in the 78th minute of the match. 78th minute, as in there were 11 minutes left plus stoppage time. Mali had been gaining strength all match, but any logical person would have thrown them to the dogs by this point. However, in a most improbable comeback, Mali was able to rally off 4 straight goals to draw the match 4-4, completing one of the most incredible matches in the history of the tournament. In European play, there haven’t been a whole lot of huge matches going on, due to the layoff of winter breaks in almost all leagues. Some highlights, however, included a match of Serie A superpowers when AC Milan took on Juventus. It looked to be a match that would prove who had the best shot at dethroning league leader Inter Milan, and it very much showed which team was better. AC Milan absolutely smashed Juventus, 3-0, in a very convincing victory. This bodes well for a Milan side that is facing Manchester United in the knockout rounds of the Champions’ League. While Milan has looked so good, United has looked absolutely abysmal. After a stunning 5-0 win vs. Wigan before New Year’s, United crashed out of the FA Cup far too early against old rivals Leeds United, who currently play in League 1 (third level of English football), losing 1-0 at Old Trafford. After that, United played a fine Birmingham squad at Birmingham, drawing 1-1 in a thoroughly unimpressive manner. It appears that their huge defensive injuries are not their only problem, as they’ve just been generally ineffective and sloppy lately. Additionally, they received more bad news, as Dimitar Berbatov may need knee surgery. Real Madrid and Barcelona both appear to be the class of Europe, and both continue to crush opponents with relative ease. Barcelona had a bit of a hiccup with a Copa del Rey loss to Sevilla, but have still looked dominant the vast majority of the time. Chelsea continues to be the favorite to win the Premiership, but Arsenal is creeping up, and currently sitting in 3rd, 3 points back of Chelsea 2 back of United with game in hand vs. the Reds. At any rate, that’s about all there is to say about these last few weeks, hope you enjoy the rankings!

1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Real Madrid (Esp) 48
3. Chelsea (Eng) 45
4. Inter Milan (Ita) 44
5. Arsenal (Eng) 42
6. AC Milan (Ita) 40
T7. Bordeaux (Fra) 36
Bordeaux continues to run away with Ligue 1, a staggering 9 points ahead of second place Lille. They have not lost in the league since November 21, and that has been their only loss on the season in France. Bordeaux quietly dominated their Champions League group, winning it by 6 points over Bayern Munich and 8 points over Juventus, both ranked in the top 17 of this poll.
T7. Manchester United (Eng) 36
Since December 19, United has lost to Fulham 3-0, Leeds United 1-0 at home in a stunning FA Cup 3rd round match, and drawn Birmingham 1-1. The important Carling Cup semifinals against Manchester City loom around the corner, as does what is looking like a more and more difficult Champions League match-up against AC Milan.
9. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 34
T10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 30
T10. Valencia (Esp) 30
12. Juventus (Ita) 23
T13. Schalke 04 (Ger) 22
T13. Twente Enschede (Ned) 22
T15. Aston Villa (Eng) 20
T15. Manchester City (Eng) 20
T17. Bayern Munich (Ger) 16
T17. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 16
T19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 13
T19. Werder Bremen (Ger) 13
T21. Fiorentina (Ita) 11
T21. Sevilla FC (Eng) 11
Sevilla has hit a terrible run of form as of late, losing three consecutive matches in La Liga 2-1 to Getafe, Atletico Madrid, and Racing Santander. As a result, Blaine has dropped them from 8th to unranked in his personal rankings. They did score a decent 2-1 win at Barcelona in Copa del Rey action, but that was in front of a crowd of 20,000, showing how much Barcelona fans care about the competition. Still, Sevilla would welcome a midweek win in the second leg of that competition.
23. Benfica (Por) 8
T24. Braga (Por) 7
T24. FK Rubin Kazan (Rus) 7

