The Weekend's Action: October 28th.

So, how about a quick recap of the action that took place today? I will move from West to East beginning with Portugal: Here we had Estoril take on Porto and actually do themselves proud despite losing. Striking early in the game, the 10th minute to be precise, Estoril took the lead emphatically through Steven Victoria! Unfortunately for the underdogs, Porto dominated the 2nd half, scoring in the 57th and 60th minutes to put their rivals under. Silvestre Varela and Jackson Martinez were the two who respectively scored. Maritimo v.s. Braga concluded 0-2 with the team from Braga owning the second half through Eder who slotted home in the 55th and 86th minutes. Rio Ave on the other hand edged Nacional 2-1 despite the visitors taking the lead in the 37th minute. Diego Barcelos was the man who struck Nacional ahead at that point. Unfortunately for them, Joao Tomas and Tarantini struck for Rio Ave in the 61st and 89th minutes respectively. The former was struck from the penalty spot. On to Spain now, where Athletic were edged by Getafe 1-2 despite collecting a last minute goal through Mikel San Jose in the 4th minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. Juan Rodriguez and Alvaro were on target for Getafe. Atletico were better at separating themselves from Osasuna after Miranda, Raul Garcia, and Falcao struck them to a 3-1 lead though Roland Lamah brought Atletico close to righting themselves in the 43rd. Nevertheless, they were undone in the end. Levante defeated Granada by the same scoreline thanks to Obafemi Martins' two goals in the 12th and 60th minutes. Pedro Rios made it three for the good before Granada's Youssef El-Arabi was able to add one to their tally in the 84th minute. Mallorca v.s. Real Madrid was a slaughter on the other hand: 0-2 at the half and 0-5 at the final whistle! Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice each while Jose Callejon was successful in the 1st minute of stoppage of time of the 2nd half to make it 5. Last but not least, Zaragoza edged Sevilla 2-1 with Helder Postiga and Cristian Sapunaru scoring for the home side while Gary Medel brought the visitors close to leveling - beginning in the 70th minute of the 2nd half. On to France now where Bastia took on Bordeaux and won 3-1 thanks to Florian Thauvin's two goals in the 6th and 17th minutes while Yoan Gouffran brought Bordeaux one back in the 30th. Sadly for them, Bastia were pushed further ahead through Wahbi Khazri in the 56th minute. On the other hand, Lorient and Ajaccio finished 4-4 after intense contest: Ajaccio were 2 up in the 12th minute before Lorient brought themselves one back. Ajaccio then tacked on two more before Lorient struck three times between the 46th and 94th minutes to level the game and split the points between the two sides. Marseille and Lyon's match was actually postponed. Up in England, Chelsea were edged in an inappropriate manner by Manchester United. I say inappropriate due to the fact that 2 players from the London side were sent-off under questionable circumstances. Be that as it may, David Luiz accidentally scored to put the team from Manchester ahead as Robin Van Persie made it 0-2 for Manchester. However, in  the 44th and 53rd minutes the team from London brought themselves level. Javier Hernandez put Manchester United ahead in the 75th after Chelsea were depleted in number by their sending-offs. Next up is Everton v.s. Liverpool where the visitors got 0-2 ahead by the 20th minute after an own goal and a strike from Luis Suarez. However, Everton were able to bring themselves level by the 35th minute with goals from Leon Osman and Steven Naismith in the 22nd and 35th minutes respectively. Newcastle's match with West Brom ended 2-1 as Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse struck for the home side on either side of Romelu Lukaku's 55th minute goal for the visitors of West Brom. Southampton and Tottenham ended in the opposite direction with Gareth Bale and Clint Dempsey scoring for the visitors before Jay Rodriguez gave Southampton their only goal of the game in the 66th. Now for Italy where Inter defeated Bologna 1-3 - striking twice before the home side could reply with their one and only through Nicolo Cherubin in the 58th. Esteban Cambiasso then struck Inter's 3rd and the games final goal in the 64th to wrap things up. Catania were then edged by Juventus after Arturo Vidal struck in the 57th minute to save the game. Fiorentina v.s. Lazio was a more one-sided game with Adem Ljajic scoring in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. Luca Toni then struck in the 90th minute to wrap things up for the home side. Napoli were then able to edge Chievo 1-0 thanks to Marek Hamsik's 58th minute goal. Pescara and Atalanta finished their 90 minutes 0-0 while Roma were edged 2-3 by a capable Udinese side. Erik Lamela scored twice for the home side while Antonio Di Natale made it twice for the away side as Maurizio Domizzi was the man to score first for Udinese in the 32nd. Sampdoria were edged 0-1 by Cagliari thanks to Daniele Dessena's 47th minute goal. Torino were defeated by Parma 1-3 with three strikes before Torino had even one goal. The Netherlands meanwhile saw Feyenoord tie Ajax 2-2 while Heracles slammed Heerenveen 6-3 in their match-up. RKC were edged 0-1 by Twente thanks to Dusan Tadic in the 40th minute. Vitesse were similarly edged by AZ 1-2 while Zwolle actually did well for themselves against PSV: losing by just a goal after slotting home the opening goal in the 54th minute through Joey Van Den Berg. Nevertheless, Timothy Derijck equalized for PSV in the 75th before Van Den Berg unfortunately put the ball into his own net! With that 79th minute own goal, PSV took the three points on the day. And now on to Germany! Bayern were surprisingly overturned by Bayer Leverkusen in the 87th minute after Sidney Sam struck. Stefan Kiessling had opened the scoring in the game in the 42nd minute. In response, Mario Mandzukic equalized in the 77th though Sam's previously mentioned goal undid his success. Hannover were edged by Monchengladbach despite the fact that Hannover had actually made themselves a 2-0 lead by the 53rd minute. Amazingly, Alvaro Dominguez, Roel Brouwers, and Juan Arango scored a goal each between the 70th and 79th minutes to win the day. Last but not least, Stuttgart edged Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 after they scored on either side of Alexander Meier's 67th minute goal. Christian Gentner made the first goal of the game in the 6th minute for Stuttgart while Vedad Ibisevic won it all for the home side in the 84th minute. Last but certainly not least, Sweden had the luxury of seeing AIK draw with Syrianska while Atvidaberg finished a goalless draw with Mjallby. GAIS were defeated by Helsingborg 1-3 while Orebro were able to edge Goteborg 1-0 thanks to Shpetim Hasani's 14th minute strike. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sundsvall were clobbered 0-4 by Norrkoping thanks to a huge showing by the talented Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson who secured a hat-trick while Lars Gerson added one of his own. Such is the way of the world! Hope you enjoy it.

