The Beginnigs of a European Adventure

      This week three premiership teams, Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea, will start the European journeys joining Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool who have already started theirs.  With Tottenham, Chelsea and Man City all travelling to the continent to Bremen, Zilina and Salzburg and Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool hosting Rangers, Braga and Steaua Bucharest. Here are my thoughts on this week's matches and a quick look at the outcomes of the groups.

 

       Well I guess we should start with Tuesdays games, Man Utd v Rangers.  Manchester United do not have a good record against Scottish teams in the Champions League dropping points against Celtic in 08/09 and 06/07 but both times they were at Celtic Park.  Wayne Rooney will be playing after being rested this weekend so he should be raring to go.  Rangers are 4 for 4 in the SPL this season and with United's defensive frailties I can see Rangers scoring so I will go with 3-1 United.  With Valencia and Bursaspor also in United's and Ranger's group I see Man Utd qualifying easily but it looks like it will be a tough challenge for Rangers.

       Also on Tuesday we have Werder Bremen v Tottenham.  Spurs have had a couple of poor result losing to Wigan and drawing to West Brom but Luka Modric may be fit enough to face Werder Bremen.  Spurs presently have a long injury list with Defore and Dawson both injured playing for England.  Werder also have selection problems with Per Mertesacker definitely missing and Naldo and Claudio Pizarro both struggling with knee injuries.  A patched-up Werder side held Bayern Munich to a goalless draw at home on Saturday and I can see both sides being happy with that result on Tuesday.` With Twente and Inter Milan in their group it could be a very tough group for Spurs, I see them finishing third.

 

      Onto Wednesday, where Arsenal host Braga.  Arsenal have won three times in a row since drawing against Liverpool to put themselves second in the premiership.  But Arsenal could be without midfielder Abou Diaby who pick up a injury against Bolton, the Gunners are already likely to be missing injured trio Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie. Braga, who beat Celtic and Sevilla to reach the group stage, are without banned duo Elderson and Leandro Salino.  With this in mind I'll go with a 3-0 win for arsenal.  Also in Arsenal's group are Shakhtar Donetsk and Partizan Belgrade, they should easily top the group.

 

       Chelsea have the furthest journey of the British side to Žilina in Slovakia.  MŠK Žilina will host Chelsea for their first game UEFA Champions League group stage.  MŠK Žilina will in most likelyhood never face a better side than the current Chelsea one,  Chelsea have won their opening four games having scored 17 goals and only conceded 1.   Žilina manager Pavel Hapal says they will not lie down against their more illustrious opponents and will try to win the game in front of their own fans.  But I can't look past Chelsea demolishing Žilina, I say 4-0 to Roman's Boys.  Elsewhere in their group Marseille play Spartak Moscow, another group in which the English side should come out on top.

 

      At 1800 BST on Thursday Man City will kick-off against Red Bull Salzburg in Salzburg.  After more dropped points, due to an uncharacteristic error by Joe Hart, this weekend by the sky blues will looking to restart their stalled campaign against a Salzburg side that have also had a poor start.  Red Bull Salzburg have only picked up 5 points from their first 5 games of the season and are in 8th out of a possible 10.  City will win this one 2-0 and will go on to finish second in their behind Juventus.

 

    And finally at 2005 BST Liverpool host Steaua Bucharest.  After just scraping a draw on Sunday against Birmingham due to Pepe Reina's brilliance Liverpool will be hoping that revisit to Austria can get Fernando Torres can make him play like he did in Euro 2008 and not like he did at the World Cup.   Steaua Bucharest lost the weekend for the first time this season away to Unirea Urziceni.  I think that this one will be a hard one for them I see Liverpool drawing 1-1.  With Napoli and Utrecht as the other two sides this could be a very hard season in Europe for Liverpool.