So, for the soccer fans out there, we have a busy soccer season kicking into high gear.
Premier League Update. Week 6 recap and Week & preview coming this Friday.
Champions League Update.
The greatest Soccer Tournament in the world…except for the World Cup….except for the Olympics…but those are only held once every 4 years. We get Champions League EVERY year. We are just into the Group Stage. The group stage last 6 rounds of play over the next three months. Match Day 1 was held last week and we have some results to share. Here is a quick summary as well as the 8 Groups. In group play, teams play each other twice for a total of 6 games. Home and Away against each team. The top two teams from each group advance to the knock out stages. 3 point for a win, 1 point for a tie.
Group A: Athletico Madrid, Dortmund, Monoco, Club Brugge
Group B: Barcelona, Tottenham, Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven
Group C: Liverpool, Red Star Belgrade, Napoli, PSG
Group D: Galatasaray, Porto, Schalke 04, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group E: Ajax, Bayern, Benfica, AEK
Group F: Hoffenheim, Lyon, Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City
Group G: CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Pizen, Roma
Group H: Manchester United, Juventus, Valencia, Young Boys
Match Day 1 Winners: Athletico Madrid, Dortmund, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Galatasaray, Ajax, Bayern, Lyon, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus
Europa League Update
Kind of like Champions League, but its the next best 48 teams in Europe. Too many teams to list….will wait for the knock out stages to get you the list. That’s a lot of teams. Some of the bigger names you may know.
Chelsea and Arsenal from the Premier League.
Sevilla and Villareal from Spain.
Celtic and Rangers from Scotland.
Premier League Carabao Cup (League Cup)
In addition to playing for a Title, teams in English Football can also play and win the Carabao Cup, historically called the League Cup. Teams from the 92 teams that make up the English Football Leagues (Premier, Championship, League 1, League 2) are eligible. It is played over 7 rounds on single elimination. The Round of 32 was just completed this week. Some interesting results.
Giant Killers.
Derby County 2 Manchester United 2 (Derby advances 8-7 in a PK Shootout) Derby County is in 6th place in the Championship League, the 26th best team in English Football just beat a team in the Premier League To 6. Big Upset! 16 teams remain with a heavy load of teams from the Premier League.
Burton two levels down (58th best team) took down Premier League team Burnley (16th place) in the round of 32.
Long Shots still in the Final 16: Derby Count (26th), Nottingham Forest (29th), Burton (58th) and Blackpool (52nd)
Game of the Tournament (so far): Chelsea defeated Liverpool today 2-1. Great game. And one incredible goal from the current best player in the Premier League…Eden Hazard from Chelsea. I will just let you enjoy this one. On my!!!