Also Receiving Votes: Napoli (Ita) 5, AS Roma (Ita) 1

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Real Madrid	Real Madrid
3	Chelsea	Inter Milan
4	Arsenal	Chelsea
5	Inter Milan	AC Milan
6	Bordeaux	Arsenal
7	AC Milan	Tottenham
8	Manchester United	Manchester United
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Valencia
10	Schalke 04	Bordeaux
11	Tottenham Hotspur	Twente Enschede
12	Juventus	Manchester City
13	Valencia	Bayer Leverkusen
14	Aston Villa	Bayern Munich
15	Sevilla	Ajax Amsterdam
16	Werder Bremen	Fiorentina
17	PSV Eindhoven	Juventus
18	Benfica	Aston Villa
19	Twente Enschede	PSV Eindhoven
20	Manchester City	Schalke 04
21	FK Rubin Kazan	Napoli
22	Bayern Munich	Braga
23	Braga	Werder Bremen
24	Ajax Amsterdam	FK Rubin Kazan
25	Fiorentina	AS Roma

Next Five in for Tom, in order of my perceived quality of their domestic league: Deportivo La Coruna (Esp), Hamburg SV (Ger), Lyon (Fra), Fenerbahce (Tur), Dynamo Kyiv (Ukr)

Next Five in for Blaine, in order from greatest to least population of team's home city (or country): Mali, Marseille (Fra), Genoa (Ita), Lyon (Fra), Parma (Ita)

That's all for now, hope everyone has a great week! Keep an eye on FA Cup replays and the African Cup of Nations.

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

A very good holiday evening to you all. This past week featured a number of upsets, romps, massacres, rampages, embarrassing draws, and the occasional 8-man side. Undoubtedly the most shocking match of the week was Fulham’s 3-0 destruction of top-5 ranked Manchester United yesterday. United played the worst I’ve seen them play ever I think. Granted, I haven’t been watching United for that long, but I’ve never seen their inefficiencies and weaknesses so perfectly exploited. Fulham’s manager, Roy Hodgson, put the match quite well, when he essentially said that it would be accurate to say that Fulham beat a weakened United side, but that it is still a very impressive win, and that you can’t really improve much over a 3-0 win. Another shocking defeat this week occurred this morning in Catania, Italy. Juventus, who has risen as high as 6 on our rankings, lost 2-1 to a Calcio Catania club who, going into that match, had 1 win, 6 draws, and 9 losses this season in Serie A. The loss is doubly concerning for Juve, as it is their third loss in four matches, one of which led to their exit from the Champions’ League. A match between 2 of our unranked teams was quite intriguing yesterday, as Portsmouth put added pressure on under-fire Liverpool skipper Rafael Benitez with their 2-0 win. The win was Portsmouth’s 4th in 18 matches this season, and Liverpool’s 7th loss in as many fixtures. This defeat was especially brutal for Liverpool, as most of the clubs above them on the table won over the weekend, including solid wins by Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Manchester City, etc. City’s victory, however, was not enough to save the job of Mark Hughes, as he was sacked shortly after their 4-3 thriller over Sunderland Saturday morning. Barcelona did not have any league matches this week, as they were busy winning their unprecedented sixth piece of silverware this season, the FIFA Club World Cup, in the UAE. Barca’s 2-1 win over Estudiantes in the final was far from convincing, but it was enough to win them the prestigious tournament. Arguably the most entertaining match of the Club World Cup was Pohang Steelers of South Korea vs. Estudiantes de la Plata. During this match, Pohang Steelers had three players sent off. This included their keeper, which led to their starting midfielder Denilson stepping in between the posts for the matches’ remaining 15 or so minutes. Pohang lost 2-1, but will forever be remembered as the club to get 3 freaking red cards on worldwide television. Real Madrid continues to roll, with a 6-0 win over Real Zaragoza. Bayern Munich keeps on winning, and will soon be ranked in my rankings I’m sure. Other than that, to anyone reading this, have a good holiday, and keep on watching that football!

Biggest Riser: Aston Villa, who jumped from 19th to a tie for 12th with wins over Stoke City and Sunderland this week for four straight wins and 4th place in the Premiership.

Biggest Faller: Ajax Amsterdam, who lost at home 3-1 to Belgian side Anderlecht midweek before getting a match postponed due to snow and freezing temperatures on the weekend.

