Champions League 2012-13: All 32 arrived

As it is easy to notice, we are full house now – the last 10 teams have joined to complete the final list of 2012-13 Champions League group stage. The 32 teams represent 17 European countries. Spain and England have 4 participants; Germany, France and Portugal will send 3 teams; Italy, Ukraine and Russia will have 2 and Netherlands, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Denmark, Greece and Scotland – 1 representatives. The draw will take place on Thursday, the results of which we will discuss next week.

But before the draw,

let’s take a look at some interesting moments of the past weekend. 

Ajax scored some other 5 goals in the 3rd day of Eredivisie. Two new names appeared on the scoreboard. Ajax has now got 11 different goalscorers in their four official matches this season. 

The English Premier League is led by the Champions of Europe, who have nine points after three matches. Arsenal has yet to score a goal without Robin van Persie, who just scored his first supergoal for Manchester United. 

French champions Montpellier didn’t manage to win again, losing to Marseille at home. Now they are 18th in the league. Next week they will try to get their first win playing against Sochaux, the team which has lost three out of three matches so far. PSG didn’t get a win either – the third draw in a raw: this time against Bordeaux. 

The most exciting of all was meant to happen there, where nobody expected. Barcelona and Real Madrid had to win their matches easily and move on to their Super Cup match, but it didn’t go that way. Barcelona almost got upset at Pamplona, where Osasuna was closer to make the score 2-0, than Barca – to equalize. 15 minutes before the match Messi scored a controversial goal, which not only deprived the home side of a hope to win, but also their captain, who was expulsed by the referee for being too passionate in arguing about the goal. It was a matter of time for Messi to bring the victorious goal, which he did in class. 2-1 was the final score.

The opposite scenario developed in the match, where Getafe was losing to Real. And again, the last quarter changed everything. Barrada scored the winner for Getafe and Fabio Coentrao got sent off for insulting the referee. Jose Mourinho will have a lot to explain his team before they go for their first win in the League.

Late last night Real Madrid clinched the victory in the Spanish Super Cup. The capital city team won 2-1 and took the trophy thanks to an away goal. Higuain scored his 3^rd goal in the official matches thanks to a mistake by Mascherano. Later on the superheroes of modern football exchanged beautiful but different goals. Cristiano Ronaldo took the advantage of his right foot, first using his heel to confuse Pique and then bombarding Valdez’s goal. Messi’s goal came from a direct free kick. There is almost no doubt that the next season will also start with an El Classico. But for the rest of the starting season there are at least two of such left, with a potential of Champions League and Copa del Rey bonuses.

The third Champions League team didn’t have an easy walk either. Roberto Soldado could become the sole hero of the evening, but the Primera newcomers from La Coruna didn’t surrender after the fantastic Valencia captain had scored twice. Super Depor made an effort to escape from a defeat and they succeeded. Three goals against three, with plenty of beautiful goals scored.

The same score was registered in the big match in Istanbul. The Turkish champions came back in the score all three times thanks to goals by Elmander, Umut Bulut and Selcuk Inan in the Besiktas-Galatasaray derby. There is an exciting trend in all of the three Galatasaray official matches, as the team scores crucial goals in the dying moments with Umut Bulut scoring in every match (5 goals in 3 matches).

There are a lot of intriguing matches in European pitches this weekend. In the English Premier League Arsenal will look for the first scored or conceded goal of the season in the match against Liverpool. FC Barcelona will host Valencia. Juventus will play against Udinese , which was so close the become the third Italian Champions League participant. Lille and PSG will clash in a very principal match this Sunday and finally the most important event of the whole country of Ukraine will take place in Donetsk, where Shakhtar will meet rivals Dynamo.

But before the weekend starts there is the official season opening in Monaco, where Chelsea and Atletico Madrid will play for the European Super Cup 2012. Don’t miss!  

