[Chief Rum]

Thursday, September 26, 2002

London Times

First Champions League Group Stage Hits Halfway Point

LONDON-- Three matches into the Champions League Phase One Group Stage, the representatives in the United Kingdom are already looking pretty good for advancing to the next group stage.

The top two clubs in each of the eight groupings will advance to the second group phase, which is scheduled to start in late November. After last night's matches, all eight groups have reached the halfway point of the home-and-home round robin Phase One.

Were the stage to end today, all four United Kingdom clubs in the competition--Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Scottish side Celtic--would advance to the next round.

Arsenal, in Group A, is currently second with two wins and six points. Their only loss is to group-leading German power FC Bayern, which beat them in München to open the competition three weeks ago.

Austrian side Strum Graz is the only other side in the group to have a win, and Arsenal dominated them in Anfield Wednesday. French power Lens has lost all three of its matches so far.

Manchester United leads Group B, and they have yet to lose a match. They also have allowed just one goal so far. German side Leverkusen is second, and Man U manhandled them at Old Trafford Wednesday.

Spanish side Deportivo and Latvian club Skonto both lost to both Leverkusen and Man U, and drew each other, so it is unlikely either can put a run on Leverkusen at this point.

In Group F, Liverpool has been similarly dominant. In fact, in winning their three matches, they have yet to allow a single goal.

French side Lyon is currently second with two wins, followed by AEK Athens with one, and Dutch side Feyenoord, which has not yet won a match in the group stage. Feyenoord won the UEFA Cup last year, but is not putting up a strong effort this season at the next level up.

Group H features the tightest matchup involving a United Kingdom club. Celtic is tied with Italian power Juventus and Russian side Spartak Moscow for the group lead. All three clubs have two victories and six points. Celtic has the goal differential lead at +3, followed by Spartak Moscow at +2, and Juventus at +1. The three traded off losses to each other in road matches.

Hapless Norwegian side Rosenborg has been the goat for all three, with no wins and virtually no chance to advance now.

Spanish side Valencia and Dutch power Ajax look like the odds on favorites to make it out of Group C with 7 and 6 points, respectively.

Group D features one of the more intriguing tables in the stage. Portugal's Sporting leads the way, but they have just 5 points. Locomotiv Moscow of Russia and Greece's Olympiakos Piraeus have 4 points apiece, and a powerful Italian side like Roma cannot be ignored in last with 3 points either. This one could go down to the last day.

Group E looked to feature some of the bigger heavyweights. Not surprisingly, Spanish power Real Madrid has put some distance between itself and the others at the top of this group with 7 points. The issue is far from decided otherwise, though. Italian power Inter and Dutch side PSV are at 4 and 3 points, and even Ukraine's Shaktar Donetsk cannot be counted out after two surprising draws with Real Madrid and Inter.

German side Dortmund and Spanish power Barcelona lead Group G with 6 points each, but the Czech Republic's Slovan Liberec and Turkish side Galatasaray are afr from out of it with 3 points each.