Odds and Sods

Sevilla

Sevilla finished 3rd in La Liga last season finishing 1 pt shy behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, earning them a Champions League birth for this season. They also won their 2nd consecutive UEFA Cup, beating fellow Spanish side Espanyol on penalties in the final.

Despite their recent success, Sevilla are usually a selling club. The summer was rife with rumors that Daniel Alves would be heading to either Chelsea, Barcelona, or Real Madrid. Though, he remains with the club because no one met their steep asking price. They made a couple budget moves to supplement the squad, bringing in Kone from PSV and Chelsea chuckler Khalid Boulahrouz on loan. The key will be whether or not Fredi Kanoute can replicate his incredible form (30 goals in 48 appearances) from last season.

The beginning of the season was marred by Antonio Puerta’s tragic death after a heart attack on the pitch against Getafe. However, Sevilla have coped admirably and have been in excellent form qualifying for the Champions League with ease and winning the Spanish and European Super Cups. They get the nod in this group because of the incentives. There is obviously the emotional aspect with Puerta’s death, but also this is a squad that will want to prove themselves. There is also the fact that both Alves and manager Juande Ramos will need success to get their much desired tickets out of town.

Arsenal

Arsenal were a bit of a disappointment last season, despite finishing fourth comfortably. They qualified for the knockout stages in the Champions League, but were eliminated by PSV in the first round. The obvious noteworthy move was the selling of club captain Thierry Henry to Barcelona. Wenger made some under the radar sigings with right-back Bakary Sagna and striker Eduardo Da Silva, though it clearly didn’t match the tens of millions spent by Manchester United and Liverpool.

Uncertainty over the future of the club and the lack of spending, tempered expectations from Arsenal supporters to start the season. That said, they have started off with a bang, getting an unexpected glut of goals from a midfield that was silent much of last season. They are currently tied for first in the Premier League, and qualified easily for the Champions League. They should qualify easily out of this group (because the rest of it isn’t very good), though they have some holes (Central Defense, Wings) which may be exploited.

Slavia Prague

Slavia Prague finished 2nd in the Czech League last season. They have fallen on financial hard times, and rely mostly upon younger players to fill out the squad like Marek Suchy and Dusan Svento, who has drawn interest from some English clubs. They surprised Ajax winning 3-1 on aggregate in their Champions League qualifier, in order to qualify for the tournament.

Steaua Bucuresti

Steaua finished second in the Romanian League last season, finishing six pts behind Dinamo Bucuresti. They are currently tied for 8th in Liga I with 10 pts after 5 matches. They qualified for the Champions League for the first time in ten seasons after beating Belarussian club BATE Borisov 4-3 on aggregate.

Inter Milan

The Nerazzurri dominated Serie A last season with a whopping 97 pts from 38 matches, beating second-place Roma by 22 pts.  Their run included a record-setting 17 consecutive league victories.  Their hot streak did not, however, continue into the Champions League, where they were hastily eliminated on away goals by Valencia.

Despite much speculation that they would bring in Carlos Tevez, Inter were not too active on the transfer market.  They did bring in Suazo and Chivu, but, on the whole, they determined not to mess with success.  They are currently tied for 5th in Serie A with 4 pts from 2 matches.  This may be the toughest group 1-4, but with players like Vieira, Figo, Crespo, Zanetti et al., they have both the talent and the experience to get them through on top of this group.

CSKA Moscow

CSKA won their third domestic title in four seasons, last year.  They also performed fairly well in the Champions League, notably by getting results in both matches against Arsenal.  However, they were narrowly eliminated when Porto and Arsenal both drew in the final match.  Despite being from a “lesser” league, they have a nucleus of talented Brazilian internations (Daniel Carvalho, Vagner Love, Dudu) and football manager stud Igor Akinfeev between the pipes.  They will have a huge home advantage, and unlike last season it should push them on into the knockout stages.

PSV

PSV Eindhoven won their third Eredivise title in a row, narrowly edging Ajax on goal difference by one goal.  They put up a fight in the Champions League as well, shocking Arsenal before losing to Liverpool in the quarterfinals.  However, their success, at least in the Champions League, hinged upon their defensive play, which should be weakened with the departure of defender Alex to Chelsea.

