The UEFA Europa League has a full set of group stage matches on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Some of the key matches include Genoa v Lille, Werder Bremen v Austria Vienna, Fenerbahce v Steaua Bucharest, and Toulouse v Shakhtar Donetsk. Free Live Sports TV will be providing live streams and coverage of all these matches.

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- How come nobody ever heard of you? I mean, how come you ain't got a reputation? (Support Your Local Sheriff!, 1969)

With the visibly terrified Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Jadson looking like he'd just been told that one of the small plastic spheres in his hand contained a hilarious paper snake on a spring – and a grinning Uwe Seeler looking like the man who'd put it there – August's draw for the group stages of this season's UEFA Europa League had the potential to be highly entertaining.

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- How come nobody ever heard of you? I mean, how come you ain't got a reputation? (Support Your Local Sheriff!, 1969)

With the visibly terrified Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Jadson looking like he'd just been told that one of the small plastic spheres in his hand contained a hilarious paper snake on a spring – and a grinning Uwe Seeler looking like the man who'd put it there – August's draw for the group stages of this season's UEFA Europa League had the potential to be highly entertaining.

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The 2009/2010 Europa League group stage draw, in full:

Group A: Ajax, Anderlecht, Dinamo Zagreb, Timisoara.

Group B: Valencia, Lille, Slavia Prague, Genoa.

Group C: Hamburg, Celtic, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Rapid Vienna.

Group D: Sporting, Heerenveen, Hertha Berlin, Ventspils.

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Arsenal striker Eduardo is in danger of facing a two-game suspension after UEFA determined that he was guilty of misleading the referee after his blatant dive during Arsenal's Champions League playoff vs. Celtic on Wednesday.

Here is the dive, in case you missed it the first time.

If suspended, Eduardo would miss Arsenal's first two Champions League group stage matches against Standard Leige on Sept.

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Arsenal striker Eduardo is in danger of facing a two-game suspension after UEFA determined that he was guilty of misleading the referee after his blatant dive during Arsenal's Champions League playoff vs. Celtic on Wednesday.

Here is the dive, in case you missed it the first time.

If suspended, Eduardo would miss Arsenal's first two Champions League group stage matches against Standard Leige on Sept.

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A fresh batch of news tidbits for the Colorado soccer fan. ...

PREKI FINED: Major League Soccer fined Chivas USA head coach Preki Radosavljevic $1,000 for inappropriate conduct directed toward match officials following Chivas USA's 3-1 U.S. Open Cup loss to the Charleston Battery on June 30.

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Kenny Cooper is leaving Major League Soccer to join the former home of Kansas City Wizards striker Josh Wolff. Cooper will join 1860 Munich for reportedly somewhere a little over $1 million.

What is FC Dallas going to do without Cooper? Without Cooper on the team Jeff Cunningham is the leading scorer with 4 goals on the season.

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Simon Kuper (of Football against the Enemy fame) has published a new book entitled "Why England Lose: and Other Curious Phenomena Explained." Jonathan Wilson reviewed it today on the Guardian's site and this bit actually made me say, "wow."
Quote: The book, it should be said, is quite magnificent, a sort of Freakonomics for football, using economic theory and methods to dispel myths and explain odd trends in the game. Click to continue reading...

A massive number of clubs are involved in the Second Qualifying Round (80 in total).

The winners of the 23 First Qualifying Round ties were joined in this round by a further 57 clubs that includes the domestic cup winners from the national associations ranked 30 to 53 in the UEFA coefficient, the runners-up from the associations ranked 19 to 34, the third-placed sides from the associations ranked 16 to 21, the fourth-placed sides from the associations ranked 10 to 15 and the fifth-placed sides from the associations ranked 7 to 9.

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Former Celtic reserve boss Willie McStay couldn't have asked for a tougher start to his new job as manager of Ujpest Dozsa than a Europa League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest.

After less than a month in the job McStay, and his assistant Joe McBride, travel to the Romanian capital hoping to cause a shock that would certainly be noticed around Europe.