Champions League: October 24th.

So each group has completed three games - how do they fare? Well, Group A has Porto on top undefeated with 9 points to their name while PSG sit in 2nd with 6 after their away loss to Porto. Dynamo Kyiv occupy 3rd with 3 points having defeated Dinamo Zagreb while the hapless Dinamo Zagreb side are at the bottom of the table with 0 points. Over in Group B Schalke are actually on top with 7 points despite a disappointing draw with Montpellier Herault. Speaking of the french side, they are nevertheless at the bottom of the table half-way through the group stage with just that point to their name. Arsenal hold 2nd with 6 points after losing to a visiting Schalke side. Olympiacos are the team in 3rd with 3 points to the good. Group C continues to be led by Spanish side Malaga who have amazingly amassed 9 points over 2nd place AC Milan who have 4, Zenit St. Petersburg who have 3 points in 3rd, and Anderlecht who have just a point after holding AC Milan to a draw in Milan! Moving on to Group D now, Dortmund are weakly in charge with 7 points while Real Madrid sits on their heels with 6. Ajax are the team in 3rd with 3 points while Manchester City has been completely listless getting just 1 point from 3 matches played. As for Group E, Shakhtar Donetsk are relatively surprising leaders with 7 points, Chelsea have 4, Juventus have 3, and Nordsjaelland have a mere 1 point to their name. Group F has an even more surprising leader with BATE Borisov having the better goal difference over Bayern and Valencia though each of them have 6 points. I wouldn't be surprised if Borisov go on to lose their grip but we'll just have to see! Last place with no points are French side Lille. Over to Group G where Barcelona have maintained their dominance with 9 points to their name after edging Celtic in Spain 2-1. Despite having just 10% possession in that game, Celtic are in 2nd with 4 points. Spartak Moskva took 3rd after defeating Benfica in Russia giving them their first 3 points of the campaign. The Portuguese side do have a point at least after drawing with Celtic... Last but certainly not least, Group H is dominated by Manchester United who have amassed 9 points while Cluj hold 2nd by their fingertips with 4 points as Braga have 3 and Galatasaray have 1. Hope you enjoyed the games and I am sure you are looking forward to the upcoming fixtures!

Champions League: October 23.