Fenerbahce

Fenerbache won their seventeenth Turkish Super League title last season.  They also made it the round of 32 in the UEFA Cup before being defeated 5-5 on away goals to AZ Alkmaar.  They sought to upgrade the squad by bringing in a big name in the summer, and managed to do so with legend Roberto Carlos.  Unfortunately, it is not the Roberto Carlos of 8 or 9 years ago, but the Roberto Carlos who notably lost his mark and watched Thierry Henry sail by him in the World Cup.   In another group they could turn some heads, but this one should be too arduous.

Roma

Roma are coming off an excellent season, led by everyone’s favorite Francesco Totti, who won the European Golden Boot with 26 goals (31 in all competitions).  Their dynamic attacking style took the depleted league by storm as they finished 2nd in Serie A and won the Coppa Italia.  They also made the quarterfinals of the Champions League, before being booted by Manchester United.

Over the summer, they bolstered the defense by adding Brazilians Juan (Bayer Leverkeusen) and Cicinho (Real Madrid).  They also brought in French bete noire Ludovic Giuly from Barcelona to help out in midfield.  They have been off to a flying start so far, winning the Supercoppa as well as their first two Serie A matches without conceding a goal.  Man U may be the better squad on paper, but Roma have the firepower to put teams away when the Red Devils may struggle for goals.

Manchester United

Man U began by firing on all cylinders, and never looked back last season.  They won the Premier League in style, scoring 83 goals (even without a true striker).  They also made the FA Cup Final and the Semifinals of the Champions League, where they were defeated by eventual champion AC Milan.  Not content, Lord Ferg spent over 50mGBP in slick Glazer cash to supplement the squad with World Cup Standout Owen Hargreaves, with spunky midfielders Nani and Anderson, and with a Carlos Tevez for good measure.

Despite the supplements to the squad, Man U have been on nowhere near the form that won them the title last season.  Unable, due to suspension and injury, to field Rooney and Ronaldo, they have sputtered at the start earning 8 pts from 5 matches, and scoring a mere three goals.  There is probably too much talent not to get going eventually, but they will be distracted by their efforts to climb up the league table, which may hinder their performance in the group stages a bit.  The lack of depth in the group will keep them from dropping, however.

Sporting Portugal

The club formally known as Sporting Lisbon finished a close second in the Portuguese Liga, beaten by a frisky FC Porto who edged them by a mere point.  They participated in the Champions League, but were eliminated in the Group Stages after a last place finish in Group B.  Their major move over the summer, was the sale of Nani to Manchester United for 25.5m euros.  They currently sit 3rd in the league with 6 pts from 3 matches.

Dynamo Kyiv

Dynamo Kyiv won the Ukranian double last season, winning their 12th Ukranian title in 15 years, and their third straight Ukranian cup.  They participated in the Champions League as well, but were eliminated in the group stages after earning just 2 pts from 6 matches.  They bought an exciting 22 year-old Guinean striker named Ismael Bangoura from Le Mans, who currently has 4 goals in his first five matches for the club.  But, that won’t be enough to keep them around.

Barcelona

Barca really weren’t able to put it all together last season, despite flashes of brilliance.  Ronaldinho was out of form (for him), and both Eto’o and Messi missed significant amount of time due to injury.  Even the additions of Thuram, Zambrotta, Gudjohnsen were not enough to keep them on top.  They led La Liga for much of the season, but their inconsistent form in the second half allowed Real to regain ground and snatch the title.  They also looked listless at times in the Champions League, performing poorly against Chelsea and barely making it to the knockout stages where they were dumped by Liverpool.

Determined to make a splash in the off-season, they filled some holes by adding defender Eric Abidal and midfielder Yaya Toure.  They also put the “Thierry on top” by swiping Mr. Henry from Arsenal.  When the manager’s biggest problem is figuring out which three of his four elite forwards to put in the starting XI, you know you have a juggernaut.  The sputtered with a 0-0 draw at Santander to open the season, but came back with a 3-1 victory over Atletic Bilbao.  There is no absurd #2 seed like Chelsea to spoil their run through the group stages this time.