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Stuff to read while you watch a not-quite-svelte Ronaldo score a hat trick..... A team worth shouting about: Athletic Bilbao. (SoccerLens) The ten most shocking transfers - nine of which come from the UK. (ESPN) Premier League might just lose its YouTube claims. (EPL Talk) The rise of Africa's regular tournament. Click to continue reading...

FC Steaua Bucureşti (or FC Steaua Bucharest) is a Romanian professional football club from Ghencea, south-west Bucharest. They are the most successful Romanian football team ever in European competitions as well in the Romanian Liga I (23 championship wins).They became the first east European team to win the European Cup being victorious in 1986 European Cup [. Click to continue reading...

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Third qualifying round draw:
Anorthosis/Rapid Vienna v Olympiakos
Vitoria Guimaraes v IFK Gothenburg/Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk v Domzale/Dinamo Zagreb
Schalke 04 v Atletico Madrid
Aalborg/Modrica v Rangers/Kaunas
Barcelona v Beitar Jerusalem/Wisla Krakow
Levski Sofia v Anderlecht/BATE
Standard Liege v Liverpool
Inter Baku/Partizan v Fenerbahce/MTK Budapest
FC Twente v Arsenal
Spartak Moscow v Drogheda/Dinamo Kiev
Juventus v Tampere/Artmedia
SK Brann/Ventspils v Marseille
Fiorentina v Slavia Prague
Galatasaray v Steaua Bucharest
Panathinaikos/Dinamo Tbilisi v Sheriff Tiraspol/Sparta Pragu
Thanks to BBC sport for the info. Click to continue reading...

Gigi Becali, aged 50, Romainian Steaua Bucharestowner was arrested for charges of kidnapping early Friday morning in Bucharest, Romania. The charges, kidnapping!  Becali, one of the richest men in Romania,  stated that three men stole his Mercedes earlier this year and were blackmailing him for a undisclosed amount. Click to continue reading...

Twenty-two minutes isn't long. Yet who knows how precious those short moments were to Ronaldo, finally back on a football pitch last week in Corinthians' 2-0 cup win over Itumbiara. After a year spent wrestling with the aftermath of more surgery and rehabilitation, and with the hurried panting of time becoming almost as loud in [. Click to continue reading...

The Turkish physical trainer of Steaua Bucharest has protested to FIFA after he was fired because he's a Muslim. Steaua owner Gigi Becali fired Yuksel Yesilova on Saturday saying he brought back luck to Steaua because of his religion.

Becali said: "Steaua is a Christian team and we had bad luck because of him.

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The Turkish physical trainer of Steaua Bucharest has protested to FIFA after he was fired because he's a Muslim. Steaua owner Gigi Becali fired Yuksel Yesilova on Saturday saying he brought back luck to Steaua because of his religion.

Becali said: "Steaua is a Christian team and we had bad luck because of him.

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Don't touch the ref. For most of the bright readers 'round these parts, this isn't exactly a revelation. Actually, if one was to take a poll at a local zoo, you probably wouldn't find too many wide eyes until stumbling upon the lemur cage. Not the case for Oleksandr Aliev, who pushed the ref away and [. Click to continue reading...

Steaua Bucharest coach wants to share his chewing gum with you We have all at some point found ourselves sick of the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson chomping away on his chewing gum like a man eager to dislocate his bottom jaw from the rest of his head, but at least he never does this. Steaua [...] Click to continue reading...

Second consecutive draw for Fiorentina in the UEFA Champions League. The Viola could not do better than a 0-0 result on Tuesday, blocked by a tough & well-organized Steaua Bucharest side, surprising not only in their disciplined defensive organization but also with their fair share of technical players (above all, António Semedo, Banel Nicolita, and [. Click to continue reading...

For Champions League Matchday 2 we're going to try something a little different. Rather than LiveBlogging just the one game here on the front page, we're going to do an all inclusive LiveBlogaganza to try and follow all eight games simultaneously. Foolish? Probably. But the plan is to have a place where we can discuss [. Click to continue reading...

Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann is preparing for Tuesday's Champions League clash against Olympique Lyon with the pressure already mounting on the former German national team boss.
The German champions are off to their worst start to a Bundesliga season in 31 years, winning just two of their opening six games as Klinsmann's side followed up a 5-2 home hammering by Werder Bremen with a shock 1-0 loss at Hanover at the weekend. Click to continue reading...

Week 2: Group F: Uefa Champions League AC Fiorentina are meeting Steaua Bucharest in the second round of the Champions League, tuesday 30th. Don`t forget to sign up 11×2.com - the next big football site   Watch the match LIVE here! Click to continue reading...

Bayern Munich were humiliated 5-2 on Saturday by Werder Bremen as the Bundesliga champions suffered one of their worst home defeats.
Markus Rosenberg struck twice, with Naldo, teenage sensation Mesut Ozil and Claudio Pizarro also on target for Bremen en route to a 5-0 lead against a disastrous Munich back row. Click to continue reading...

Man Utd vs Villarreal - Group E Man Utd Offside preview Man Utd vs Villarreal LiveBlog Celtic vs AaB - Group E Celtic Offside preview Steaua Bucharest vs Bayern Munich - Group F Lyon vs Fiorentina - Group F Lyon Offside preview - Fiorentina Offside preview Lyon vs Fiorentina LiveBlog on CL Offside Porto vs Fenerbahce - Group G Porto Offside preview - Fenerbahce Offside [. Click to continue reading...

The UEFA Champions League action continues today across Europe, just a day after some shocking results turned the tournamant on its ear.

Roma's stunning loss to CFR Cluj and Werder Bremen's tie vs. Anorthosis Famagusta have all the remaining match favorites focusing a little more closely today.

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Week 1: Group F: Uefa Champions League: Steaua Bucharest are meeting Steaua Bucharest in their first match in the Champions League this year, wednesday 17th. Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today   Don`t forget to sign up 11×2.com - the next big football site WATCH THE MATCH LIVE HERE! Click to continue reading...

So this is what happens when you go to play for Steaua Bucharest?
Check out former FC Dallas star Juan Toja, hopefully at a costume party or something...
(HT to Kickette and theoriginalwinger) Click to continue reading...

At half-time in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul, Jamie Carragher found himself staring into the abyss.
AC Milan had just produced a spell-binding 45 minutes of football to leave Liverpool trailing by three goals to nil.
All hopes of winning a fifth European Cup had seemingly been extinguished as Carragher and his team-mates walked into the dressing room for Rafa Benitez's half-time team talk. Click to continue reading...

For the first time in 3 years, the Italian Serie A managed to get 4 Clubs to the UEFA Champions League Group Stage. With the DRAW taking place yesterday, "someone came out smiling" and others not so much. "Four Italian teams and four levels of satisfaction" as Gazzetta would say. Let's have a look. . Click to continue reading...

Let's take a look see.
GROUP A -- easy advance for the top two clubs
Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, Cluj
GROUP B -- a breeze for Inter, nice cool, breeze
Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, Cypriot
GROUP C -- Barca has no worries, none at all
Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, Basle, Shakhtar Donetsk
GROUP D -- Reds could be in deep, deep trouble
Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, PSV Eindhoven, Marseilles
GROUP E -- United should be fine, key word: should
Manchester United, Celtic, Villareal, Aalborg
GROUP F -- wide, wide open group here
Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina
GROUP G -- Arsenal could be tested here. Click to continue reading...

By now you probably know about UEFA's group stage draw for their signature club event, the Champions League (cue that stupid music they adopted as the Champions League anthem). We could just cut and paste the groups like a lot of other bloggers did, but seriously, what good would that do you, our loyal readers? Click to continue reading...

A: Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, Cluj B: Internazionale, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, Anorthosis Famagusta C: Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, Basel, Shaktar Donesk D: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Atlético Madrid E: Man Utd, Villarreal, Celtic, Aalborg BK F: Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina G: Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kiev H: Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg, FC BATE Borisov Click to continue reading...

A: Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, Cluj
B: Internazionale Milan, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, Anorthosis
C: Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk
D: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Atletico Madrid
E: Manchester United, Villarreal, Celtic, Aalborg
F: Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina
G: Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kiev
H: Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St. Click to continue reading...