The Thursday Treatise: Bhoys Beat Themselves

A pair of fatal errors cost Celtic their Champions League match with Barcelona at Parkhead yesterday. The result, a 3-2 home loss, will be extremely difficult for Hoops to make up in the return leg. Difficult, and if Gordon Strachan is to be believed, unlikely ("I wouldn't bet the house on it," were his exact words, when asked if his team could come up with the 2-0 win necessary to advance). Speaking of beating themselves, Fenerbahce won their game with Sevilla, but sloppy defending cost them two goals, which may have just left the Andalusian side too much of a window. Arsenal were unlucky to not beat Milan and the scoreless tie leaves the rossoneri needing to score just once and put 11 men behind the ball in the return leg at San Siro. In the fourth Champs League game, Man. United likely did enough (a 1-1 tie at Lyon) to make it through to the next round.

In the Southern hemisphere, the Copa Libertadores completed its first round of group stage play. Some mild upsets to tell you about there, as Fluminense and Boca Juniors (two of the more storied teams in South America) failed to win away games against seemingly inferior opponents. Boca played a 1-1 tie at Venezuela's Maracaibo and Fluminense's match at LDU de Quito finished scoreless. So Venezuelan teams have put on a solid showing so far (the second one, Caracas FC, beat San Lorenzo last week), while Argentine teams have been largely crap--although Arsenal de Sarandi did win their game with Paraguay's Libertad today. Still, that's just two victories, one tie and three losses for the six Argentine clubs in the Copa Lib thus far. Mexican teams, meanwhile, are 2-0 after Club America's victory over Chile's Universidad Catolica tonight. The Aguillas got a stoppage time goal to clinch the victory. Earlier an amazing freekick goal tied it up for the Santiago side. Check it out on YouTube if you can. Even the Mexican commentators conceded it was "un golazo por cierto," which I think means they liked it. By the way, why didn't Guillermo Ochoa play for America tonight? The guy who replaced him played really well though. Actually, I'm just realizing not all teams have played yet because Atlas and Colo Colo face off tomorrow in the first group stage encounter for either side. So we have something to look forward to tomorrow. Besides the UEFA Cup that is.

Photo taken from dailymail.co.uk without permission.