Europe News Archives

In June, 16 of Europe’s best national sides will descend upon Austria and Switzerland for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, or as most people call it, Euro 2008. While many of the continent’s top teams will be on display, some of Europe’s - and the world’s - best will be as well, so even if your team isn’t in it, you still have plenty reason to watch.

With that in mind and before the tournament begins, we (as in I) have conjured up the juggernaut of juggernauts, an All-Star Euro 2008 Starting XI.

There are several players you won’t see on this list, like Francesco Totti, Fernando Torres, and others, but I compiled this list with one major rule - no more than two players from one country, for the sake of diversity. Keeping that rule in mind, I did try to include the best players, both promising youngsters and experienced stalwarts alike. So, while all of the names below are recognizable, you may not agree with all of the selections. Then again, you’re not supposed to.
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With now only 8 teams remaining in each respective tournament, UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon (Switzerland) will host the draws on Friday afternoon for the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals of the 2007/08 UEFA club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup.

The UEFA Champions League draw will be made at 13.00CET and conducted by the UEFA General Secretary (David Taylor) and the ambassador for the final in Moscow on May 21^st (Russian goalkeeping legend Rinat Dasaev). The UEFA Cup draw will follow at 14.00CET and will be conducted by Mr Taylor and the ambassador for the May 14^th final in Manchester (1964 European Footballer of the Year Denis Law).

Soccerlens brought to you the draw LIVE as each of the 4 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup matches were drawn. FULL RESULTS after the jump
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There are two things that I share a great passion for - food and football.

So, what better than to combine the two? Here are the clashes over the next few days that I’ll be cleansing my football palette with, complete with a few recipes and recommendations sure to tickle the taste buds as well.

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The G-14 knew what they wanted all along, it just took eight years and the presumed dissolution of their organization to get it.

Platini called for the “elitest” G-14 to disband last year, but it wasn’t until Tuesday that he got his wish. UEFA, FIFA, and the G-14 signed a letter of intent, setting out a dissolution of the G-14, including all of its legal claims. This letter of intent paves the way for another association not unlike the G-14 except, perhaps, in membership. Already called the European Club Association, this is good news for smaller clubs who, though their interests may have ultimately been represented by the G-14, were not official members.

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Real Madrid and FC Barcelona would be hammer and nail at each other as always for La Liga title, Atletico Madrid should possibly be there barging onto the duopoly, Villarreal, Real Zaragoza and Sevilla FC would be trying to smother each other for the remaining UEFA Champions League place.

That was the popular conviction at the start of the season and although a sly glance at the league table confirms that such predictions haven’t been wholly wrong, there’s one piece of the jigsaw that refuses to fit. And that piece is a certain Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona, the other Catalan club long submerged in the shadows of their more illustrious, more popular, more acclaimed FC Barcelona.

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It’s time to take a trip around Europe once again to see how some of the other leagues in the continent are shaking out as we head towards the new year (you did know that there was football beyond the English Premier League, right?).

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The draw for the 1^st knockout round (Round of 16) of the UEFA Champions League took place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, today at 12:00 CET (11:00 UK time).

Soccerlens brought you the draw LIVE as each of the 8 matches was being drawn.

The biggest matches of the Round of 16: Arsenal vs. AC Milan, AS Roma vs. Real Madrid, and Liverpool vs. Inter Milan!!!! Full draw after the jump.

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Matchday 6 of the UEFA Champions League wrapped up this week, in an atmosphere of semi-indifference for 3 of the 4 Serie A teams still in contention. Indeed, with AC Milan, Inter Milan, and AS Roma already through to the next round, the only team left fighting for their lives were Lazio, hanging by a very thin thread and hoping in an unlikely win on away soil at the Santiago Bernabéu. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for the Biancocelesti who were forced to concede a 3-1 victory to the Spaniards, and by the same token were eliminated from Europe completely (not even a UEFA Cup consolation).

In the other matches, Group F still provided a bit of suspense somewhat. Firstly because despite both teams were already qualified, Roma and Man Utd were fighting for the lead of the group. But more importantly (as everyone will surely remember), the Giallorossi were trying to erase that 7-1 defeat in the 2006-07 season at Old Trafford, which still felt like an open wound in the eyes of many Roma supporters, and provided an easy argument for mockery for many Man Utd fans.

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Our European tour starts in France, where Lyon, as is to be expected by now, are standing alone atop the Ligue 1 standings, but aren’t running away with their seventh straight title just yet.

With their upcoming Champions League clash with Rangers in mind, Lyon manager Alain Perrin sat several key players for Saturday’s tie at Caen, and as a result, may have sacrificed three points, as the home side used an early goal to pick up a 1-0 victory.

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The 18 clubs comprising the high-powered, highly influential, filthy rich and extremely pompous and self-involved G14 plan to expand their group in order to create a ‘representative lobby group’ that can challenge the madness that Platini is aiming to inflict on Europe.

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Everybody’s quite worked up over the Uefa-Liverpool tiff on the behavior of Liverpool supporters at the Champions League final in Athens some 2 weeks ago.

The BBC has, as usual, done a good job of collecting the quotes from all the interested parties, so for a quick refresher go read that.

To me, the situation smacks of ridiculous stands on both sides and an argument that has turned into England vs Europe quite needlessly.

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With Marseille qualifying for the Champions League, Ribery’s asking price has shot up to 20m at least.

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I’m not going to pretend that I like United. I’m sorry, but I’m an Arsenal supporter and that’s just the way it is.

However, them being knocked out of the Champion’s league semi final and vanquishing all hopes of another treble to add to the trophy cabinet wasn’t what gave me the greatest pleasure tonight.

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With Liverpool FC ahead by a very comfortable 3-0 margin following the first leg in their UEFA Champion’s League quarterfinal match with PSV Eindhoven, the club took an opportunity to rest some of their stars in Wednesday’s second leg.

Their biggest star, however, didn’t have the afternoon off as striker Peter Crouch scored the lone goal in their second leg matchup with PSV Eindhoven.

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It’s official - another 90 minutes, another boring game but Liverpool fans won’t mind, their side are through to the Champions League semifinals for the second time in three years.

Can they go to Athens?

If they do, they’ll either meet Manchester United or Milan - teams with which Liverpool has a lot of history.

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Tired as I am of all these pointless rumours, the current crop, and especially that of Senna, worth mentioning in light of what I said earlier today on Manchester United buying further reinforcements for the midfield and attack.

We know that we still need to replace Keano with a holding midfielder, and we now also have to replace Ruud. Will Tevez and Senna provide the right answers?

And more importantly, will they even come?

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It’s almost time.

When Arsenal and Villarreal go head to head in two hours time, I can’t for a second imagine which team will fight harder for the win, with Villarreal being in the competition for the first time and Arsenal having suffered heartbreak after heartbreak for so many years. The betting odds (for now) still favor a home win, but maybe this has to do more with Arsenal’s reputation of choking under-performing in the Champions League than with Villarreal’s chances of winning the tie?

And even if Villarreal do end up beating Arsenal, they would have to do so with at least 3 goals because you expect Arsenal to put at least one away in such a high-profile match. And that’s before you think about Arsenal’s defensive record in the Champions League which has been excellent this season, with the Gunners not having conceded a goal for 9 games.

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