The teams:
Villa: Friedel, L. Young, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Petrov, Delph, Downing, Young,
Milner, Agbonlahor.
United: Van Der Sar, Evra, Brown, Evans, De Silva, Giggs, Carrick, Nani, Scholes,
Fletcher, Rooney.
No Heskey and no Carew for Villa, hurts a squad that is already struggling for goals in the EPL.
Teams 17-48, the 32 teams reamining in the Europa League.
17. Valencia (Spain) - Stars David Silva and David Villa have gone nowhere - yet
18. Juventus (Italy) - 0-3 home loss to Milan was a rough start to Juve's 2010
19. Roma (Italy) - Mirko Vucinic one of the more underrated players in Serie A
20.
European Football Rankings unveils its first set, starting with the 16 teams in the knockout stage
of the Champions League. Defending CL champion Barcelona heads the ranking.
1. Barcelona (Spain) - Yet to lose in La Liga
2. Chelsea (England) - Leaders of the EPL
3. Real Madrid (Spain) - Ronaldo move makes Madrid legit CL challenger
4.
Live updates of the Hamburg v. Bayern Munich match in the Bundes Liga begin at about 2:30 p.m. New
York time. The two teams played to a 2-2 draw on Aug. 15 in the opening match of the season.
Bayern is tied with Hoffenheim on 35 points for first place in the league table, but Hoffenheim
holds a 3-goal lead in goal differential.
Liverpool goes into the game three points behind leaders Manchester United at the top of the
English Premier League table. Robbie Keane, struggling to find a game with the Reds, is once again
on the bench.
Wigan sits in 7th place, but are now playing with a different squad after the sale of striker Emile
Heskey to Aston Villa and the anticipated sale of midfielder Wilson Palacios to Tottenham.
Olympique Lyonnais will carry the torch for France in the knockout round of the Champions League.
Bordeaux and Marseille also were in the group stage, but both clubs finished third and will be in
knockout round of the UEFA Cup.
Lyon - which has never advanced past the quarterfinals of the Champions League - took second in
their group with a +4 goal differential behind Bayern Munich.
Some big stories coming out of England in the last few days. First, Kaka is staying at Milan after
Milan rejected a 91-million pound offer. Tough to get exactly what happened, but that's the more
likely story as opposed to Milan wanting the move and Kaka himself rejecting it. It's also possible
that Robinho has reacted badly towards the news, but he says his walkout is just to take care of
family matters in Brazil.
Buducnost suffered a tough loss in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, the second
straight heart-breaking defeat in European competition for the Varvari (Buducnost's fans).
Buducnost qualified for Europe for the first time with a second place finish in the Montenegrin
First League in 2006/2007.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan took over Manchester City on transfer deadline day this season
and he and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak wasted no time in making an impact.
The club landed disgruntled Robinho for 32.5 million pounds from Rea Madrid, swooping in at the
last minute to take him away from Chelsea.
The Pilots as they are known are a relatively new team as the club was just founded in 1996.
Olimpik Baku earned its first UEFA Cup spot last year, and came very close to winning its first
tie.
Vojvodina Novi Sa of Serbia knocked the Pilots out in the first qualifying round by a 2-1 aggregate
score.
Valletta, last year's champions of the Maltese Premier League, are making another run at the title
this season. The 19-time champions sit two points behind Hibernians at the top of the league.
Valletta lost 3-0 aggregate in its Champions League first qualifiying round tie against Artmedia
Petrzalka of Slovakia.
We've found our new last place team. When I reshuffle my rankings toward the end of the season in
May, this side we'll have to be at the bottom, despite Estonia being some 12 spots away from the
bottom as a league. Why? Well, it's not because of their 8-0 aggregate loss to Nordsjaelland
(Denmark) in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.
Banants could miss out on Europe for the first time since the 2002-'03 season unless it wins the
Armenian cup, which runs from March-May.
That's because the club finished fifth in the 2008 Armenian Premier League, which runs from April
to November. Banants had a +9 goal differential, but still finished six points out of third place
and European qualification.
Three teams have gone at least eight points clear of the competition in the Welsh Premier League,
including The New Saints. TNS and Llanelli AFC both sit on 41 points, three behind leaders Rhyl,
with Llanelli holding the advantage because of more goals scored. Llanelli also has two games in
hand on TNS.
If you're wondering, "Who?", you're not alone. Inter and Jose Mourinho might be thinking
the same thing after Wednesday's Copa Italia tie, which Inter finally won 3-1 in extra time.
Scarpi, Genoa's seldom used Italian keeper, denied the likes of Adriano, Hernan Cruz and late sub
Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Adriano finally solved Scarpi, who earlier saved an Adriano penalty, with a header in the final 20
minutes.
