UEFA Champions League Season 2010/2011

[vanx]

The UEFA Champions League (usually referred to as simply the Champions League or historically as the European Cup) is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. The final of the competition is ? along with the NFL's Super Bowl ? the most watched annual sporting event worldwide, drawing just over 100 million television viewers.

Prior to 1992 the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs' Cup but was usually referred to as simply the European Cup or European Champions' Cup. The competition was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a round-robin group phase and more teams. Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams each for the competition. The UEFA Champions League should not be confused with the UEFA Europa League, formerly known as the UEFA Cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round. The 10 surviving teams join 22 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May. Since the tournament changed name and structure in 1992, no club has managed consecutive wins. The winner of the UEFA Champions League qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

The title has been won by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Real Madrid, who have won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested. Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie A are marginally the most successful leagues, having amassed 12 wins, between two and three clubs respectively. The English league has produced 11 winners from four clubs. English teams were controversially banned from the competition for five years following the events at Heysel in 1985. Internazionale are the current champions, having beaten Bayern Munich 2?0 in the 2010 final.

Group Stage Draw

Group Stage Fixtures

September 14th can't get here soon enough :D With mixed success for European national teams during the World Cup in South Africa, it will be intriguing to see what skill, strategy and drama will be showcased over the next 8 months :cool:

[Rappy Veteran]

certainly going to be an interesting year :D

[Rappy Veteran]

Ath.Madrid stunned Inter tonight! 2-0!

[Valerus]

Ath.Madrid stunned Inter tonight! 2-0!

I lol'd

[Rappy Veteran]

Spuds 1-0 up!

2-0!

Edited September 14, 2010 by Rappy

[Kostaz]

Lol @ Rangers fans inside Old Trafford currently singing . . 'Chelsea' over and again.

[Rappy Veteran]

Rangers are clearly playing for a draw :rofl:

[rajputwarrior]

Lol @ Rangers fans inside Old Trafford currently singing . . 'Chelsea' over and again.

:laugh: it's been a terribly boring game so far.

[Rappy Veteran]

that's Antonio Valencia done!

[acnpt]

**** Rangers, UEFA needs to take away both Scottish places. :laugh:

[Rappy Veteran]

Collymore on Talk Sport was saying Rangers are playing 1-9-1 formation :D

[Kralik]

Would be amazing if Gers somehow get a goal now..

[Rappy Veteran]

Valencia don't need Villa it seems!

[Anatolian]

Valencia don't need Villa it seems!

Bursaspor is very sh*t, it is interesting...

[Kostaz]

Gutted for Valencia,hope he gets better soon

[nothuman]

Does someone knows what happened to him? I watched the game but I didn't understood what was going on.

Boring game against a boring side, and we didn't managed to score...

[Kostaz]

Does someone knows what happened to him? I watched the game but I didn't understood what was going on.

Boring game against a boring side, and we didn't managed to score...

http://youtu.be/JJNsHlApNEc

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs606.snc4/58607_10150257490535462_707415461_14567977_5674568_n.jpg?ref=nf

Sky cameras pulled away from showing it once they realised how bad it was.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Olympique Lyon 1 - 0 Schalke 04.

Good.

[Rappy Veteran]

http://youtu.be/JJNsHlApNEc

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs606.snc4/58607_10150257490535462_707415461_14567977_5674568_n.jpg?ref=nf

Sky cameras pulled away from showing it once they realised how bad it was.

holy **** :|

[Kralik]

Thats the end of the season for Valencia then.. as an Arsenal fan who has seen this happen to one of our players for the past 2-3 years I hope he can recover and play again..

[Valerus]

I don't care about rivalries when it comes down to these types of injuries. I feel for the guy. Hoping for a speedy recovery for the lad.

[nothuman]

:cry:

Hope you come back boy!

[Kriz]

I would have been happy with a draw before the game, but considering we were 2 - 0 up i thought we should have gone on to beat bremen! Inter must be bricking it..

[yeoo_andy_ni]

As a Utd fan, it wasn't the most exciting game. Feel for Valencia, especially as it was a pretty routine, nothing, tackle.

Spurs can't complain. Okay, losing a 2 goal lead isn't great, but based on Inters performance, they've a great chance of progressing to the knockout stages.

It's too early to judge who is going to win though. The usual money will be on Barca and possibly R.Madrid, but I have a cheeky feeling Chelsea will really up their game to try and (finally) win the thing.

[lemonbear]

SAF is an idiot. Manchester were playing so slow, I almost think that he told them to not up the pace otherwise his weary old eyes wouldn't catch up. I was screaming at my TV for the entire game because of this **** draw.