I have to start this off by saying thank you to the people behind the scenes at uefa.com for moving their subscription video service away from Windows Media and into a Flash-based format. It’s allowed me to follow all the games from the comforts of my Mac. If you’ve not done so, I strongly recommend checking out their Replay service. I think it would be well-worth the price even if I only accessed the extended highlight packages never mind the full-match replays that I’ve watched.

Now onto the big story from Matchday 3 in the Europa League, which was Everton being thrashed 5-0 by Benfica. One could argue that Everton entered the game with a weakened squad.

They have several senior players out injured (Neville, Yobo, etc) and two players are Cup-tied (Johnny Heitinga and Lucas Neill) so manager David Moyes had to field a makeshift backline due to the late withdrawal of Leighton Baines. While they did show weaknesses at the back with two inexperience fullbacks, Everton’s midfield were also outclassed depsite fielding regular starters like Tim Cahill, Marouane Fellaini and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.

It would be wrong to put the defeat solely on Everton, credit must be given to Benfica for a good performance. In particular one of European football’s forgotten stars, Javier Saviola (the former Barcelona and Real Madrid striker is pictured above), played a vital role. Saviola scored a wonderful volley and had a big part in two of the other five goals. Saviola combined nicely with midfielder Angel Di Maria, who assisted on three of the goals and nearly scored one of his own.

I have to admit that I have an affinity for the Czech Republic as well as teams from the Czech league. So it put a smile on my face to see the results from Matchday 3 for Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague. Last season’s Czech champions SK Slavia Praha have struggled mightily thus far in the Europa League with 2-0 and 5-1 losses to Genoa and Lille respectively.

Going into Thursday’s match, history was against the Czech-based side as Valencia had never lost in six games against Czech sides and were unbeaten over 90 minutes in their last 14 UEFA club competition games. To be fair to Valencia they did dominate the latter stages of the match and looked likely to go on to win, especially after Slavia’s Hocine Ragued was sent off after receiving a second booking for a foul on Rubén Baraja. David Villa was poised to be the hero again off the bench and nearly produced from the free kick resulting from Ragued’s foul. He saw his curled effort crash off the upright and Valencia’s hopes of retaining top spot crashed soon after as Villa received a straight red card for kicking out at Benjamin Vomácka.

Cross-town rivals of Slavia, AC Sparta Praha defeated Romanian club CFR 1907 Cluj by a 2-0 score to climb up to second place in Group K. The win ended a six-year drought for Sparta, who had not recorded a home victory in a European club competition group-stage since beating Lazio in the Champions League on December 9, 2003. This was the first time that CFR and Sparta had met and Sparta’s only previous home game against Romanian opponents ended in a 5-1 defeat by FC Steaua Bucuresti in the first round of the 1988/89 European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

First-half goals from Juraj Kucka and Roman Hubník settled the contest and despite Cluj pressing the home side for long periods of the match, they were unable to find a way past goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek. Group K has become tighter with PSV top on 7 points and the other three clubs (Sparta, Cluj and FC København) all within a point of each other.

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