UEFA Champions League 2011, Matchday 4: Barcelona And BVB Win, Chelsea And Arsenal Drop Points

Borussia Dortmund were anything but their brilliant best against a gritty and physical Olympiacos team on Tuesday night, but they did enough to manage a 1-0 win and get back into contention for a UEFA Champions League knockout stage place. Kevin Grosskreutz scored the game’s only goal, firing in an absolute rocket in the 7th minute to give his team a much needed three points.

Mario Götze provided the assist with a great pass, his seventh for BVB this season in all competitions. The goal was much more about the scorer, though, as Grosskreutz hit a powerful and accurate shot into the back of the net from 25 yards out.

Check out our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream for coverage of all of the Champions League action. For more on the Blues, check out Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History. For more on the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.

Check out our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream for coverage of all of the Champions League action. For more on the Blues, check out Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History. For more on the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.

Earlier this season, in the first matchday of the Champions League, Pato of AC Milan scored what was erroneously dubbed by announcers as the fastest goal in the history of the competition when he scored 23 seconds into the match against Barcelona. Impressive and one of the 10 fastest ever, yes, but not even close to Makaay’s 11th second strike. This one, though, might have a claim for quickest ever.

Substitutes: Mohamed Sarr, Dugary Ndabashinze, Elianiv Barda, Timothy Durwael, Anthony Limbombe, Grzegorz Sandiomierski, Marvin Ofori

Genk vs. Chelsea kicks off at 3:45 pm ET, 7:45 pm GMT and 8:45 pm local time. We’ll have live coverage of this match and other Champions League action in our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream. For more on the Blues, check out Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History. For more on the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.

Shakhtar Donetsk find themselves in big trouble in UEFA Champions League Group G as a loss to Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia sees them pinned to the bottom of the table with just two points and two games remaining. The two sides had fought their way to a thrilling 2-2 draw in the Ukraine two weeks prior, with both teams playing wonderful attacking football, but the reverse fixture was nothing like the match at the Donbass Arena - Zenit dominated from the off and despite the scoreline (the game would finish 1-0) never looked like losing.

Only the frankly heroic efforts of Oleksandr Rybka in Shakhtar’s goal prevented Zenit from striking gold four or five times in the first half alone, and the last thing you could say about Belgian defender Nicolas Loembarts’ headed goal at the very end of first half stoppage time was that it hadn’t been coming. The visitors improved marginally in the second half ending up with one whole shot on target (considering that the first half saw one shot at all from Shakhtar, this was actually a major step forward) but with the Ukrainians unable to breach Zenit’s defence and the hosts content with their one-goal margin, the game quickly became bogged down in the midfield.

After a long period of sustained dominance for AC Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic fired in their opener in the 22nd minute with a great one-on-one finish, placing the ball past Aleksandr Gutor. Robinho provided a brilliant assist, hitting a cross right into the path of Ibrahimovic on the counter.

BATE forced a spectacular save out of Abbiatti just a minute later, making it apparent that Milan weren’t simply going to be able to coast to a shutout win. Milan were the better side for the rest of the half, though, with Gutor having to make a couple of very good saves and Robinho hitting the post in the 39th minute.

It’s been an intense first half at the Petrovski Stadium in St. Petersburg. Shakhtar Donetsk travelled to Russia in last place in Group G, but they only trailed leader APOEL Nicosia by three points and could easily vault themselves back into contention with a win against hosts Zenit St. Petersburg. It became apparent very quickly that a win was unlikely, however - the home side came out all guns blazing and never let up.

Zenit were utterly dominant in the first half, outshooting Shakhtar 15-1 and having almost all of the possession, but thanks to the amazing form of Oleksandr Rybka and some poor finishing failed to score for 45 minutes. It was looking like a deeply frustrating evening for the hosts, who were by far the better side, but Nicolas Loembarts finally put them ahead at the very end of first half stoppage time with a neat header from a corner.

Both Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit St. Petersburg have dropped points against APOEL Nicosia in the first set of fixtures in their UEFA Champions League group, so both will feel like they need a win at Petrovsky on Tuesday night to give themselves a good chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition. Shakhtar are yet to win in the competition, while Zenit have a great home record and no longer have to concentrate on their domestic league. Here are the lineups.

Shakhtar Donetsk Lineup (4-2-3-1): Rybka; Shevchuk, Kucher, Rakitskiy, Srna; Mkhitaryan, Hübschman; Willian, Alex Teixeira, Eduardo; Luiz Adriano

BATE Borisov Lineup (4-5-1): Gutor; Simic, Baga, Yurevich, Radkov; Likhtarovich, Kontsevoi, Volodko, Bressan, Bordachev; Skavysh

Through the amazing wonders of the modern world, you can watch the UEFA Champions League almost anywhere in the world. The fine folks at the various media entities in the USA have made it possible to watch every single Champions League match legally and in high quality, provided you’re willing to pay money for the right services. Many games are also available in the UK and Canada as well. Here’s the complete TV schedule, including where to watch the games streaming live online in the USA.

