Bayern Munich will take a slender lead to Florence after a controversial 2-1 win over Fiorentina in a hotly contested match which featured a number of odd decisions by the refereeing crew. Fiorentina’s Coach Cesare Prandelli was aggravated while club skipper Riccardo Montolivo could not believe his eyes and admitted the players are disheartened.

There is no point dwelling on what happened but the main question will be whether the Gigliati will put this defeat behind and use it as the fuel necessary to propel them to the next round or if they will hide behind these wrong decisions as an excuse for folding and exiting the competition. Prandelli’s players have been going through a dismal run with the players unable to achieve victory in recent matches with the attackers struggling to score and the defense leaking goals. Against the Bavarians  the Gigliati players appeared to be motivated and could have easily escaped with a draw despite Bayern’s domination in terms of possession.

Fiorentina’s players appeared comfortable defending the 1-1 tie and only the decision to expel Massimo Gobbi and the  two other unfortunate incidents involving Miroslav Klose altered the final score. The Italian club’s players will take heart from this but sometimes moral victories are not enough to overturn a European tie. Bayern’s players are not to blame in any form for the wrongful decisions by the referee and his assistants. Dutchman Arjen Robben continues to strike fear in opponents and he was the main catalyst (besides the woeful referee) behind the victory of the German side. French star Franck Ribery will be in better condition once the tie heads to Italy so Coach Prandelli will have his hands full trying to limit the threat emanating from those two players.

Fiorentina will be without the injured Alessandro Gamberini in defense but they must play with passion and commitment in order to prevent Bayern from scoring and then a narrow win could suffice. The Gigliati must be careful because the Bavarians completely outplayed, outhustled and outscored Juventus in Turin when the two teams met in the group’s penultimate match to decide the fate of the qualifying team. Bayern are quite capable of winning away from home and have many weapons which can bother Fiorentina’s shaky defense.

Will Prandelli be able to rally the troops to continue the fairytale run or will the German giants advance to continue their quest to reach the final? The neutral observant might be leaning towards Fiorentina not because they have anything against Bayern but due to the obvious calls which went against the Italian club. The Germans have two of the most exciting stars to watch in Ribery and Robben but the manner of the victory achieved must have left a bitter taste even for the Bavarian club.

To use a golf analogy, the teams in the group stage of the Champions League make the turn today and tomorrow with the completion of the first three games of the group stage. And while it’s early, for some teams, it’s make-or-break time.
Group by group, here’s an analysis of who needs to win:

Group A:

ROMA Needs To Win: Misery may love company, but it seems to love Roma too. Last weekend’s humbling 4-0 home defeat to Inter Milan is hardly the way Roma wanted to head into the lion’s den known tomorrow as Stamford Bridge. Roma also had to shudder at Chelsea’s 5-0 smashing of Middlesborough with what essentially a B team. Still, a good result keeps Roma in the hunt. And you can bet that Roma hopes Cluj wakes up from its dream campaign in Europe soon.

Group B:

ANORTHOSIS Needs To Win: Yes the team from Cyprus, y’know, those guys who are leading Group B. Anorthosis has a win and a draw over Bremen and Panathinaikos, but its most crucial match is today against Inter at the San Siro. Mourinho says his team is cautious about the match, and well it should be. Minnows can bite, especially in a tournament such as this; over-confidence is a killer.

Group C:
SPORTING and SHAKTAR Need To Win: If ESPN had any stones, this would be the match it would televise on Wednesday. This match, as well as the return leg in Lisbon on Nov. 4 will surely be bookend epic battles. These two are fighting for second behind Barcelona in the group, with Basel already all but an afterthought. Both clubs have 3 points. Sporting pounded Basel a month ago, while Shaktar lost a heartbreaker to Barcelona. Sporting may suffer from its lack of meaningful activity coming into this one due to the international break and having played only a domestic cup match.

Group D:
PSV EINDHOVEN Needs To Win: With Marseille on the docket today and the Frech club less than inspired, Eindhoven needs a precious three points tomorrow to keep pace with Liverpool and Atletico–two teams in top form right now. A draw does neither Eindhoven nor Marseille any good. Liverpool and Atletico meanwhile, has the makings of a classic, though Liverpool could be dragged down by injuries.
Group E:
CELTIC Needs To Win: With Manchester United finding its pace–surprise surprise that it coincides with Ronaldo finding his form and Rooney finding the back of the net–Celtic cannot be looking forward to today’s trip to Old Trafford. Celtic has one point from the first two matches, and cannot afford to lose today and be six points–or two matches–behind United with three to play. The math, in that case, just does work in Celtic’s favor, especially with Villareal having a sitter today against AaB.
Group F:
FIORENTINA Needs To Win: Fiorentina has an opportunity today to make waves in this group with its visit against shaken Bayern Munich. Fiorentina has two points from two matches, even with Lyon, which figures to get a result against Steaua Bucharesti today. Bayern is struggling, having taken only three points from its last four matches in Germany. It leads this group with four points. A Fiorentina win certainly makes the final three matches much more interesting. Fiorentina is three points out in Serie A and has won three in a row.