Well the Champions League matches of the day have taken place and they were all positively thrilling! First of all, there was Spartak Moskva's game against Benfica which was fascinating as the Portuguese side went down in the 3rd minute by a Rafael Carloca goal before equalizing in the 33rd minute of the game thanks to Lima's strike. That wasn't the end of the 1st half action though, as Spartak were able to find their way in front after Benfica's Jardel converted an own goal in the 43rd minute which really deflated the Portuguese side. Having said that, Spartak's 61% of possession was certainly an important aspect of their eventual victory. Despite intense pressure in the dying minutes of the game, Benfica couldn't make it pay as they left Russia with 0 points dropping them to the bottom of the table. Surprisingly, Nordsjaelland were able to keep level with the Italian champions Juventus thanks to Mikkel Beckmann's 50th minute goal. Luckily for the Old Ladies, Mirko Vucinic was able to equalize in the 81st to salvage what might have been a disastrous game. Nevertheless, it was disappointing for the Italians to be sure! I will post about the remaining games later, other matters must be attended to! Hope you enjoyed the games!

A Look Around the Leagues of Europe

Most leagues by this time have gotten past their 8th round of games now and things are starting to shape up quite nicely, or not, as the case may be. I would actually like to begin in the Turkish Super League where Galatasaray have gotten off to an uninspiring but good-enough start with 15 points in their first 8 games. Similarly, Antalyaspor have managed to keep up with the pace-setters making it 15 out of 8 as well. Meanwhile, Orduspor are somehow the team in 3rd despite having just 14 points from their first 8 games. Genclerbirligi, Kasimpasa, Fenerbahce, Eskisehirspor, and Trabzonspor each have 13 points to their name. Other big names? Well, Sivasspor, Bursaspor, and Besiktas occupy 9th - 11th places respectively. While Sivasspor have 12 points, Bursaspor and Besiktas have 10 and 9 points each. Thus, while things are still in the mix, the leaders thus far are rather surprising so we'll have to see how things shape up from here. Meanwhile, in Greece, Olympiacos have carved out 21 points for themselves from 7 games played to the 16 by 2nd position PAOK from the same number of games. Panionios are a surprise in 3rd position with 15 points as are Asteras Tripolis in 4th position with 13. Platanias are 5th with 11 points to their name from just 6 games. Where are Panathinaikos? They have dropped to 8th with 8 points after having 2 points deducted for some kind of infraction. Aris Thessaloniki are 12th with 6 points from 7 games while AEK Athens are bottom of the barrel 16th with a mere 2 points from 7! How are things in Russia you may ask? Well, Anji Makhachkala are the surprise leaders after 12 games with 29 points. 2nd position is held by a familiar face: CSKA Moskva who have amassed 27 points from 12 games. Terek Grozny are another new-comer to this side of the table, though they are relatively safe from falling out of the top five for at least a game if not more: they have 25 points in 3rd place. Zenit St. Petersburg are 4th with 24 points while Lokomotiv Moskva have a loose grip on 5th with 21. What of the big names of Spartak Moskva and fiery Rubin Kazan? Well, they sit 7th and 8th respectively with 19 points to the former and 18 to the latter. How about neighboring Ukraine now where we finally have a familiar face on the top of the table! Shakhtar Donetsk have captured 36 points to their name from 12 games played while virtually unknown Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk have managed to build a campaign of 24 points from 12 games just as Dynamo Kyiv! Meanwhile, Metalist Kharkiv hold 4th with 21 as Arsenal Kyiv have managed to snag a hold of 5th with 19 points to their name. Over to the west now, to the Netherlands where Twente continue their dominance, though not nearly as completely as they would like. With 22 points, they just barely edge PSV who have cobbled together 21 from 9 games. Vitesse are interestingly in 3rd, even in contention for 2nd as they lose out to PSV on goal difference alone. Meanwhile, Ajax have allowed Champions League glory to cloud their senses domestically, falling to 4th with just 17 points. Feyenoord round out the top five, losing to Ajax solely on goal difference. I will just briefly run through Portugal since their league is still really in its developmental stages: Porto are top with Benfica at 14 each though the northerners lead on goal difference. Braga have a hold on 3rd with 11 though Gil Vicente are surprisingly close with 9 from 6 games. Rio Ave currently a sizable pack with 8 points in 5th though I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see things change. Where are Sporting Lisbon I can hear you ask. Well, they are actually in 12th position with 6 from 6. Not nearly the bright start they were hoping for; but not deadly just yet! Meanwhile, in France, PSG have actually managed to turn around their less than impressive early performances to take the top of the French table with 19 points from 9 games. Equal with Marseille and a point over the team that were dominant a couple seasons ago: Olympique Lyon. Toulouse have 4th with 16, just over the likes of Valenciennes and Bordeaux. Worth mentioning: Ajaccio who would be in 10th at least have been dropped to 13th after getting 2 points deducted for some sort of infraction or another. Also, just a shout out to Sochaux-Montbeliard who find themselves in the fight to avoid relegation if their form continues in this manner! They currently sit at 18th position out of 20 with a mere 7 points from 9 games played. Moving on now, to Italy where the Old Ladies of Juventus have a decent hold on 1st with 22 points from 8 matches. Napoli are probably happy in 2nd with 19 points though will surely be hoping to increase their pillow between themselves and 3rd place Lazio who have 18 points to their name. Inter Milan also have 18 while 5th place Roma have managed 14 from 8. I would just like to say that AC Milan are presently wallowing in 15th position with a meager 7 points from 8 games. Onwards and upwards to Germany now where Bayern seem to have reclaimed their historic dominance with 24 points from 8 games. Eintracht Frankfurt are the surprise faces in 2nd with 18 points while Schalke hold 3rd with 17 points. Dortmund and Leverkusen are the disappointed parties in 4th and 5th with 12 points each. Quality teams need to be able to challenge internationally while not falling apart domestically and that is something that Dortmund don't appear to have mastered just yet. Hand it to the Bavarians though, they have! I would just like to drop back down to Spain now where Barcelona and Atletico Madrid hold 1st and 2nd with 22 points each from 8 games played. Malaga are actually in 3rd with 17 while Real Madrid look weak on their feet in 4th with 14 points to their name. Last but not least, Real Betis Balompie have made quite a run for themselves culminating in 13 points and a better goal difference than Levante who are thus bumped to 6th. Now for the island portions of Europe: I would like to begin with Scotland where Celtic have yet to be truly challenged with 20 points from 9 games while 2nd place Saint Johnstone have 17 from 10. Aberdeen have 15 from 10 in 3rd while Hibernian are in a similar position though with an inferior goal difference. Last but certainly not least, Inverness are 5th with 14 from 10. Only Motherwell have also not played a 10th game yet though they sit in 6th. Should they collect full points, they will look far better with 16 putting them into 3rd! A tie or a loss though, will drop them into the rat-pack. Over to England now where Chelsea have maintained themselves with 22 points to 2nd position Manchester United's 18. Manchester City have a similar set-up though an inferior goal difference to their arguably more successful counter-parts. Everton are adrift in 4th with 15 while Tottenham and several others hold 14. Currently, Spurs have the best goal difference. Liverpool's chances are looking up with a move to 12th while Newcastle appear to have lost their magic, falling to 11th. Arsenal are in 9th. Make sure to keep coming by! More coverage as always. Enjoy.

