World Soccer Reader UEFA Champions League To Rec

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Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand will provide a new obstacle of VfL Wolfsburg.
Marseille manager Didier Deschamps goes to the Santiago Bernabéu already in a hole.
Colombian Ramadel Falcão, who came to Porto from River Plate this summer, leads the team with five goals.
About Richard Farley
Richard Farley is a U.S.-based contributor to World Soccer Reader. He can be reached at richardfarley at gmail dot com and followed on Twitter, username "richardfarley." And while you are at it, feel free to check out RF Football.

Group A is the only group that does not feature a team from England or Spain, part of the reason why it is quickly becoming the UEFA Champions League’s most interesting quartet. There is no clear favorite. Your expert of choice could be backing any of Bayern Munich, Juventus, or Bordeaux. It also means on a given match day, two of those teams will be playing.
Last match day, Bordeaux went to Turin and got a point from a Juventus club that was missing Alessandro del Piero, Diego, and Georgio Chiellini. Today, the Old Lady goes to München with defender Fabio Cannavaro the only regular who will be unavailable. Coming off that draw to Bordeaux, the prospect of again dropping points – or, more readily, not reclaiming their home points lost – gives this match greater importance for Juve.
Though they lead the group with three points (having won in Haifa two weeks ago), nobody is sure how good Bayern can be. After a poor start in Bundesliga play, they’ve rebounded over the last month, though they lost this weekend to league-leading Hamburger SV. They are still without Martín Demichelis and Mark van Bommel, though their depth in attackers will allow them to compensate of the continued absence of Luca Toni.
Which of those attackers Louis van Gaal elects to play is part of the fun of a Bayern match. Prominent names Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klöse started the Hamburg match on the bench, hinting they may be in today’s starting XI. But Thomas Müller and Ivica Olic have been the better players (which may be the real reason by Gomez and Klöse did not start).
The key to Bayern’s return to form has been on the wings. The acquisition or Arjen Robben to close the transfer window allows their attack balance to Franck Ribery on the opposite side. With Bastian Schweinsteiger having fit into a more central role, van Gaal seems to have found a winning (if ambitious) combination.
In the open Bundesliga, that progressive approach may work. Whether that philosophy gives Bayern enough cover to contain Diego, del Piero, and Vincenzo Iaquinta will be answered today.
If Juve drops points, the draw in Turin against Bordeaux looks much worse, as they will suddenly be the third amongst the group’s three contenders. If Bayern drops points, they will switch places with a Juve and become the team that has dropped points at home and needs to reclaim them on the road.
That mantle will be passed around over the next five rounds of play. The team left with the distinction on December 9 (the day after the last group Matchday) will be the club going to Europa League.
In the other Group A match, Bordeaux hosts Maccabi Haifa for what should be three points. Haifa lost in Israel, 3-0 to Bayern, on the first match day.
For Bordeaux, where holding serve at home against the other two contenders will be critical, losing points (at any point) to Maccabi will be fatal.
Group B
CSKA Moscow hosts Turkish champions Besiktas in Wednesday’s early game, a match between two teams who have lost the form that got them into Champions League. CSKA has undergone a recent coaching change, bringing in Juande Ramos – a change that didn’t help at Wolfsburg two weeks ago. Besiktas, struggling in Turkcell SüperLig and not completely healthy, has already dropped points at home. Visiting a talented CSKA side in Russia should only make things worse.
The group’s marquee match-up sees the two favorites to go through meet at Old Trafford. Manchester United seems to get better every week as they adapt to their post-Ronaldo reality. They should be able to handle a Wolfsburg team which, though seemingly back in form with their 4-2 win over Hannover this weekend,tods, is completely unfamiliar with the difficulties of unlocking Manchester United’s defense.
Even if Wolfsburg is able to make headway against United’s back line, there is the matter of defending. Wolfsburg (at times) had troubles with CSKA’s attack, not to mention their woes in the Bundesliga. Manchester United should be good for two or three goals.
Group C
The fall of Marseille, who lost at Valenciennes this weekend in Ligue 1 (allowing three goals), eliminated a lot of the interest this group previously held. Whereas three weeks ago we were debating which of Marseille and Milan was most likely to make it to the knock-out phase, Milan’s 2-1 victory at the Stade Vélodrome all but killed Marseille’s chances. Nothing is settled and Didier Deschamps can still turn his group stage around, but a more interesting question than whether Marseille can advance is whether they can keep Real Madrid under four goals on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Marseille’s major failing has been in defense, as they appear to be sacrificing reinforcement at the back in favor of pushing players forward. This led to two goals from Filippo Inzaghi on Matchday 1, and it is likely to lead to more on Matchday 2. If you have Gonzalo Higuain in your Champions League fantasy team, start him.
In the other group match, Milan hosts an FC Zürich side that make life interesting for Real Madrid in Switzerland. Milan has been in poor form in the Serie A, but they showed two weeks ago that they are capable of elevating their game in Champions League. Such is life at a club that so values this competition.
After hosting Zürich, Milan should still be atop the group, keeping alive Milanistas’ dim hopes for a turnaround.
Group D
Coming off their shocking loss this weekend, Chelsea travels to Cyprus to face APOEL. Ivan Jovanović, APOEL’s manager, is unlikely to be happy that Roberto Martínez gave the Blues a wake-up call. Now Chelsea, given the first reminder of their mortality, travels to Cyprus. Jovanović would have rather done the waking-up.
The other fixture in Group D features the first rematch of a Round of 16 match from last season. F.C. Porto, having given Chelsea all they could handle two weeks ago at Stamford Bridge, welcomes a struggling Atlético Madrid side to the Dragão, having eliminated them from last season’s competition.
This weekend, the Atléti got their first decent result of the season, drawing at Valencia. Though they got one point against a notable club, the match still highlighted Atlético’s problems in defense, needing a miraculous finish in second half stoppage time to claim their point.
Porto hit a recent speed bump in Liga Sagres, losing at first place Braga. Porto righted the ship by defeating Sporting CP, and with new offensive threat Ramadel Falcão (who did not start at Chelsea) having fully integrated himself into the team, Porto should continue to improve.
This should be a comfortable victory for Porto.

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