Whilst most of world soccer were worrying themselves with the latest saga in a certain scousers chequered life, the Champions League returned last after a brief sojourn. Group stages never really seem to throw up a massive amount of surprises and this round wasn’t an exception. In the early game Chelsea easily brushed aside a Spartak Moscow side 2-0. This was even without Frank Lampard, who was judging the annual Flabsby-on-Trent pie eating contest, and Didier Drogba missing due to his diving classes that take place at 5 on a Tuesday.
Elsewhere the big two from the “group of death” met in Madrid. The OAPs that hobbled over from Milan were no match for the relatively youthful Real Madrid side. Real consigned AC to a 2-0 defeat alien life form Mesut Ozil getting one, Cristiano Ronaldo the other.
The only real surprise of the night apart from the fact that John Terry wasn’t crying in Moscow (apologies to anyone who tried to put money on it. We’d even given him fake tears) took place in Rome. Basel, of Switzerland, were the visiting side managing a 3-1 reverse in the Italian capital. It left the Swiss fans running around the capital yodelling to their hearts content. All this was until the Roma fans got wind and started throwing flares whilst issuing random stabbings (or so we were led to believe) Nice, real nice.
