1. 6-0 to the Arsenal just doesn't have the same ring to it, but if they keep hitting that scoreline it might take off soon. 2. Presumably Andrey Arshavin was attempting to cross the ball when he scored since everything else he did in the first half was wayward. 3. Marouane Chamakh should get a [...]

IF and that is a big if, media reports are correct and Carlos Vela is not even in the provisional squad for tomorrow nights Carling Cup tie against Newcastle then big questions must start being asked over his Arsenal future.

Vela was not in the squad for the game against Shakhtar Donetsk and was again frozen out against Man City at the weekend, he played for the reserves instead of the Donetsk tie but after playing against Spurs in the last round of the Carling Cup it was expected that he would resume that role tomorrow.

The Game Look at the Premier League table as much as you want, look at the fact that we're still in all competitions but this, plain and simple, is crisis. I don't want to sound disrespectful to ...

Goalkeepers: Eduardo (Sp. Braga); Daniel Fernandes (Iraklis) e Beto (F.C. Porto) Defenders: Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea), Miguel (Valencia), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea), Bruno Alves (F.C. Porto), Rolando (F.C. Porto), ...

With the chances of Manchester United making a big name signing this summer receding faster than England's chances of ever winning another World Cup, attention should turn to some of the outstanding...
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CL Highlights: Arsenal/Braga

Arsenal began their 2010-11 Champions League campaign with a home match against SC Braga. Rather than ruin some of the reader's day by providing a spoiler of what happened, feel free to watch the highlights of the game in the above video.

Share your observations about the game and the highlights in the comments section below.

Yes, we're only a few games into the season, and despite thumping Braga and Blackpool at home, it hasn't being all that impressive. We're still suspect at the back, and tending to play a pass too many in front of goal. It makes one wonder have any lessons from last season been learnt?! Well, one player who has learnt buckets from last season is our whizzkid Jack Wilshere.

Arsene Wenger is set to give Danish Striker Nicklas Bendtner a start in tonight's Champions League game in the Portuguese Braga in his regular 4-3-3 formation. The Boss has spoken before tonight's game which will be played in an unfamiliar surroundings for the travelling Arsenal fans as the stadium only has 3 stands.

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Last one out of Robertson Stadium, turn off the lights, eh?

It's not exactly that dire, but the club from South Texas finds itself in a state of alarming flux. Let's look at the score sheet:

Ricardo Clark, the team's rock in midfield, is reportedly in the final stages of signing with Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.

The Taca De Portugal Round 16 action took place today as teams looked to move to the quarter finals. Sporting got a scare from minnows Mafra as Sporting jumped to a 4-1 lead before Mafra clawed their way back to lose 4-3. Sporting's goals came from Matias Fernandez, Carrico, Carlos Saleiro and Yannick while Mafra got a hat trick from Chengdong.

O Benfica vai ganhar a Liga portuguesa, isto de acordo com a maioria dos leitores que participaram na votação que esteve aberta durante o mês de Março.
Assim, 43 dos 77 leitores escolheram a equipa treinada por Jorge Jesus, com o Braga a recolher 18 votos e o FC POrto 16.
Entretanto, está aberta nova votação sobre quem será o melhor marcador da competição.

Braga's Hugo Viana is out of action for a least one week and maybe more after suffering a bruised left thigh and left sprained ankle during Saturday's match against Uniao de Leiria. Viana who is on loan from Valencia has scored 4 goals in the Portuguese League this season.

With so many of the 'big guns' misfiring at this summer's World Cup, I thought it was high time to take a look at some of the 'lesser lights' that have sparkled in South Africa.

Below are the 20 players that, although having seen their sides crash (some more spectacularly than others) out of the tournament prematurely, can fly home from whichever luxury hotel they may have chosen to hole up in, with their heads held high safe in the knowledge that their careers are very much on an upward trajectory.

According to reports in Lisbon, Arsenal are looking to bring Portugal international goalkeeper Eduardo.

