The Manchesters Falter, Lyon Pulls Off a Near Miracle

When one team from Manchester stepped on the pitch today they knew they would need a lot of help from an unlikely source to qualify. The other just needed a draw against a team from a country that had never produced a knock out stage participant. One team was in their first Champions League and was ahead in the domestic campaign, still in the League Cup and set up for a potential run in the FA Cup. The other has lost 3 of the last 4 final and was playing a team that is a homonym for a spice. Guess which team won? As you probably already know, Man City won their match against group winner Bayern Munich 2-0, but lost out as Napoli secured the points against Villareal (2-0 themselves, though they kept it until late, providing Man City with false hope for a time), the team that went without a point in six matches. So Man City leaves disappointed but having learned a valuable lesson from their first foray into European football. Manchester United, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to be the team we have come to expect this year. They simply needed a draw in Basil and instead lost 2-1 and are heading to the Europa League, which they might not even win given the presence of their crosstown rival. That crosstown rival could also eliminate them from the FA Cup in January and looks poised to take the league title away from them. And they can't even look to the consolation of the Carling Cup, since they were ignominiously eliminated by the lowly Crystal Palce. So what has happened to the Fergie magic? Don't count Man U out of the title race, of course, particularly if they pick up a player or two during the break, but their inability to put the ball in the net more than once a game has come back to haunt them, first against Newcastle and now in a match nearly everyone, including me, thought they would win. Crazy days. Arguably two of the best teams in the entire tournament will now be watching from the sidelines as they play against competition that their second teams should dispose of quite readily.

Perennial qualifier Lyon seemed destined to join them as they needed to overcome a 7 goal differential to secure qualification. And they did it! After going down 1-0 near the end of the first half, the team squared on the whistle and then scored 6 more to win 7-1, which combined with Real Madrid's 3-0 victory, completed what should have been the most unlikely result of the tournament so far except for the failure to launch of last year's 3-1 final loser Man U. Olypiakos was also left heartbroken as Marseille scored twice in the closing moments of the match to qualify themselves yesterday. So it has been an exciting tournament so far with Chelsea and Arsenal through and the two Manchesters out. Real became the only squad to complete a perfect qualifying round and is probably the slight favorite to win the crown, though Barca will probably have something to say about that. And, of course, I can't rule out my Gunners just yet. Onward!