Lyon

Lyon had Ligue Un wrapped up by Christmas, and even with a poor run of form to end the season, they still cleared the top by 17 pts for their sixth consecutive title.  They were many pundit’s dark-horse candidate to win the Champions’ League, but went out without a whimper to Roma in the first round of the knockout stages.

Les gones were a selling club in the summer with Florent Malouda (21m), Alou Diarra (7.75m), Eric Abidal (15m), and Tiago Mendes (13m) being shown the exit door.  They will hope that Fabio Grosso, and the Lille duo of Bodmer and Keita can fill the many shoes left by the departing players.  Lyon started poorly in Ligue Un, but has picked up form of late and is at 5th place in the table and moving up with 12 pts from 6 matches.  They should be a solid second.

Stuttgart

Vfb Stuttgart had an excellent season last year.  They came from behind to beat out Schalke for their first Bundesliga title since 1992, and nearly won the double, losing to Nurnberg.  They had a great run in the 2003-4 Champions League, but the key players from that squad (Kuranyi, Hleb, Hildebrand, and Hinkel) have all moved on to greener pastures.  They could put up a battle, but it is going to be hard for them to hang with squads with the quality of Barca and Lyon.

Rangers

Rangers did not get off to a great start last season, and let Celtic run away with the title.  However, after replacing Paul Le Guen with the dynamic duo of Walter Smith and Ally McCoist who righted the ship and led them to a second place finish.  Smith bought ten players in the off season, including Lee McCulloch and American Demarcus Beasley.  They won a tough qualifying match against Red Star Belgrade, and have been flying in the SPL with five straight wins.  However, they just don’t have the quality to mount a serious challenge, and they will most likely be concentrating on the league anyway.

Real Madrid

Los Blancos were largely a disappointment last season under new coach Fabio Capello.  There was a lot of friction between club, management, and players.  It all came together for them at the end when they stormed back to win the title on the last day of the season, but because of the dull, uninspired performances  the title was tained.  Real did qualify for the knockout stages, though they lost a battle of the titans with Bayern in the first round.

That said, Real Madrid have looked rather lively at the inception of the Primera Liga season under Bernd Schuster, winning the Madrid derby 2-1 and pummeling Villarreal 5-0.  They currently reside alone atop the Spanish League with the full 6 pts from the first two matches.

This is a rough group, in the sense that all four of these sides are tough at home, but Real Madrid far surpasses the quality of the other clubs and will ground out enough away results to win the group.

Lazio

Appropriate in both name and logo, S.S. Lazio finished third in Serie A last season to qualify for a Champions League place, winning 8 matches in a row at one point.  The Biancocelesti were originally relegated to Serie B for their involvement in the 2006 match-fixing scandal, but that penalty was reduced to a 3 pt deduction at the start of the season.  They are currently 14th in Serie A with 2 pts from their first two matches.  They should skate through, but only due to the weakness of the rest of the opposition.

Werder Bremen

Werder were known for the exciting, attacking football last season.  They were the “winter champions” in the Bundesliga, taking a first-place lead into the winter break.  They also nearly beat out Barcelona to make it to the knockout stages in the Champions League.  They have been on decent form so far this season, sitting tied for second in the Bundesliga with 7 pts from 4 matches.  However, they have displayed little of the same dynamism in front of goal.  They still have some stars like Frings and Diego, but without all-world striker Miroslav Klose (sold to Bayern) it is difficult to see them progressing.

Olympiacos

Olympiacos won their tenth Greek Super League title in the last 11 seasons last year.  They qualified for the Champions League last season, but finished last in Group D with a mere 3 pts from 6 matches.  They drew their first match of the season with OFI Crete.  They are a tough away draw, but with former World Footballer of the Year winner Rivaldo, who scored 43 goals in 81 appearances for the club, it is hard to see them improving upon last year’s performance.