UEFA Champions League 1st Leg Recap

Results

Arsenal 0-2 Bayern Munich
Manchester City 0-2 Barcelona
AC Milan 0-1 Atletico Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen 0-4 PSG
Zenit St. Petersburg 2-4 Borussia Dortmund
Olympiakos 2-0 Manchester United
Galatasaray 1-1 Chelsea
Schalke 1-6 Real Madrid

The Arsenal - Bayern match was an interesting one, featuring two tamely struck penalties (neither of which went in) as well as a red card to Arsenal goalie Wojciech Szczesny. The best part of it was the calls were all correct, and despite Arsenal fans' booing of Arjen Robben throughout the second half, they must feel it was a sending off. Arsenal are up against it again heading to Munich, and with Mesut Ozil seeming out of sorts, and the team enduring another February of troubles, who knows which Arsenal team shows up. I have to say I did not expect any kind of good performance last year when they headed to Munich down 3-1, but they put in a spirited performance and only lost on away goals. However, that is Arsenal's problem - they "play well" or "play nice football" but they don't win anything. Arsene Wenger is without a doubt one of the best coaches in Premier League history, but again I must question his decisions in big matches. He plays Yaya Sanogo in his second start for the club over Olivier Giroud, who has scored 12 goals in the Premier League this season - good for fifth in the league. How can you not go with the experience? Sanogo did not play badly, but Wenger made another decision that left him open for questioning, and again it did not pan out. As for the Ozil penalty, that is usually more up to the players than the manager, but I would not have had a German take a penalty against Neuer. Santi Cazorla would have been my choice. I know Arteta was unavailable and he is their normal penalty-taker, but that was a decision that really hurt Arsenal.

City also had a man sent off but really did nothing against Barcelona. Maybe having Aguero back will help them in Spain but it's going to be very difficult. Barca are specialists in drawing teams out and then destroying them with a quick move. City are probably going to need three, or maybe even four to get through. I don't get why DeMichelis is playing over Lescott. Messi is going to give any defender troubles but having a central defender as slow as DeMichelis was asking for disaster. The guy has always been mistake-prone. City have looked very poor at the back at points during this season, and that just does not work in the Champions League.

PSG hammered Bayer Leverkusen, as expected. It's really pathetic what Bayern Munich have reduced the German league to. Schalke were completely smashed as well. I'd love to give Real more credit, as they are surely contenders for the trophy, but Schalke were really, really poor. There was so much space at the back. It looked like a cup game between a first-division side and a third-division one. Real were absolutely clinical though - this was the second time they have scored six goals in just four away matches in Europe this season. At least Dortmund can still put in a good performance, although Zenit were predictably awful. Yuck.

As for Man United, it's just another day at the office. Being a Chelsea supporter, I am certainly sympathetic to giving a manager some time, but these kind of pathetic performances are what gets a manager fired. First of all, this particularly abject performance was the poorest I've seen from United this season. Tom Cleverley and Chris Smalling don't deserve to be wearing the shirt after their respective performances. They just plain sucked. The whole team was full of unforced, sloppy errors and they didn't really build much of anything over the course of the game. United reminds me of a worse version of Chelsea from two years ago - and the commonplace is a coach who is in over his head. Roberto DiMatteo was lucky, and the team came through with a wild and fortunate Champions League crown - David Moyes is not so lucky, and he will surely not be around much longer if this trend continues. I blame this loss more on the players, but it doesn't change how Moyes sets up this team. He has taken a team that has played through the middle for years and tried to turn it into a West Ham-like long-ball crossing team. It's ridiculous. For me, the number one thing for a manager is knowing your players, and Moyes clearly has no clue that he hasn't got a huge center forward out there. Van Persie is disgusted and rightfully so (though he should learn how to use his right foot.) United were nervous, tentative, and never gave their opponent any trouble despite having the superior talent and experience.

All that being said, Olympiakos played very well. Given the premium quality that will be waiting in the next round, it's hard to see Olympiakos going much further - but they were solid from beginning to end. They needed to keep a clean sheet and did, and now have placed all of the pressure on their opponents for the return leg. Joel Campbell supplied a wonderful strike to set the tone for the second half, and they showed better on-the-ball awareness than United did. They play in a weak league and rack up a bunch of meaningless wins, but Olympiakos play with a load of confidence. The atmosphere was electric, and this was far less of a shock than the general media suggested. Stay tuned here - there is a long way to go in this tie, but Olympiakos were willing to be aggressive and it paid off, something that will help them as their run continues.

As for Chelsea, they were okay, but nothing special. At the very least, they're ahead in the tie. Chelsea dominated the first half and could have been out of sight, but Gala really took the game to them in the second half and earned a deserved draw. Gala even had a few chances to take the lead heading to England, but that would have been harsh. I don't disagree with Jose Mourinho often - but I would have liked to see Schurrle stay on longer. I understand taking a slim lead to the Bridge, and having Mikel on to stabilize the midfield allowed them to achieve that, but I feel that in Europe you have to take the initiative when you can, and if Chelsea could have nabbed a second goal, Gala would have to score twice in Chelsea's fortress. They had quite a bit of space to work with throughout the game, and their pace was clearly giving Gala problems. Even if they had conceded again and been down 2-1, they would have felt good about going through. I just would have tried to put some more pressure on Gala. Now it's all to play for in London, but Jose has the situation he wants - a clean sheet and his team are through.