As intriguing as the current edition of the Champions League may be, there’s a chance the 2009-2010 tournament could be one of the strangest, parity-rich events in football history. Seems someone has taken the snow globe that is European football, given it a good shake and the flakes aren’t landing where people expect.

The tables in Germany, Holland, Portugal and even Italy don’t resemble what we’ve come to expect as status quo, and as a result, the trickle-down to next year’s Champions League could be  fascinating.  Not only could you have some very fresh names, faces and kits in the fray, but they’ll be usurping some very established entities, including a couple of past champions.

Starting in Italy, where Inter Milan is in the lead with 24 points, you’ve got a gaggle of teams behind Mourinho’s men that includes Napoli, Udinese and Genoa, all within four points of the top, and all within at least a shot of getting into the qualifying rounds. And standing on the outside looking in would be Juventus, Roma and Fiorentina, three teams that are in the hunt in this year’s Champions League.

Not even England is immune to this phenomenon. Despite the Big Four of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United being entrenched as the top four, Hull City had a prominent spot near the top of the table for much of the opening weeks, and they’re still within reach in sixth position with 20 points, only one shy of the top four.

The best story might be in Germany, where Hoffenheim has been at the tippity-top of the Bundesliga alone until this weekend. Hoffenheim may be in there for the duration; it’s won five in a row and now shares the lead with Bayer Leverkeusen. Bayern Munich is charging hard and it will be tremendous to watch if Hoffenheim can find a way to hang on.

Az Alkamaar, meanwhile, took over the lead in the Dutch Eredivisie and has the lone automatic Champions League group stage spot right now. Behind AZ? Well, sure, Ajax is there, but so is NAC Breda and Groningen. Breda and Ajax are tied on points with Az, and Groningen two points out.

In Portugal, if things ended today, F.C. Porto and Sporting would be OUT altogether. OUT. Sporting, which has already earned a spot in the knockout round, is five points out, and Porto’s miserable start has it even further back. Leixoes is in the lead. Who? Leixoes. Nacional da Madeira is three out and Maritimo five back. Benfica is the lone giant in the top three. And Benfica is somewhat woeful as far as big clubs go.

It’s early, but it’s fun to look ahead and acknowledge what these minnows are doing. The longer it goes like this, the more fun it becomes. And perhaps next August, you just might seeing a Champions League draw with clubs such as Hoffenheim, Az Alkamaar and Leixoes joining Inter, Chelsea and Barcelona in Pot 1. Now how much fun would that be?

Manchester City are in danger of an early exit from Europe after a shock 1-0 home defeat by Danish side Midtjylland in their UEFA Cup second qualifying round first-leg match on Thursday. The loss adds to the ongoing turmoil at the club. Mark Hughes had been obliged to state publicly he would be staying at the club amid talk of financial constraints and internal conflict and could have used a victory in this match to lighten the mood around the club.

It was the worst possible start for City manager Mark Hughes as midfielder Danny Olsen struck in the 15th minute to give Midtjylland a good chance of progressing to the first round after the return leg in two weeks’ time. The Guardian reports that the City supporters booed the team off the field, while The Times quotes Thomas Thomasberg, the 33-year-old coach of Midtjylland, who accused City of complacency and of underestimating his side. “Maybe they didn’t know our players,” he said. “Maybe they made stupid decisions because they lost the ball and thought it would be so easy to get it back.”

There was no complacency for one of City’s domestic rivals, Aston Villa, as they cruised past FH Hafnarfjordur by a 4-1 scoreline. Almost as significant as the scoreline was the fact that Gareth Barry started for Villa, making himself ineligible to represent another club in the Champions League until the knockout phase in February. Could that signal the end of the much discussed courtship by Liverpool? The Daily Mirror has the rumour that Liverpool are going to come back with yet another bid for Barry.

Another club that was on the wrong end of an upset was Ligue 1 side Rennes, as they fell to Norwegian league leaders Stabaek by a 2-1 score. 36 year-old central defender Kjolo headed home a corner kick in each half for the home side while Moussa Sow (pictured above) scored a critical away goal to give Rennes hope for the return leg at home.As always, a collection of highlights that have made their way to the web has been compiled by the people at 101greatgoals.com.

The complete list of first-leg scores is posted below:
Metalurgs 0 – 2 SC Vaslui
FK Borac 1 – 0 Lokomotiv Sofia
Vojvodina 0 – 0 Hapoel Tel Aviv
FC Honka 0 – 0 Viking Stavanger
Legia Warsaw 1 – 2 FC Moscow
FC Haka 0 – 4 Brondby
Stuttgart 2 – 1 Gyor
APOEL Nicosia 2 – 2 Crvena Zvezda
Litex Lovech 0 – 0 Hapoel Ironi KS
Djurgarden 2 – 1 Rosenborg
Elfsborg 2 – 2 St Patrick’s Athletic
Stabaek 2 – 1 Rennes
FK Suduva 1 – 4 Red Bull Salzburg
Young Boys Berne 4 – 1 Debreceni VSC
Hafnarfjordur 1 – 4 Aston Villa
Gent 2 – 1 Kalmar
Aris Salonika 1 – 0 NK Slaven Koprivnica
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3 – 2 AC Bellinzona
Slovan Liberec 1 – 2 MSK Zilina
FC Copenhagen 3 – 1 Lillestrom
Maccabi Netanya 1 – 1 Cherno More
FC Zurich 1 – 1 Sturm Graz
AEK Athens 0 – 1 Omonia Nicosia
KS Vllaznia 0 – 3 Napoli
Siroki Brijeg 1 – 2 Besiktas
Manchester City 0 – 1 Midtjylland
Queen of the South 1 – 2 Nordsjaelland
NK Ljubljana 0 – 2 Hertha Berlin
Braga 1 – 0 Zrinjski Mostar
Lech Poznan 6 – 0 Grasshoppers
Deportivo La Coruna 0 – 0 Hajduk Split

The final set of Intertoto Cup fixtures took place over the weekend and the eleven winning clubs now advance to the UEFA Cup second qualifying round. Advancing are Aston Villa, Napoli, Stade Rennais FC, RC Deportivo La Coruna, SC Braga, SC Vaslui, SK Sturm Graz, Grasshopper-Club, VfB Stuttgart, IF Elfsborg and Rosenborg BK.

A bit of history was made in this final installment of the Intertoto Cup as Rosenborg became the first Norwegian side to successfully qualify and Stuttgart became the only side to qualify for the UEFA Cup from the Intertoto Cup three times. All eleven Intertoto Cup winners will join the 16 automatic entrants and the 37 UEFA Cup first qualifying round winners in the draw for the second round, which will be held this Friday in Nyon.

The UEFA Intertoto Cup winners that progress furthest in the UEFA Cup will be presented with a trophy, following in the footsteps of Newcastle United FC in 2006 and Hamburg last season, who both reached the Round of 16.

Aston Villa’s 1-0 home win against Odense BK secured a 3-2 aggregate victory but also came at a heavy cost. Defender Wilfred Bouma had to be carried off after dislocating his ankle in the eleventh minute and is likely out for several months. In a bit of a soap-opera twist, wantaway midfielder Gareth Barry came on to replace Bouma.He received a warm reception from the home fans, which was a dramatic turnaround from his being booed by Villa supporters in a friendly the previous Wednesday.