Rank Team (Nationality) Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Real Madrid (Esp) 48
3. Chelsea (Eng) 46
T4. Arsenal (Eng) 42
T4. Manchester United (Eng) 42
Tom: Manchester United is going through a real defensive crisis at the moment. First-team defenders Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, and Wes Brown are all sidelined by injuries. Sir Alex Ferguson was forced to compose a back line of Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, and Richie De Laet in the miserable 3-0 loss at Fulham on Saturday as United stumbled to their second loss in three Premier League fixtures. Still, United remain only 4 points back of leaders Chelsea by virtue of Chelsea only grabbing 5 points from their 4 matches since the start of December. Arsenal is keeping up the pressure from behind as they sit two points back of United on one less game played. The poor play does not end with the makeshift back line. The entire team struggled immensely today, and star striker Wayne Rooney is in terrible form and has scored only one non-penalty since November 28 in all competitions. Thankfully for United, the next five Premiership games are Hull City twice, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham, and Burnley, so the back line has a bit more time to get back to full strength and the rest of the team has a chance to recover form before the big teams show up.
6. Inter Milan (Ita) 41
7. AC Milan (Ita) 37
8. Bordeaux (Fra) 36
9. Sevilla (Esp) 33
10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 31
11. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 30
T12. Aston Villa (Eng) 25
T12. Juventus (Ita) 25
The Sick, Old Lady? Juventus, affectionately known in Italy as “The Old Lady”, has been on a run of devastating form the past few weeks. Several weeks ago they lost 2-0 to Cagliari, and it appeared to be a disappointing, but manageable defeat. The next week they went out and looked absolutely brilliant against a previously unbeatable (at least in Serie A) Inter side, and Juve were able to walk away with a 2-1 win. After that match, they appeared to be among the elite in Europe, sitting in second in Serie A and having beaten one of Europe’s undisputed top teams, Inter. Their next match was a Champions’ League matchup with Bayern Munich. Bayern had previously been floundering in the Bundesliga, but had been looking a bit better in the weeks leading up to the match. The match was more or less for all the marbles, with the winner moving on to the CL knockouts and the loser going to the Europa league. Bayern crushed them, 4-1, and Juve were back to their form against Cagliari. After the loss to Bayern, Juve looked awful in a 3-1 loss at Bari in Serie A play, and lost to bottom dwellers Catania this weekend, 2-1. It appears that the most likely cause of Juve’s dip in form is the dip in the form of Diego, their recently signed Brazilian midfield maestro. If his play continues to be sub-par, Juve may as well kiss goodbye any possibility of winning the Scudetto.
T14. Schalke 04 (Ger) 23
T14. Twente Enschede (Ned) 23
16.Valencia (Esp) 21
17. Manchester City (Eng) 16
18. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 15
19. Werder Bremen (Ger) 14
20. FK Rubin Kazan (Rus) 11
21. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 10
22. Fiorentina (Ita) 8
23. Benfica (Por) 7
T24. Bayern Munich (Ger) 5
Bayern Munich is on a red-hot run in the Bundesliga, having not lost a match since late September. They have won their last four to rocket up to third in the league, only two points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen. To go along with the great league form, they won two clutch matches against Maccabi Haifa and Juventus to secure advancement to the knockout rounds of the Champions League. This past weekend saw them beat bottom-feeders Hertha Berlin 5-2, for their second 5 goal game in a row and third on the season.
T24. Braga (Por) 5

Also Receiving Votes: Lyon (Fra) 3, Genoa (Ita) 2, Napoli (Ita) 1

Here is how the voters voted:

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Real Madrid	Real Madrid
3	Chelsea	Chelsea
4	Arsenal	Inter Milan
5	Manchester United	Manchester United
6	Bordeaux	Arsenal
7	Inter Milan	AC Milan
8	AC Milan	Sevilla
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Tottenham Hotspur
10	Schalke 04	Bordeaux
11	Sevilla	Twente Enschede
12	Aston Villa	Bayer Leverkusen
13	Tottenham Hotspur	Juventus
14	Juventus	Manchester City
15	Valencia	Aston Villa
16	Werder Bremen	Valencia
17	PSV Eindhoven	Ajax Amsterdam
18	Twente Enschede	Fiorentina
19	Benfica	Schalke 04
20	FK Rubin Kazan	PSV Eindhoven
21	Bayern Munich	FK Rubin Kazan
22	Manchester City	Schalke 04
23	Lyon	Braga
24	Braga	Genoa
25	Ajax Amsterdam	Napoli

Next 5 in for Tom in Alphabetical Order: Dynamo Kiev (Ukr), Fenerbahce (Tur), Fiorentina (Ita), Hamburg SV (Ger), Marseille (Fra)