Group G:
FC PORTO Needs To Win: If for no other reason than confidence in this group, Porto needs to win today at home against Dynamo Kyiv. Porto has regained the lead in the Portuguese first division, but its 4-0 drubbing last time out at Arsenal was humbling and revealing. Porto is vulnerable and cannot afford another slip, especially with an Arsenal win today basically pushing the Gunners through to the next round.

Group H:

ZENIT St. PETERSBURG Needs To Win: The darling UEFA Cup winners of 2007-2008 desperately need to get going in this group. With zero points from two matches, Zenit certainly welcomes Bate Borisov today to Russia. With Juventus hosting Real Madrid, Zenit quickly needs to close the gap on the top two, or else it will indeed be defending its UEFA Cup triumph–maybe.

The second qualifying round brought two big upsets as Rangers and Anderlecht became two of the biggest clubs to be knocked out at this stage.

A 2-1 win (video highlights here) in Lithuania saw FBK Kaunas (pictured celebrating at the right) take full advantage of the 0-0 draw they earned at Ibrox to send the beaten 2007/08 UEFA Cup finalists crashing out of the UEFA Champions League. Full marks to Kaunas who played the two-legged tie perfectly and made the most of set-pieces in their home match to overturn an early Rangers goal from Kevin Thomson. Nerijus Radzius scored on a sweetly curled free-kick and Linas Pilibaitis headed in a corner kick from Rafael Ledesma, Kaunas’ talented Brazilian playmaker, three minutes from time to seal the victory.

Rangers had hoped to build upon last season’s thrilling run to the UEFA Cup final and reach the group stage of the Champions League. Reaching the group stage is a £10m (12.5m euro) boost for the clubs that make it. That can often allow a club the financial ability to make an additional quality signing or the ability to offer a pay raise and retain a star player.

FC BATE Borisov were in the driver’s seat after they pulled a surprise victory away against RSC Anderlecht in the first leg. Anderlecht came out flying in the return leg and took an early lead but the game turned in the second half when Anderlecht defender Nemanja Rni? collected a second yellow card on 71 minutes. BATE scored 12 minutes later to once again put themselves in control of the tie. Czech midfielder Jan Polák scored late for Anderlecht to level the game but BATE held on to their aggregate lead and their biggest win in European competition. Highlights of the second leg are available here.

A third major upset was almost had as FC Dynamo Kyiv survived a late scare in their home return leg against Drogheda United FC, holding on for a 2-2 draw to set up a tie against FC Spartak Moskva. After winning 2-1 in Ireland, a bit of overconfidence may have set in and the Ukraine-based team was pushed right to the very death by the Irish minnows.

Taking a quick look at the other second qualifying round games, Fenerbahce, on the strength of four goals from Semih ?entürk, crushed MTK Budapest 5-0 in the second leg to advance 7-0 on aggregate.  The most thrilling tie was between FC Basel and IFK Gothenburg. Basel scored a 4-2 win in the second leg to advance 5-3 on aggregate.

With no parachute into the Uefa Cup both Anderlecht and Rangers are now done with European competition for the season. Unthinkable for the fans of these clubs but delight for fans of their conquerors as they live to fight on for another round.I’ve re-posted the third round matchups, this time with my predictions on who will advance. I was 10 of 14 in the second round, which leaves me at 21/28 (75%) so far. I think this round is going to be the toughest to predict in some respects. While some of the biggest European clubs are entering the competition at this round and there are some clear mismatches, there are also some very even matchups such as the Atletico-Schalke fixture. There will be at least a couple of ‘smaller’ clubs that make it through to the group stage as some are paired together.

I’ve taken a couple of gambles and picked from the heart more than the head in some cases but it’s going to be an exciting third round either way.

2008/09 UEFA Champions League
Third Qualifying Round Fixtures
First leg: 12/13 August
Second leg: 26/27 August

Anorthosis v Olympiakos
Vitoria Guimaraes v FC Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk v Dinamo Zagreb
Schalke 04 v Atletico Madrid
Aalborg v Kaunas
Barcelona v Wisla Krakow
Levski Sofia v BATE
Standard Liege v Liverpool
Partizan v Fenerbahce
Twente Enschede v Arsenal
Spartak Moscow v Dinamo Kiev
Juventus v Artmedia
Brann v Marseille
Fiorentina v Slavia Prague
Galatasaray v Steaua Bucharest
Panathinaikos v Sparta Prague