Last night, the traditional name like Bayern Munich and Villareal are going to the group phase of UEFA Champions League. Along with them, Genk of Belgium, and APOEL of Siprus are also going to the next phase. Another team is Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia, who is ending their twelve years of waiting.Tonight, another ten teams are battling for the ticket remains. Some traditional teams, like Arsenal, Lyon, and Benfica are still in unsettled position. Let’s talk about their chance to go to group phase of UEFA Champions League season 2011/2012.
The 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League Playoff rounds continue this week, Arsenal and Lyon will still need to fighting hard to ensure their ticket to Champions League Group phase.
Olympique Lyon travel to Russia with a 3-1 aggregate lead to take on Rubin Kazan at the Tsentralnyi Stadum. Rubin come into this match on the wrong side of a 3-1 score line in the first leg. If Rubin are to get anything done offensively in this match their midfield and attacker must be collaborate good enough in some way. While Lyon are feeling comfortable enough with the 1st leg result, they will play slow tempo. However, Russia is never an easy place to play and with the earlier kickoff time and hostile atmosphere I think the two side will “agree” to keep the game at a slow pace. This type of game will seems to be favorable for Lyon, so they can keep their leading aggregate. But if they don’t manage their stamina, they must be careful, not to let Rubin shocking them down with shocking goal.
Arsenal travel to northern Italy tomorrow to face Udinese in the second leg of their Champions League qualification, needs only a draw to go through to the group stages after a 1-0 first-leg victory at the Emirates. After watching Udinese’s performance against Arsenal, it is quite reasonable to getting aware that we may not be playing Champions League Group Phase this season. Arsenal come off a Liverpool defeat which is very hard to take. And now They have to face an Italian team (which statistically had more than 1 chance of scoring against Arsenal in London) at a ground in which Arsenal were beaten four times last season. This game could be tight, but if Arsenal’s young guns could made up their mind and mental attitude, Arsenal is still in favorite side.
UEFA Champions League is still the place for the elite team in European football. Can the big name keep continue their journey this season, or will the underdog gives us a surprise?