Next 5 in for Blaine in Reverse Alphabetical Order: Parma (Ita), Marseille (Fra), Lyon (Fra), Bayern Munich (Ger), AS Roma (Ita)

Champions League and Europa League knockout stages
The draws for the Round of 16 and Round of 32 of the Champions League and Europa League were held this past Friday. Matches will be played beginning in February. Here are the match-ups for the Champions League (Team listed first plays first leg at home):

Stuttgart v (1) Barcelona
Olympiakos v (8) Bordeaux
(6) Inter Milan v (3) Chelsea
(T24) Bayern Munich v (22) Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow v (9) Sevilla
Lyon v (2) Real Madrid
FC Porto v (T4) Arsenal
(7) AC Milan v (T4) Manchester United

And the Europa League match-ups (Team listed first plays first leg at home):
(20) FK Rubin Kazan v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht
Copenhagen v Marseille
Panathinaikos v AS Roma
Atletico Madrid v Galatasaray
(21) Ajax Amsterdam v (T12) Juventus
Club Brugge v (16) Valencia
Fulham v Shakhtar Donetsk
Liverpool v Unirea Urziceni
Hamburg SV v (18) PSV Eindhoven
Villarreal v Wolfsburg
Standard Liege v SV Salzburg
Twente Enschede v (19) Werder Bremen
Lille v Fenerbahce
Everton v Sporting Lisbon
Hertha Berlin v (23) Benfica

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Another week of European Soccer Rankings! We had a round of Europa League fixtures mid-week, including a 1-0 win for Fenerbahce at Twente, a 1-0 victory for Everton at AEK Athens, and a huge 1-0 for Fulham at home against CSKA Sofia. Here is a link to the Europa League group standings at this point. In the big game in the Premiership, Manchester City defeated Chelsea 2-1 as Shay Given saved a Frank Lampard penalty in the 83rd minute that would have tied it up for Chelsea. Emmanuel Adebayor scored a goal in each net in the first half. Manchester United got a great 4-0 win at West Ham, Arsenal defeated Stoke City 2-0, Aston Villa defeated Hull City 3-0, and a Tim Howard save of a Jermain Defoe penalty in the final minute of play preserved a 2-2 draw for Everton against Tottenham. Real Madrid and Barcelona both got wins, 4-2 over Almeria and 3-1 at Deportivo La Coruna, respectively. AC Milan shellacked Sampdoria 3-0 at home, while Juventus scored a huge 2-1 win against Inter, narrowing their lead at the top of the table to 4 over AC Milan. Juventus sits 5 back in third place. In Germany, Bayer Leverkusen remained undefeated with a boring 0-0 draw at Hanover 96. Both Schalke 04 and Bayern won while Werder Bremen drew, so Bremen and Schalke are 3 points back of Leverkusen while Bayern Munich is lurking in 4th, 4 points back. The French League is just too weird to talk about anymore.

Biggest Riser: Manchester City, rising from 19th to 13th after a fantastic 2-1 win at home against leaders Chelsea.

Biggest Faller: Lyon (for the second straight week!!!), who fell from 17th to 23rd after a 4-3 loss at struggling Lille.

