champions league preview

it's back, and this time, it's spread over 4 weeks! i never understood why an organisation which is so driven by commercial considerations allowed its flagship club competition to be played under conditions which meant that fans couldn't see every game involving teams from their country. and pay for the privilege. inevitably, that has now been rectified.

i've always found the champions league vaguely troubling. on the one hand, it is another incorrectly titled, money-driven competition designed to consume the minds (and provide their owners with some new things to buy) of as many people as is televisually possible. this moral side of me, which disapproves of unregulated capitalism, reads the guardian, and is nice to animals, often finds voice in the musings of the incomparable david conn.

on the other hand, there's a voice (currently rising to a crescendo) that says fuck it, i'd rather have UEFA in charge than someone like richard scudamore. at least platini was beautiful on the pitch. and let's face it, 4 weeks of midweek european football is a manna from heaven for a loser like me. this way, i stand a pretty good chance of seeing every game. and i can drink heineken while i do it. fucking brilliant.

moral quandaries aside, here's a little look at this week's 1st legs...

ac milan v manchester united:

if ac milan are the foremost example of a traditional european institution in decline, then i would be tempted to argue that manchester united aren't as far behind as some people would like to believe. for iffy backup goalkeepers, read ben foster. for nesta, read an increasingly creaky ferdinand. for gattuso and ambrosini, read scholes and giggs. for huntelaar, read berbatov (both are overrated and overpriced).

team-by-team comparisons are weak, but i think you get the point- these teams aren't so different in a lot of ways, at least on paper. in pato, milan have a returning forward capable of getting at evans and ferdinand. ronaldinho's recent (in terms of the last month or so, we live in a 24 hour news cycle bitches) decline has been exaggerated, and he'll be aided by the return of his compatriot. those 2, along with thiago silva and nesta, are key for milan. if they stop rooney, and get at united early, it'll be a close one.

olympique lyon v real madrid

for all the money these 2 clubs spent over the summer, neither one has played exponentially better this season. indeed, lyon have entered something of a transitional phase following the departures of benzema and juninho. miralem pjanic looks capable of filling the shoes of the brazilian in time, but he's still young. a lot will rest on the form of lisandro, who is one of my favourite players to watch. quick, powerful, and inexplicably not in the picture for the argentina world cup squad, he can win this tie for lyon.

but madrid, for all their millions, have their own argentine striker to rely on, gonzalo higuain. i've been remiss in not blogging about his progress, because, along with rooney, he's the best centre-forward in europe at the moment. madrid are being talked up in spain as winners of the champions league, but don't be surprised if this one is closer than expected.

enjoy the games, and look for my wednesday preview sometime on, er, wednesday.