A Wrap-up of the U-17 Women's World Cup.

Well, before I say farewell to the U-17 Women's World Cup in Azerbaijan, I would just like to post about the Final and 3rd Place games that took place a couple days ago. First off, the 3rd Place match between Ghana and Germany! Despite falling a player down by the 32nd minute, Ghana ended up striking ahead in the 38th minute. Fatima Alhassan's sending-off was admittedly disappointing and certainly made the game no less easy for the Africans. Nevertheless, Priscilla Okyere struck the one and only goal of the game 6 minutes later to give the Africans a 1-0 victory over a rather hapless German side. Despite a total of 16 shots, 7 corner opportunities, and 57% of the possession, the German women could not get past Ghana's keeper Victoria Agyei who had yet another phenomenal game! Comparatively, Ghana had a total of 9 shots and 43% of the control of the ball. Last but certainly not least, the Final match between France and North Korea. Once more, it was a positively exhilarating experience with the French women striking in the 33rd minute of the 1st half through Lea Declercq. It took a while, but the North Koreans ended up drawing level in the 79th minute thanks to the perfect foot of Ri Un Sim! As the final whistle blew and the game proceeded to penalties, the French side could be said to have had the upper-hand with 11 shots to North Korea's 7; 5 to the 2 opportunities for the North Koreans; though "just" 48% possession compared to France's 52%. How did the penalties turn out? Well, despite not utilizing any of their subs, the French side managed to keep level with the North Koreans through the first 5 penalty shots for the respective sides. It ended even with just a miss from each of the sides - Kim Un Hwa had her shot saved by the French keeper while Marion Romanelli's shot for the French team was saved by North Korea's goalie. Going on to the sudden-death portion of the shoot-out, both sides were looking strong until the 3rd go-around: then, Ri Un Yong's shot was saved after Kadidiatou Diani struck home for the French national team. That makes France the first European side to lift the U-17 Women's World Cup! How so? Well, since the beginning of the competition in 2008, North Korea and South Korea had been the winners up to this point with the top-five most successful teams up to this point being: North Korea, France and South Korea (tied), Japan and the United States (tied), Germany, and Ghana and Spain (tied). What about the final statistics of the present tournament? Well, as far as goal averages, the top five broke-down as follows:
1) Japan scored about 4 goals a game;
2) Nigeria scored almost 4 goals per game;
3) North Korea scored 3 goals a game;
4) France scored about 2 goals a game;
5) Just as the United States did.
 As far as goal-scoring ability goes though, North Korea was actually the top-scoring team with 18 goals for the good compared to Japan's 17, Nigeria's 15, France's 14, and Germany's 11.
And what about by-the-player statistics? Well, Nigeria's Chinwendu Ihezuo was the best assist-maker with 4 while North Korea's Ri Hyang Sim's made 3. The rest really fell into a pack though these two were the trend-setters. On the goals side of things, Ri Un Sim struck 8 for North Korea while Chinwendu Ihezuo had 6 to the good for Nigeria. Once again, following these two the rest fell into a pack.
I hope you all enjoyed the competition and and please make sure to keep track of these truly talented footballers - I am sure that many of them have bright careers ahead of them!