Rank Team (Nationality) Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
T2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
T2. Manchester United (Eng) 47
4. Real Madrid (Esp) 43
Tom: Despite the loss in El Clasico to Barcelona last week, Real Madrid seem to have shaken off the hiccup in form they suffered throughout October. Cristiano Ronaldo is back healthy and there are no national team distractions for a long time. This week they had an exciting 4-2 win over Almeria, in which Madrid had a 1-0 lead at the half only to see Almeria take a 2-1 lead with goals in the 58th and 62nd minutes. However, goals from Gonzalo Higuain, Karim Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo finished it, with an 88th minute Ronaldo red card to top it all off. They are currently second in the league behind Barcelona and are on top of their Champions League group, two points over AC Milan. They have had a fluid lineup this season, as no outfield players have played each of the 13 La Liga matches, and only 2 players (Marcelo and Xabi Alonso) have played more than 10. Still they have enough talent that no matter who they play, it is a better squad than their opponents almost every time. Once Madrid gets through some injuries, gets a more consistent first eleven, and begins to become a cohesive unit, they will be giving Barcelona a run for their money in what will be a thrilling title race.
5. AC Milan (Ita) 42
6. Inter Milan (Ita) 41
7. Juventus (Ita) 36
8. Arsenal (Eng) 35
T9. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 31
Tom: Bayer Leverkusen are still atop the Bundesliga by three points over Werder Bremen after a 0-0 draw at Hanover 96 over the weekend. Leverkusen has had a record start to the season, going undefeated in their first 15 games with 8 wins and 7 draws. Leverkusen have scored an average of 2 goals per game and only allowed 9 goals all season. They are led by 25 year old forward Stefan Kießling, who has scored 12 goals while starting all 15 games. In defense, they are led by former Liverpool man and Finnish international Sami Hyypia. Still, their lead has been dwindling away recently, as they have drawn 5 of their last 7 matches in the league.
T9. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 31
11. Sevilla (Esp) 30
12. Bordeaux (Fra) 28
13. Manchester City (Eng) 24
14. Werder Bremen (Ger) 23
15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 22
16.Valencia (Esp) 21
Tom: In the summer, Valencia faced massive debt and rumors that they would have to sell their top players in order to balance the books. However they were able to keep the core of the team together due to renewed investment, and seem to be on the track to continued success. Valencia is currently third in La Liga, three points behind second-place Real Madrid. They are coming off of an impressive week in which they beat Lille 3-1 in the Europa league and defeated Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on the road in La Liga. They are currently atop a very good Europa League group consisting of Lille, Genoa, and Slavia Prague. They will clinch the group victory in the final match-day as long as they do not lose at Genoa. Valencia is considered the third-most popular team in Spain, and has 50,000 season ticket holders with 20,000 still on the waiting list. The last two seasons have been something of a disappointment, with 10th and 6th place finishes. Thus far they have a win over Sevilla, a draw against Barcelona, and they will be taking on Real Madrid with a chance to move up to second in La Liga next weekend. They are led by star striker David Villa, who has scored 10 goals in his 11 games with 26 shots on goal, more than double the second highest shots on goal total on the team.
17. FK Rubin Kazan (Rus) 19
T18. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 15
T18. Fiorentina (Ita) 15
T20. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 12
T20. Schalke 04 (Ger) 12
22. CSKA Moscow (Rus) 6
T23. Genoa (Ita) 5
T23. Lyon (Fra) 5
25. Dynamo Kiev (Ukr) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Braga (Por) 3, Benfica (Por) 2, Aston Villa (Eng) 1

Here is how the voters voted:

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Chelsea	Manchester United
3	Manchester United	Chelsea
4	Real Madrid	AC Milan
5	Inter Milan	Real Madrid
6	AC Milan	Inter Milan
7	Arsenal	Tottenham Hotspur
8	Juventus	Juventus
9	Bordeaux	Sevilla
10	Bayer Leverkusen	Arsenal
11	Werder Bremen	Bayer Leverkusen
12	Valencia	Manchester City
13	Sevilla	Twente Enschede
14	Tottenham Hotspur	FK Rubin Kazan
15	Schalke 04	Bordeaux
16	Manchester City	Ajax Amsterdam
17	Twente Enschede	Fiorentina
18	PSV Eindhoven	Werder Bremen
19	FK Rubin Kazan	Valencia
20	Fiorentina	CSKA Moscow
21	Ajax Amsterdam	Genoa
22	Dynamo Kiev	PSV Eindhoven
23	Lyon	Braga
24	Benfica	Lyon
25	Aston Villa	Schalke 04

Next 5 in for Tom, in order of most to least goals per game in their domestic league: FC Porto (Por, 2.08), Hamburg SV (Ger, 1.87), Marseille (Fra, 1.85), Braga (Por, 1.5), AJ Auxerre (Fra, 1.05)

Next 5 in for Blaine, in the order that I like them: Aston Villa (Eng), Marseille (Fra), Parma (Ita), Napoli (Ita), Galatasaray (Tur)

Champions League Matches
Top two teams from each group qualify and third place goes to the Europa League knockout stages. Tables can be found here.

