The congestion of international, domestic and cup competitions is beginning to show as the injury lists grow longer. Several top stars will be missing from the Matchday 5 stage. Let's take a look at how this might impact the results and standings.

Eric Abidal D Barcelona
The 30-year-old suffered a thigh injury on international duty with France and will miss games against Athletic Club Bilbao at the weekend, Internazionale on Tuesday, and their massive derby with Real Madrid five days later.

Liverpool have been given a boost ahead of their crucial Champions League tie with Debrecen by the news that captain Steven Gerrard should be back for the game.

The club currently sit in third place in Group E on four points and are five behind Fiorentina in second place with only two games remaining.

Rangers face a crunch Champions League night this week and one of their stars has stressed the importance of the tie.

The Scots are currently bottom of Group G with only one point and enter a tie away in Romania against Unirea Urziceni knowing that another defeat will put an end to their distant hopes of qualifying for the next round, or even booking a place in the Europa League.

AC Milan's 3-2 win in Madrid on Matchday 3 lifted them to the top of Group C and a repeat success on home soil would take them a step closer to the first knockout round. The Matchday 3 win was a big morale boost for Milan while Madrid slumped. Madrid put a three-game winless run behind them with victory over Getafe CF on Saturday but face a tough task in overturning Milan at home.

Swedish legend Henrik Larsson had an emotional farewell from professional football on Wednesday night as he played his last ever professional game for Swedish side Helsingborg. Larsson had announced his intent to retire at the end of this season but decided to bow out one game early in order to play his last match in front of the Helsinborg supporters.

I have to start this off by saying thank you to the people behind the scenes at uefa.com for moving their subscription video service away from Windows Media and into a Flash-based format. It's allowed me to follow all the games from the comforts of my Mac. If you've not done so, I strongly recommend checking out their Replay service.

There were plenty of upsets yesterday, could we see more today? On paper Manchester United, who have struggled as of late, could be expected to slip against CSKA after a long trip to Moscow but CSKA has not been performing well either. I am not expecting a feast of football from that match and the real drama lies elsewhere in the schedule.

Matchday 3 sees some crucial matchups but none may be more important at this stage than the Standard Liege Olympiacos fixture. Arsenal look to be a lock for top spot in Group H but second place is wide open. A win today for Olympiacos would put them in the driver's seat.

If they lose at home today against Arsenal, last season's Eredivise champions AZ Alkmaar could be done for.

This season's Champions League and Europa League has its usual cast of superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery but I wanted to feature a few names that I think you'll be hearing a lot more about as the January transfer window approaches.

1) Miralem Pjanic midfielder Olympique Lyonnais
The "new Juninho" (pictured above) has actually lived up to the moniker thus far.

The controversy surrounding Manchester United's signing of 16-year-old French prospect Paul Pogba has been cleared up. FIFA have ruled that Manchester United did not contravene any FIFA regulations in their recruitment of the young midfielder specifically Article 19, which focuses on the protection of minors.

The UEFA Champions League is only in the group stage but realistically there are only a handful of teams who have a chance to win. So, who are the favorites to win and how are they looking so far? Here's a look at the favorites to win the Champions League trophy in May and their current form.

Wednesday night sees last years runners up Manchester United take centre stage, as they face Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg at Old Trafford. Both teams got off to a winning start in week one but with home advantage, it's United that will be under the most pressure to perform in week two.

The Champions League resumes this week with the fancied teams looking to extend their good starts and improve on their Champions League betting odds. All four English clubs won their first matches in the tournament, along with La Liga giants Real Madrid, while Barcelona and perennial dark horses Inter Milan shared the spoils in their San Siro clash.

Fortune and poor Portsmouth finishing rather contributed to Everton's three point haul. With one genuine shot at goal and nothing much else to discuss on the long drive home, I wonder why Moyes chooses to restrain the plethora of attacking options now available to him.

http://www.

UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services.