Thrilling Women's World Cup Semi-Finals!

And the action has wrapped up today with France facing Ghana and North Korea taking on the Germans! In the first game, the defensive Ghanians were simply undone by the firepower of the French who were glorified through the brace from Kadidiatou Diani. Diani's goals in the 31st and 89th minutes were pure gold for the French as they dominated the goals and the possession with 61% of it and 15 shots to Ghana's 39% and 6 respectively. Some may complain that the Ghanians fell due to injury and suspension (Jane Ayieyam was sent-off with a second yellow in the 52nd and Ivy Kolli was still out due to injury) but really the French looked the better side on the day. Meanwhile, in the later game between the North Koreans and the Germans, it was once more a one-sided affair though the goal difference was less drastic: the Koreans ended up edging the Germans 2-1 after Kim So Hyang's 39th and 47th goals coming before Rebecca Knaak's 59th minute strike. The Koreans were then able to maintain the game with 64% of possession and tons of pressure with a total of 21 shots compared to Germany's 7! Once more then, the team that deserved to win ended up doing so in both games. Hope you enjoyed them and make sure to watch the Final and Third Place games!

Women's World Cup Semi-Final!

The action up to this point has been absolutely tremendous with the teams that have deserved the right to win more often than not going on to do so. On the 9th of October we will have another such instance when the Semi-Finals kick off with the most even of line-ups as possible: perennial title challengers Germany face ever-competitive North Korea while newcomers in the likes of France and Ghana face-off in the other leg. While France's accomplishments this year have certainly raised a few eye-brows (they had never previously made it out of the group stage let alone this far,) Ghana are the likely favorites to progress to the Final after they stopped the deadly Japanese strikers and scored a vital goal of their own in their Quarter-Final clash on the 5th of this month. But what about the other game? Between the two favorites of the remaining teams, this game could very well decide the conclusion of the tournament. How, then, do the two teams compare? Based on goal power alone, North Korea might be tipped to simply out-score the Germans however there is a word of caution in the statistics: the two teams who have scored more than the North Koreans, Japan and Nigeria, weren't able to make it this far. Thus, the ability to score is not the only thing that matters in football, and that is most explicitly illustrated in this campaign! Enjoy!

U-17 WWC: Round II in Azerbaijan.

Well today we had action just as thrilling as yesterday with Germany facing Brazil as Japan and Ghana battled it out later in the day. How about the European - South American clash first? Once again it was a very close match with the two sides level 1-1 at the half thanks to the efforts of Djenifer (for Brazil) in the 13th minute. Sara Daebritz proceeded to equalize for the Germans in the 31st minute to the chagrin of the Brazilian supporters. With the opportunities relatively equal for both sides, it was all too fair a game. Nevertheless, the Germans dominated the possession and it eventually told for them in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half when Rebecca Knaak slotted home convincingly! That was all she wrote as the Germans played out the rest of time without incident. Meanwhile, in the game between Japan and Ghana the tension of the 1st half can be contrasted with the bliss of the 53rd minute goal for Ghana through Sherifatu Sumaila. That's not to say there weren't opportunities, but despite 67% of possession, Japan had a mere 8 shots. It's very hard to explain how the favorites were sent crashing out, but the Africans performed brilliantly, well-deserving the right to represent their continent for the first time in the U-17 Semi-Finals. Returning to action from yesterday, I just wanted to highlight the end result of the Nigeria - France game: it went all the way to penalties! In the end though, France won out on penalties, 5-3.

