Champions League: The last group day! 12/7/11.

Groups A - D play today to determine the final qualifiers for the knock-out round! Expect an explosive day of action in Group A when top-of-the-group Bayern Munich take on 3rd place Manchester City. While Bayern have already qualified and are assured of their 1st-place status, they will still probably want a result in England even if it is a draw. 2nd place Napoli meanwhile travel to Villarreal in Spain for a match that they should feel confident about: The Spaniards have lost both of their other 2 matches at home! Villarreal will really want to make some points though, so they at least wont be going home empty handed. Bayern have 13 points, Napoli have 8, Manchester City have 7 while Villarreal have 0. Over to Group B now where the names are slightly less star-studded but the action will be every bit as intense: Inter sit at the top with 10 points which already qualifies them for the next round. They will be facing CSKA Moskva in their game today who are level for 3rd with 5 points. 2nd place Turkish side Trabzonspor (who have 6 points) will be facing stiff competition from Lille (who have 5 like CSKA) when they go to France today. I wouldn't be surprised if the Turks end up going through based solely on the fact that their away record is better than Lille's home record. We will have to see though; if Inter field a B-team, then Trabzonspor must win. If Inter hammer their guests, a draw will be enough. Meanwhile in Group C things are quite hot with qualification in any of 3 hands: SL Benfica and Manchester United both have 9 points from their respective 8 games while FC Basel 1893 are still in  the fight at 8 points. Only FC Oţelul Galaţi are out of the fight with 0 points. And what do things look like? Well, the Portuguese welcome the Romanians of Oţelul Galaţi to Lisbon today which should result in 3 points and qualification. In the other fixture, Manchester United might be challenged when they visit Basel (Switzerland) later today. When the two sides met in England the Red Devils were stunned 3-3 so expect just about anything from this game. Last but certainly not least we have Group D where Real Madrid rule supreme and Ajax are almost sure of qualification. They have 15 and 8 points respectively while French side Lyon have 5 points. GNK Dinamo Zagreb have taken no points. So how about the games today? Well, in this climate, Dinamo Zagreb will be welcoming Lyon to Croatia with the hopes of at least a draw to mean they have taken 1 point in this dismal qualifying campaign. I still expect Lyon to win: they must score a ton of goals though, as they have quite the goal deficit to overtake. Meanwhile Ajax face Madrid in the Netherlands so they will hope the home support and the squad's talent will combine to winning- or at least drawing- effect. Enjoy the games!!!