Arsenal should beat Olympiakos tonight, perhaps comfortably.
A 2-0 cruise will do against a team who may just prove to be the second best side in Group H.
Van Persie really needed that goal at Fulham and will be ready to score another, although Eduardo or Fabregas might score before he does. Don’t rule out Vermaelen and Gallas.
Complacency is dangerous in football, as Chelsea found out at Wigan, where they lost 3-1, but tonight looks like a routine Group Stage game. A big one for rookie keeper Vito Mannone. Good luck, Vito. Arsenal badly need a proper goalkeeper and this is your chance. Tell Diaby to stay out of your penalty area.
The Greek dangerman could be Vasseli Torisidis, a rangy and mobile midfielder who can get his head or foot on the end of a cross. We all know that Greek football is very average, on the whole. So don’t expect too much excitement.
Nicklas Bendtner will be absent following his car crash.
The Dane, who found time to tell us all about his pink boots in an interview, and almost lost his trousers outside a nightclub last May, has continued to be a foolish and spoiled young man.
He said his lucky number is 7, so he changed his shirt number to 52 because 5 and 2 make 7. What a prat ! Such nonsense would not be allowed at Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea or any proper club. Now we find that he drives a black Aston Martin, perhaps thinking he is James Bond, but pranged it on the A1 near Colney, hitting a hard shoulder fence and a tree. His injuries were minor, only a grazed knee and a sore shoulder.
So that’s your No.52 for you : a kid who can’t keep his trousers up at 4.a.m and can’t even drive in to work at 10.15 a.m. You are being asked to respect this guy and look up to him.
With Fernando Torres on fire, and Kuyt knocking in a few goals in Europe too, Liverpool are strong enough to edge a victory at Fiorentina tonight.
I expect Barcelona to annihilate Dinamo Kiev. Ibra and Messi are linking, sharing, scoring, looking good
Rangers are dire, an embarrassment to the Champions League, as Sevilla strikers Luis Fabiano and Freddie Kanoute should prove at Ibrox tonight.
In fact Wednesday night’s games are more interesting than Tuesday’s.
Bayern’s lively wingers Ribery and Arjen Robben have sparked each other and will give Juventus a good test. Bayern and Juventus have met four times previously and Juventus have won three times.
New coach Ciro Ferrara, the club’s former iron man centreback, has a squad that’s good enough to win Serie A. Ferrara was converted from right back to centreback by Juve coach Marcelo Lippi, who had coached him way back in 1993 when Fererra was playing for Napoli. Lippi used Ferrara as one of his assistants when Italy won the World Cup in 2006.
Juve’s Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo will need to watch his behaviour in this game. He can be a bit volatile in the skirmishes. Diego, another Brazilian, has joined from Werder Bremen and will know Bayern’s weak points, if any.
Manchester United face Wolfsburg, the German champions, who lost their coach Felix Magath to Schalke in the summer.
Wolfsburg are better than any of the teams in Arsenal’s Group H. Late-developer Grafite, a big Brazilian striker, partners rangy Bosnian goal-machine Edin Dzeko. Grafite only signed with a professional club at the age of 22. Before that he was selling plastic rubbish bags in the streets of rural Sao Paulo. It will be interesting to see what those two can do against Vidic and Ferdinand.
I’m counting on Wayne Rooney to score or make the goals that keep the red devils on track. Maybe Berbatov will bamboozle Wolfsburg with his trickery. The Bulgarian knows German football very well.
Real Madrid v Marseilles should provide goals and I hope Benzema plays.
Marseilles lost to AC Milan on Matchday 1, so they would love to sneak a point. Heinze and Morientes are former Real Madrid players. Mamadou Niang is 10-1 to score the first goal while Cristiano is 3-1.
Many years ago I wrote on ANR, partly as a joke, that the Champions League is all about whether my Brazilians are better than your Brazilians.
Kaka is the best Brazilian but Diego and Luis Fabiano could make headlines too.
I don’t think Inter Milan will win the Champions league but they have Maicon, Lucio and keeper Julio Cesar, three of the very best Brazilians. Stranger things have happened and Jose Mourinho is no stranger to this competition.
Inter visit Russian champions Rubin Kazan in a 5.30 kick-off today.
Kazan is the capital of the small Russian republic of Tatarstan, which has only 3.7 million people. For them to be visited by such a galaxy of football stars is thrilling, unprecedented and historic. The town is so remote that big teams never even play friendlies there.
Like Zenit, they won the Russian League last November, so they’ve had to wait a long time for this reward. Rubin are still top of their league and might even beat the big boys from Moscow again this term.