European Cup competition continues this week with some tricky match ups for Italy. We will once again be keeping an eye out for how Germany, Portugal and France do as well.
Tuesday's Matches
Italy have a must win on Tuesday, Germany looks to continue their winning ways, France travels to Spain and Portugal faces mighty Barcelona and travels to Turkey.
Juventus, Serie A league leader and last season's Champion, take the torch and lead off for the Peninsula on Tuesday. They host Shakhtar Donetsk, who are currently leading the group after beating FC Nordsjælland 2-0 in Ukraine 2 weeks ago while Juventus scraped out a draw at Chelsea. A win is a must for the Old Lady as Chelsea travel to Denmark and have what surely must look like an easy match up.
Shakhtar played six Brazilians in their last match: Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa, Ilsinho, Alex Teixeira and Luiz Adriano, along with Romanian International Răzvan Raț. Armenian striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored both goals for Shakhtar.
Juventus is coming off a fairly easy win against Roma 4-1, after a hard fought draw with you know who.
Matches
Juve v Shakhtar 1-1 (result leaves them with 2 pts, Behind Chelsea and Shakhtar who have 4)
BATE Borisov v Bayern Munich(Germany) 3-1
Valencia v Lille(France) 2-0
Benfica(Portugal) v Barcelona 0-2
Galatasaray v Braga(Portugal) 0-2
FC Nordsjælland v Chelsea 0-4
Spartak Moscow v Celtic 2-3
CFR Cluj-Napoca v Manchester United 1-2
For the day
Italy +1 point (out of 2 possible)
Portugal +2 (out of 4 possible)
Germany 0 (out of 2 possible)
France 0 (out of 2 possible)
Wednesday Matches
Italy has a tough match on Wednesday, while Germany travel to Manchester for one match and face off with France in Schalke for a second. France's other match is a trip to Portugal, so there will be a lot of interesting co-efficient action on this day.
For Italy, AC Milan travels to Russia for a match with Zenit St Petersburg. Zenit are coming off a 3 goal loss to Malaga, while Milan drew Anderlecht 0-0 at the San Siro. Milan have had an abysmal start to the season (for them), currently residing in 11th place, but their draw has them in 2nd place in their group in the CL. At least a draw would seem to be necessary, given that they gave up home points last match, while Zenit will be starving for a result to stay in the group.
Matches
Zenit St Petersburg v AC Milan 2-3
FC Porto(Portugal) v Paris Saint-Germain(France) 1-0
Schalke 04(Germany) v Montpellier(France) 2-2
Manchester City v Borussia Dortmund(Germany) 1-1
Anderlecht v Málaga 0-3
Dynamo Kiev v Dinamo Zagreb 2-0
Arsenal v Olympiakos 3-1
Ajax Amsterdam v Real Madrid 1-4
For the day
Italy +2 point (out of 2 possible)
Portugal +2 (out of 2 possible)
Germany +2 (out of 4 possible)
France +1 (out of 4 possible)
For Champs League
Italy +3 point (out of 4 possible)
Portugal +4 (out of 6 possible)
Germany +2 (out of 6 possible)
France +1 (out of 6 possible)
Thursday Matches
Italy have what looks like two matches they should win, another that will be tough, but is very winnable and a fourth that most fans would say they have no chance in. Germany will most likely roll through the day, Portugal have three winnable matches and France have 2 winnable matches and the third, a trip to Newcastle.
Inter travel to Azerbaijan to play Neftchi Baku PFC and if they play the way they did this weekend that should be an easy win. If they get cute with the lineup or think they should win, however, it could be dicey. Their group is all even with 4 squads on 1 point.
Lazio host NK Maribor at in Rome. Maribor currently lead the group after they beat Panathinaikos at home last gameday. After a nice tie in England against the Hotspurs, one would think a win is a must for Lazio. Tottenham travel to Greece.
Napoli, tied for first in their group with Dnipro after their win at home against AIK, travel to The Netherlands for a dangerous match with PSV Eindhoven who are looking for their first points.
The final match for Italy is surely a loss as 15th place Udinese, with one pt in their group, travel to Scouserland and face off against Liverpool, who scored 5 goals in their first match in this competition and 5 goals in the EPL against Norwich City on the weekend. Liverpool did give up 5 goals in those two matches as well, so there is a potential for Udi to find the net, if they bother to field a lineup that doesn't include Andrea Lazzari and a bunch of unknowns.
Matches that apply to the Co-efficient
Liverpool v Udinese 2-3
PSV v Napoli 3-0
Neftchi v Inter 1-3
Lazio v NK Maribor 1-0
Académica de Coimbra(Portugal) v Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-1
Borussia Monchengladbach(Germany) v Fenerbahce 2-4
Marseille(France) v AEL 5-1
Club Brugge v Maritimo(Portugal) 2-0
Newcastle United v Bordeaux(France) 3-0
Molde v VfB Stuttgart(Germany) 2-0
Videoton FC Fehervar v Sporting Lisbon(Portugal) 3-0
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona v Lyon(France) 3-4
Rosenborg v Bayer Leverkusen(Germany) 0-1
Hannover 96(Germany) v Levante 2-1
For the day
Italy +6 point (out of 8 possible)
Portugal +1 (out of 6 possible)
Germany +4 (out of 8 possible)
France +4 (out of 6 possible)
For The Week
Italy +9 point (out of 12 possible)
Portugal +5 (out of 12 possible)
Germany +6 (out of 14 possible)
France +5 (out of 12 possible)
New Coefficient