Tuesday, 14:45 ET
Group A
(7) Juventus v Bayern Munich
Huge match, Juventus advances with a win or draw, Bayern with a win.
Maccabi Haifa v (12) Bordeaux

Group B
Besiktas v (22) CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow needs a win and Wolfsburg non-win, or a draw and Wolfsburg loss to move on to the knockout stages. Besiktas can still move on to the Europa League with a 1-0 win or a win by 2 or more along with a Manchester United non-win.
VfL Wolfsburg v (T2) Manchester United
United will guarantee finishing at the top of the group with a point, but with 8 defenders out, they expect to start both Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher in the back line. No joke. Even Ryan Giggs joined the defensive party before last game was over. Wolfsburg will move on with a win or CSKA Moscow loss or a draw with United and CSKA non-win.

Group C
FC Zurich v (5) AC Milan
Milan will qualify with a win, and would win the group with a win and Madrid draw or loss.
Marseille v (4) Real Madrid
Marseille can qualify (in miracle fashion) if they beat Mardid 3-0 or by four or more goals. Also, a Marseille win and Milan draw/loss would see Marseille qualify. The big loss and Milan win would see Real Madrid suffer a shock drop to the Europa League.

Group D
Atletico Madrid v FC Porto
(T2) Chelsea v APOEL Nicosia
Chelsea and Porto are already moving on, and Atletico Madrid needs a win or APOEL non-win to move on to the Europa League.

Wednesday, 14:45 ET
Group E
Liverpool v (T18) Fiorentina
(T23) Lyon v Debrecen
This group is already decided, with Fiorentina and Lyon moving on to the knockout stages and Liverpool relegated to the Europa League.

Group F
(25) Dynamo Kiev v (1) Barcelona
(6) Inter Milan v (17) FK Rubin Kazan
In the Group of Death, nothing is yet certain. Barcelona will qualify if they avoid losing to Dynamo Kiev 2-0 or by more than 3 goals, or if Inter and Rubin Kazan draw. Inter will qualify if they beat Rubin Kazan or if they draw 0-0 or 1-1 and Dynamo Kiev does not win. Rubin Kazan will qualify if they beat Inter Milan or if they draw by 2-2 or more and Dynamo Kiev does not win. Dynamo Kiev must win by 2-0 or by three or more goals to qualify, or simply a victory and draw between Inter Milan and Rubin Kazan.
In short, these are two MASSIVE matches.

Group G
(11) Sevilla v Rangers
VfB Stuttgart v Unirea Urziceni
Unirea Urziceni will qualify with a win or draw, and Stuttgart needs a win to qualify.

Group H
Olympiakos v (8) Arsenal
Olympiakos will move on with a win or draw, or an AZ win or draw.
Standard Liege v AZ Alkmaar
Standard Liege will move on with an Olympiakos loss and win over AZ. AZ will qualify for the Europa League with a win.

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Another week of European Soccer Rankings! We had some good European action and a great batch of domestic league games this week so there should be a lot of movement in the rankings. Notice that Chelsea now has some company at the top of the standings! Here is a summary of mine and Blaine’s arguments (as written by Blaine):

“I know that it’s real disappointing to have a tie for first place in these rankings. However, I couldn’t with a clear conscience vote Chelsea over Barça this week. Chelsea had a decent win over a fine FC Porto club midweek, then a huge 3-0 win over Arsenal earlier today. However, Barça had a much more impressive mid-week win over previous juggernaut Inter Milan. Even though they only lost 2-0, Inter was far more outclassed than the score would suggest, and Barça basically dominated every facet of the match from start to finish. I basically said after that match that if Barça wins El Clàsico today, it would be really difficult to not rank them first. This morning, as I said, Chelsea crushed Arsenal. However this afternoon I saw a truly magnificent performance by Barça against Real Madrid. After losing a man in the 60th minute, Barça held together and didn’t allow Madrid to score despite numerous chances, due to world class defense and some brilliant midfield work by Iniesta, Messi, and Xavi. I really couldn’t not rank Barça first, with 2 victories as impressive as these.I can definitely see where Tom is coming from, however. Chelsea has not only been absolutely murdering their Premiership competition, but they've been playing quite well in the Champions' League. They appear to be the class of by far the best league in Europe, and should certainly make a deep run in the Champions' League, but I really think that overall Barça is the better, deeper, and more talented squad.”