The U-17 Women's World Cup Quarter-Finals: Round I

And the Quarter-Finals have arrived! After a great set of groups we are graced by the performances of the likes of North Korea v.s. Canada and Nigeria v.s. France! The first game today, between the North Koreans and the Canadians, was positively sensational as Ri Un Sim was positively phenomenal, striking twice in the 78th and 87th minutes to give the Koreans a wonderful position as the game drew to a close. Yes, Nichelle Prince brought the North Americans one back in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half, but it was never going to be enough. The North Koreans were positively dominant in the game, taking at least 17 shots to Canada's 8 as well as maintaining 57% of possession! Not only did they dominate on the scoring and opportunity sheets, but the North Koreans also maintained a wonderful level of discipline throughout the match and as they celebrated knocking out the last representative from North America! Meanwhile, in Nigeria's match against France the two sides are deadlocked at 0-0 as I post this though I wouldn't be surprised if the French side go on to win it all! They have almost the exact same statistical dominance as we saw in the North Korea - Canada game but they have yet to score! The Nigerians might begin drawing strength from their hearty defense though so the ground-breaking goal better come soon! Enjoy the games and I'll try to post about tomorrow's games as well. Cheers!

World Rankings!

Well, there has been some movement in the rankings of world football, though neither of the top two of Spain and Germany have changed. Portugal have risen one place to 3rd while Argentina hopped three positions for 4th. Remember England? Well they dropped two to 5th as the Netherlands recouped in 6th, up two from the last ratings. Uruguay and Italy fell two places each to 7th and 8th respectively as Colombia cracked the top ten with their 13-position rise to 9th position! Greece rose 1 position to 10th from 11th last time around. Want to know more? Explore! There is a world of football just waiting for you. Enjoy it.

So the Champions League.

I know it has been a while since I posted about the Champions League - with so many other exciting events taking place I kind of lost it on my radar! However, here is a post to rectify the situation. The action thus far has been quite thrilling with Group A currently poised as follows: PSG of France currently leads with 3 points and a superior goal difference over 2nd place FC Porto of Portugal who also have 3 points to their name. Dinamo Zagreb take 3rd after losing their first game. Meanwhile, Dynamo Kyiv are in 4th. On to Group B where Schalke and Arsenal have 3 points each with the two sides unable to be separated by goal difference. Montpellier Herault and Olympiacos are in 3rd and 4th positions. Then we have Group C where Malaga of Spain are the surprise leaders early on while Anderlecht and AC Milan tied their game meaning they each have 1 point in 2nd and 3rd. Zenit St. Petersburg meanwhile occupy 4th after their defeat at the hands of Malaga. Looking at Group D we have an extremely thrilling state of affairs with Real Madrid leading with 3 points through goal difference as Borussia Dortmund are only 2nd on that goal difference. Manchester City and Ajax are thus in 3rd and 4th positions. How about Group E where there is another surprise contest for leadership? Yes, Chelsea have collected themselves and taken joint-1st alongside Shakhtar Donetsk. Juventus aren't looking too hot as they have only managed to draw their 2nd game leaving them with just 2 points and in 3rd position. The future does look a bit rosy though! Nordsjaelland have yet to even score a goal as they have lost both of their first two games meaning they are out of competition for progression and only hoping for a saving of their honor. Group F has has also played through their first two games and it has been absolutely thrilling! BATE Borisov have been absolutely phenomenal as they have gone to win their first two games while Valencia and Bayern Munich have both struggled, managing only two wins from four games between them! Luckily for them, Lille have essentially been neutralized in 4th as they have amassed 0 points and just 1 goal in their opening two games. Group G is a bit more clear-cut with Barcelona and Celtic holding 1st and 2nd with 6 and 4 points respectively. Benfica languish in 3rd with a single point while Spartak Moskva are down and out with 0 points to their name. Finally, Group H has a strong leader in Manchester United who hold 6 points to Cluj's and Braga's 3 points. Last but only kind of least, Galatasaray look like they will be consigned to playing in their domestic league after losing both of their first two games! More games tomorrow!