1:00 pm ET, 5:00 pm GMT Games

FC Porto won a treble last season with their domestic double and the UEFA Europa League title. They lost Falcao in the offseason, but replaced him with Kleber, who is their leading scorer. They held onto their other stars Hulk, Alvaro Pereira, Joao Moutinho and Nicolas Otamendi. They’re undefeated so far this season in the Portuguese Liga. And yet, they are chasing Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia.

APOEL has not yet lost in the Champions League and sits on top of Group G after three games. They managed a draw at the Estadio do Dragao in the last round, after which many in the stands booed Porto off the pitch. Whether or not it’s fair, the pressure is on Porto to get a win away in Cyprus to take control of their own destiny in the race to qualify for the knockout stages.

For the majority of their match in Greece, Borussia Dortmund were the better side than Olympiacos. Inexplicably, on multiple occasions, they missed clear-cut goal scoring opportunities while committing mental errors in defense. The final result was a 3-1 win for Olympiacos, putting Borussia Dortmund into a must-win situation. They have just one point from their first three matches and will have almost no chance of qualifying for the knockout stages without three points on Tuesday.

There’s no systematic or personnel problem with Der BVB. With both their individual games and injuries, they’ve just been plain unlucky. Sometimes it feels as if there’s a forcefield in front of the opposing goal, while balls unluckily bounce into theirs. Between the 18-yard areas, they are one of the best teams in the world. Inside each 18, they have struggled.

Valencia vs. Bayer Leverkusen kicks off at 3:45 pm ET, 7:45 pm GMT and 8:45 pm local. We’ll have live coverage of this match and all of the other Champions League action in our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, visit SB Nation Soccer.

Against Barcelona at home, the goal will likely be the same: Try their hardest to prevent goals. Depending on how the BATE Borisov-AC Milan match goes, Plzen could go into the final round against BATE needing just a draw to qualify for the Europa League.

Plzen vs. Barcelona kicks off at 3:45 pm ET, 7:45 pm GMT, and 8:45 pm local time. For more on the Blaugranas, check out FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. We’ll have live coverage of this match and all of the other Champions League action in our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, visit SB Nation Soccer.

Besides the loss of Cassano, a number of Milan players have recovered from injuries in recent weeks and they should have close to a full strength squad to call on in Belarus.

Milan vs. BATE kicks off at 1:00 pm ET, 5:00 pm GMT, and 8:00 pm local time. For more on AC Milan, visit The AC Milan Offside. We’ll have live coverage of this match and all of the other Champions League action in our UEFA Champions League Tuesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, visit SB Nation Soccer.

Coming into their match against Zenit St. Petersburg on the last matchday of the UEFA Champions League, Shakhtar Donetsk must have felt like they needed a win. With just one point from their first two matches and a difficult trip to the Petrovsky looming, Shakhtar only managed a draw in a 2-2 thriller against the Russian champions. Now, they face the seemingly near impossible task of getting a win away in St. Petersburg.

They will be without three of their best players, as Jadson, Fernandinho and Dmytro Chygrynskiy all miss out. Shakhtar have one of the deepest benches in world football, but there isn’t a team in the world that could avoid skipping a beat after losing their best playmaker, central midfielder, and central defender. Luciano Spalletti’s side, playing at home with a cleaner bill of health than their opposition, are the clear favorites in this matchup,

There is hope for a resurgence for the Blues, thanks to the similar woes of their opponent. When Racing Genk came to Stamford Bridge on the last matchday of the UEFA Champions League, their makeshift defense - shoddily constructed due to injuries - was decimated by Chelsea in an easy 5-0 victory. Over the weekend, that same Genk team allowed four goals to Club Brugge in a dramatic 5-4 win. It was exciting, especially given the fact that Brugge are a very good team, but it isn’t encouraging ahead of a match against Chelsea.

The spotlight will, like the first matchup between these two teams, shine on Genk winger/forward Kevin de Bruyne. He’s been linked to a transfer to Chelsea for quite some time and didn’t bring his best at his first audition. While he showed off his fantastic skills as a crosser of the ball, he wasn’t able to create much in the way of clear-cut scoring opportunities for himself or others. He scored a hat-trick in that aforementioned slugfest with Brugge, so his form couldn’t be any better at the moment.

Anyway, with their win over Marseille last time around, Arsenal find themselves leading Group F halfway through the campaign and are in great shape to qualify. They can virtually seal things with a win against their Ligue 1 opponents at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, and they should be expected to do so on account of them being the better side. The last time the teams met, both were in slumps, this time they’re both on hot streaks. That’s quite literally the only thing that’s changed, apart from the probable return of Belgian centre half Thomas Vermaelan to the Arsenal ranks.

So, in other words, expect a repeat of the same boring midfield battle that we got last time. Stalemate ahoy! If any game could use a goal early - for either side - it’s this one.