However, there were indeed other teams that played football this weekend. We saw a tale of two halves as Manchester United scored 3 in the second half to defeat Portsmouth 4-1. Aston Villa and Tottenham battled to an exciting 1-1 draw in a match that may have an impact on Champions League positions come the end of the season. Manchester City managed to extend the record-setting draw streak to 7 with a 1-1 score line against Hull City. In Scotland, Celtic returned to the top of the table by virtue of a 3-1 win over St. Mirren and 1-0 loss for Rangers at Aberdeen. Sevilla missed a chance to run with the big boys with a disappointing 2-2 draw at home against lowly Malaga. Inter continued their dominance of Serie A with a solid 1-0 win over Fiorentina, dropping Fiorentina to a very surprising 10th in the league. Juventus dropped vital points at Cagliari, AC Milan won at Catania on two injury-time goals by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Genoa defeated Sampdoria 3-0 in a very rowdy, if not one-sided, Genoa derby. In France, AJ Auxerre saw their run at the top of the table end with a 1-0 loss at Paris Saint-Germain and a 3-0 win for Bordeaux at AS Nancy Lorraine. Bayer Leverkusen continued their unbeaten streak in the Bundesliga with an impressive 4-0 win over Stuttgart and Bayern Munich has risen all the way to 4th win a nice 3-0 win over Hannover 96. Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg played out to a thrilling 2-2 draw, where Edin Dzeko grabbed the lead for Wolfsburg in the 85th, only to see Per Mertesaker grab a point for Werder Bremen in the 90th. Ajax got another 5-1 win, their third in four games, and both Twente Enschede and PSV Eindhoven got the full three points as well in the Netherlands. Olympiakos took a one point lead in the Greek Super League with their 2-0 win over Panathinaikos, and Rapid Vienna and Red Bull Salzburg decided nothing with their 0-0 draw, and are still tied atop the Austrian Bundesliga standings. In Russia, FK Rubin Kazan officially won the title, with Spartak Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg grabbing the Champions League spots. Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow should both see time in Europe next fall as they finished fourth and fifth respectively. A big thank you to anyone who has actually read this far, here is the good stuff:

Biggest Riser: Bordeaux, from 17 up to 12 after a very good 2-0 win over Juventus and a 3-0 win in the league.

Biggest Faller: Manchester City, Sevilla, Juventus, and Lyon all dropped four spots. Sevilla’s drop was most dramatic, from 5 to 9.

An interesting note: This is the least amount of teams that we have ever had in the “receiving votes” section. This should mean that the rankings of Blaine and I are becoming more and more similar. However, that does not really seem to be the case just looking at them side-by-side. I think it is simply that the divide between teams that should be in the rankings and teams that should not be in the rankings is becoming slightly clearer. Where to rank those teams, however, is not.