I first heard about this via mbal.org.uk and decided to do a little bit of digging.

It is understood that the representatives of Eduardo are looking to the Premiership in a bid to further his career after what has been a very good World Cup for him personally, despite the failings of the Portugal national team.

Hello on a boiling hot south-eastern England afternoon.

Sky Sports seem adamant that Arsenal are looking at Slovenia goalkeeper Samir Handanovic who had a pretty impressive World Cup. He has played for Udinese for most of his career and is pretty highly rated in Italy, after all they would know a decent keeper when they see one after having had the quality of Buffon and Toldo down the years.

Qualifying for the 2011 Champions League is almost done. There are 22 teams confirmed for the big money 32 team group stage, and the field for those final 10 spots was narrowed tonight with the conclusion of the Third Qualifying Round, which saw a couple of familiar names bow out earlier than planned.

By Ollie Irish

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Celtic's Shaun Maloney and Bragas Osorio Alan during the Champions League, third qualifying round, second leg at Celtic Park, Glasgow.

After the spirit-crushing 3-0 defeat at Braga in the first leg, Celtic's Champions League adventure was over almost before it kicked off.

By Dominic Vieira, writing from Lisbon

The Portuguese league lifted off last weekend with few goals but many unexpected wins. There were surprise defeats for defending champions Benfica and city rivals Sporting. Title challengers FC Porto and Braga were victorious.

By Dominic Vieira, writing from Lisbon

The Portuguese league lifted off last weekend with few goals but many unexpected wins. There were surprise defeats for defending champions Benfica and city rivals Sporting. Title challengers FC Porto and Braga were victorious.

Sporting Clube de Braga, commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club, from the city of Braga. The club currently campaigns in the top-tier of Portuguese soccer, the Portuguese Liga. SC Braga has been on the ascendancy in recent years with a UEFA Intertoto Cup title in 2008 and their [.

Your intrepid writer and the better half, inside Braga's stunning grounds during Euro 2004.

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Swappin' and shoppin' on a Wednesday while taking in all this Champions League as joyness fills my heart, here's what I'm buying and selling:

Buying:

The 4-2-3-1 formation.

Arsenal's search for a center back to pair up with Thomas Vermaelen has led them to French international and present Sevilla defender Sebastien Squillaci. The Spanish club confirmed that they had been approached by Arsenal but their present valuation of £8million were not met.

All sorts of speculation was set in motion as the player failed to show against Braga in the Europa Cup but the club website set the record right:

"The player asked not to play because of the offer from such a big team but, for the moment, we believe the offer is insufficient and Squillaci is still a Sevilla player," said Sevilla sporting director Ramon Rodriguez.

Xabi Alonso takes a dive Tuning in to last night's Champions League play off between Braga and Sevilla, the first action as I turn on is a player wail in agony and a foul given. Followed by a replay of what I can only describe as a clean tackle, if not the slightest of touches to [...]

The Spanish season started this week, sort of. It was the two game final of the Spanish Supercopa which pits the winner of La Liga against the winner of the Copa del Rey which meant Barcelona vs Sevilla.

The first leg saw Guardiola start four Barca B players with all of the Spanish World Cup winners rested.

Five Champions League playoffs were decided yesterday, and five more will be decided today. Winners advance to the Champions League group stage (or: the Champions League proper, if we're being honest) while losers fall through the trap door into the Europa League, screaming "Aaaaarrrrghhh!" all the way down.

Year by year it seems the draws for various competitions become more drawn out as a result of various vacuous pieces of bullsh*t that no one really cares for, the problem is you care about the outcome of the draw so you watch on regardless, getting progressively irate as Michel Platini drones on whilst admiring his plump pomposity in the mirror.

Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

The Guardian looks at the Champions League Draw and how the English clubs (4) are placed: English clubs largely had reasons to be pleased with the draw for the Champions League group stages, which took place in Monaco this afternoon. Manchester United will travel to Scotland to take on Sir Alex Ferguson's former club Rangers with Valencia and the Turkish champions Bursaspor completing Group C.

The Champions League Group Stage draw is now complete and we have found out who Benfica and Braga will be paired with in their Groups that kick off on September 14 and 15 with Benfica hosting Hapoel Tel Aviv and Braga on the road to Arsenal.The Groups Breakdown:Group A- Inter, Werder Bremen, Tottenham, TwenteGroup B- Lyon, BENFICA, Schalke, Hapoel Tel AvivGroup C- Man United, Valencia,

Real Madrid decided to let go of another promising teenager as they sold Pablo Sarabia to Liga Zon Sagres runners-up SC Braga. The move will cost the Portuguese club €3m and will be completed in January during the transfer window. The Spaniard is the fourth high profile youngster to leave the Bernabeu and follows the footsteps of Alipio, Marcos Alonso and Rodrigo.

If you, like me, don't follow the Portuguese league or the early stages of the Champions League then you probably don't know much about Braga. That's the reason I was quite interested in listening to Arsene's opinion about our opponents on Wednesday night. These are the points I got from the press conference,

Braga are team that is physically strong, well organized, play with quick transition from defence to offence, and are good with shots from distance.

22 February 2011:
Copenhagen vs. Chelsea
Lyon vs. Real Madrid

The Champions League knockouts continue. Join the conversation below before, during and after the matches. The liveblog will start at 18:45 GMT, 1 hour before the matches kick off. You can sign up below for an email reminder.

As from the start of the 2010/2011 season, The Gunning Hawk can no longer embed match video highlights inside articles so all we can provide to our readers are links to websites which have uploaded ...

This was one of those rare games that falls in the category, Easier Done Than Said. Many expected Braga to put up a stronger challenge. Given their wins over Celtic and Sevilla in the qualifying stages it was a justified opinion. I thought the occasion, first time ever in the Champions League, got to them.

Chelsea strolled to a comfortable win away from home Wednesday in their opening game of the 2010-11 Champions League journey.

Despite some early scares in the game, Chelsea were soon able to cruise to victory thanks to goals from Michael Essien (again), two from Nicolas Anelka and one from Daniel Sturridge.

Most ties this week look fairly underwhelming on paper next to the classic Manchester United v. Liverpool match. But don't let that fool you into thinking that the Stoke City v. West Ham United match is going to be a massive sleeper. Other matches could very well end in tear-jerking boredom, while sum could very well experience an unforeseen upset presented to the football world.

I was looking around the net and this article by Robbie Savage caught my attention. The article written by Savage (and you have to ask what the hell does he know about football in the first place and what he has achieved to warrant a coloumn in the National Press) states that Chelsea were boring on Wednesday in the Champions League along with the Arsenal.

Absolutely no-one in the world predicted that West Brom would beat Arsenal at the Emirates last weekend, so the quicker we draw the line under that one and forget it the better. So quickly on..... Tonights Champions League match at Partizan Belgrade could never be as easy as the 6-0 win over Braga, but surely the [.

What a game! I don't think I've enjoyed any other game this season as I enjoyed this one. The wins against Blackpool and Braga were fantastic and there were some other entertaining displays but I felt this game was the best exhibition of football.

For this I must congratulate Shakhtar for their contribution.

The U.S. National Team is ready to travel back to South Africa, this time to face Bafana Bafana in the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup. As of Thursday, Bob Bradley has announced the squad of 18 that will be heading to Cape Town. Let's take a look:

The two goalkeepers who will be going with the squad are Brad Guzan of Aston Villa and 24 year old Dominic Cervi, who currently is a reserve over at Scottish giants Celtic.

As from the start of the 2010/2011 season, The Gunning Hawk can no longer embed match video highlights inside articles so all we can provide to our readers are links to websites which have uploaded ...