Club	Matches last 7 days	Next match	Position in the domestic league
Ajax (Netherlands)	25.08 NAC Breda (H) 5-0	02.09 Heerenveen (A)	2
BATE (Belarus)	28.08 Ironi Kiryat (A) 1-1	01.09 FC Gomel (A)	1
Anderlecht (Belgium)	25.08 Leuven (A) 1-1 28.08 AEL Limasol (H)2-0	02.09 Genk (H)	2
Dinamo Z. (Croatia)	25.08 NK Zagreb (H) 6-0 28.08 Maribor (A) 1-0	01.09 Lokomotiva Z.(A)	1
Arsenal (England)	26.08 Stoke City (A)	02.09 Liverpool (A)	12
Man. City (England)	26.08 Liverpool (A) 2-2	01.09 QPR (H)	5
Man. Utd. (England)	25.08 Fulham (H) 3-2	02.09 Southampton (A)	7
Chelsea (England)	25.08 Newcastle (H) 2-0	31.08 Atletico Madrid(-)	1
FC Barcelona (Spain)	26.08 Osasuna (A) 2-1	29.08 Real Madrid (A)	1
Real Madrid (Spain)	26.08 Getafe (A) 1-2	29.08 Barcelona (H)	14
Valencia (Spain)	26.08 Deportivo (H) 3-3	02.09 Barcelona (A)	13
Malaga (Spain)	25.08 R. Mallorca (H) 1-1 28.08 Panathinaikos (A)0-0	01.09 R. Zaragoza (A)	8
Bayern (Germany)	25.08 Gr. Furth (A) 3-0	02.09 Stuttgart (H)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	24.08 Werder Br. (H) 2-1	01.09 Nurnberg (A)	3
Schalke 04 (Germany)	26.08 Hannover (A) 2-2	01.09 Augsburg	9
Benfica (Portugal)	26.08 Vitoria Set. (A) 5-0	02.09 Nacional M. (H)	1
Porto (Portugal)	25.08 Vitoria Guim.(H) 4-0	02.09 Olhanense (A)	2
Sp. Braga (Portugal)	25.08 Beira Mar (H) 3-1 28.08 Udinese (A) 1-1	02.09 Pacos de Fer. (A)	3
CFR Cluj (Romania)	25.08 Rapid B. (A) 2-3 29.08 Basel (H) 1-0	01.09 Petrolul (H)	6
Galatasaray (Turkey)	26.08 Besiktas (A) 3-3	02.09 Bursaspor (H)	5
Juventus (Italy)	25.08 Parma (H) 2-0	02.09 Udinese (A)	4
Milan (Italy)	26.08 Sampdoria (H) 0-1	01.09 Bologna (A)	13
Montpellier (France)	26.08 Ol. Marseille (H) 0-1	01.09 Sochaux (A)	18
PSG (France)	26.08 Bordeaux (H) 0-0	02.09 Lille (A)	12
Lille (France)	25.08 Nice (A) 2-2 29.08 FC Copenhagen 2-0	02.09 PSG (H)	8
Nordsjæland (Denmark)	24.08 SønderjyskE (H) 4-1	02.09 Brøndby (H)	2
Olympiacos (Greece)	26.08 Veroia (A) 2-1	02.09 Levadiakos (H)	2
Shakhtar D. (Ukraine)	26.08 Karpaty (H) 3-0	01.09 Dynamo K. (H)	1
Dynamo K. (Ukraine)	25.08 Chernomorets(H)2-0 29.08 Borussia M. (H) 1-2	02.09 Shakhtar D. (A)	2
Zenit (Russia)	25.08 Rubin (H) 1-2	02.09 Mordovia (A)	1
Spartak M. (Russia)	25.08 Terek (A) 1-2 29.08 Fenerbahce (A) 1-1	02.09 Lokomotiv M.(A)	5
Celtic (Scotland)	25.08 Inverness (A) 4-2 29.08 Helsingsborg (H) 2-0	01.09 Hibernian (H)	1