Rank Team (Nationality) Points
T1. Barcelona (Esp) 49
Blaine: I didn’t really care for either team in this morning’s “El Clàsico”, I was really just hoping for fair play and lots of bicycle kicks, and perhaps a 5-4 final score. Unfortunately we got a 1-0 final score, with a very impressive showing by both clubs, and a match that was much more exciting than the scoreline would indicate. I learned quite a bit about both clubs from this match. I found out that money really can improve the heck out of your club, as Madrid played wonderfully just a few months after losing at home 6-2 to a worse Barça side (same club more or less but with Eto’o rather than Zlatan Ibrahimovic). However they simply didn’t play well enough. Madrid didn’t finish their chances, partly due to some ridiculous play by Barça captain Carlos Puyol. This match, however, absolutely confirmed what I suspected earlier in the week after Barça’s 2-0 thrashing of Inter Milan, and that is that they’re the best club in Europe. The 2-0 win over Inter was much, much more of a slaughter than the score would suggest, as Inter basically got their butts handed to them all day. Today, they held together after going down a man for nearly 30 minutes, and somehow managed to beat Real Madrid (with a relatively healthy Cristiano Ronaldo). Basically, Barça beating the previously ranked 3rd and 6th clubs merits their jumping to 1st, despite Chelsea’s very impressive 3-0 massacre of Arsenal.
T1. Chelsea (Eng) 49
Tom: Chelsea have not lost a match since a 2-1 away defeat to Aston Villa on October 17. They have also only drawn once since then, a Champions League fixture at Atletico Madrid. This week they again proved why they (should) consistently hold the top spot in these rankings with an impressive 1-0 win at FC Porto then a 3-0 thrashing of Arsenal at the Emirates in which they out-classed their opponent on every level. At this point it is hard to make an argument for anybody besides Chelsea winning the best league in Europe, as long as they stay healthy and on form as they have been all season long. United is not the same squad without Ronaldo and some players there are in poor form anyways, and the van Persie injury erases almost all hope of an Arsenal comeback now that they are 11 points back of the leaders. Chelsea is winning each game by an average of exactly 2 goals each and at this rate they have effectively turned the Premier League into a race for Champions League positions.
3. Manchester United (Eng) 45
4. Inter Milan (Ita) 43
T5. AC Milan (Ita) 42
T5. Real Madrid (Spa) 42
T7. Arsenal (Eng) 34
T7. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 34
9. Sevilla (Spa) 32
Tom: Sevilla is coming off of a brutal week in which they lost at Champions League minnow Unirea Urziceni 1-0, and followed it up with a bad 2-2 draw at home with Malaga, a game in which they were even down 2-0 at a point. Malaga currently sits in a three-way tie at the bottom of La Liga. Luis Fabiano saved Sevilla with three goals this time, but as these are volatile rankings, they will certainly drop considerably. Sevilla could have drawn even with Real Madrid with the full three points, and manager Manolo Jimenez reflects: “We lost a tremendous opportunity to close the gap to Barcelona and Madrid and distance ourselves from two of the teams chasing us, but football is so unpredictable.” However, they have a chance to win their Champions League group outright with a match against lowly Rangers in a little over a week, so that should ready them for the second half of the season with a possible title run.
10. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 31
11. Juventus (Ita) 30
12. Bordeaux (Fra) 28
13. FK Rubin Kazan (Rus) 24
T14. Twente Enschede (Ned) 22
T14. Werder Bremen (Ger) 22
16.Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 18
17. Lyon (Fra) 17
18. Valencia (Spa) 16
19. Manchester City (Eng) 15
Tom: Manchester City has embarked on a remarkable run of 7 straight draws. This last one came in 1-1 form home against Hull City. There should be of some concern as the draw run has included the likes of Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham, Burnley, and Hull City. Next week City welcome leaders Chelsea, and a win would be most welcome to both them and rivals United, as Chelsea has an easy fixture list in the league until they host Arsenal on February 6.
20. Fiorentina (Ita) 12
T21. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 10
T21. Schalke 04 (Ger) 10
23. CSKA Moscow (Rus) 9
24. Genoa (Ita) 5
25. Braga (Por) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Hamburg SV (Ger) 3, Dynamo Kiev (Ukr) 2, AJ Auxerre (Fra) 1, Sampdoria (Ita) 1


Here is how the voters voted:

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Chelsea	Barcelona
2	Barcelona	Chelsea
3	Inter Milan	Manchester United
4	Manchester United	AC Milan
5	Real Madrid	Real Madrid
6	AC Milan	Inter Milan
7	Arsenal	Tottenham Hotspur
8	Bayer Leverkusen	Sevilla
9	Bordeaux	FK Rubin Kazan
10	Juventus	Bayer Leverkusen
11	Werder Bremen	Arsenal
12	Sevilla	Juventus
13	Valencia	Twente Enschede
14	Tottenham Hotspur	Ajax Amsterdam
15	Lyon	Bordeaux
16	Schalke 04	Manchester City
17	Twente Enschede	CSKA Moscow
18	PSV Eindhoven	Fiorentina
19	FK Rubin Kazan	Werder Bremen
20	Ajax Amsterdam	Lyon
21	Manchester City	Genoa
22	Fiorentina	Braga
23	Hamburg SV	Valencia
24	Dynamo Kiev	PSV Eindhoven
25	AJ Auxerre	Sampdoria

Next 5 in for Tom, in order from least to most vowels in the team name: Braga (Por), Benfica (Por), Marseille (Fra), Sampdoria (Ita), Deportivo La Coruna (Spa)

Next 5 in for Blaine, in reverse alphabetical order: Schalke 04 (Ger), Napoli (Ita), Marseille (Fra), Dynamo Kiev (Ukr), AJ Auxerre (Fra)

Hope everyone has a fantastic week, with some Carling Cup action and the Europa League coming our way! Only 4 days until the World Cup Draw!!!! Noon ET on ESPN2 on December 4!!!