Richard Lewington

Barring a flood of deals in the last couple of days, this will go down as one of the quietest transfer windows in recent years. So far there have been very few actual sales with the majority of deals being short-term loan stints with options to buy later. The biggest deals I've seen announced have […]

It's only days away from the opening of the transfer window — a time when much cash will be splashed and many sides will be re-shaped and benches re-inforced. Because there can be some major impact signings, I am waiting to analyze the match-ups in the Champions League Round of 16 and the Europa League […]

The congestion of international, domestic and cup competitions is beginning to show as the injury lists grow longer. Several top stars will be missing from the Matchday 5 stage. Let's take a look at how this might impact the results and standings. Eric Abidal – D – Barcelona The 30-year-old suffered a thigh injury on […]

AC Milan's 3-2 win in Madrid on Matchday 3 lifted them to the top of Group C and a repeat success on home soil would take them a step closer to the first knockout round. The Matchday 3 win was a big morale boost for Milan while Madrid slumped. Madrid put a three-game winless run behind them with […]

Swedish legend Henrik Larsson had an emotional farewell from professional football on Wednesday night as he played his last ever professional game for Swedish side Helsingborg. Larsson had announced his intent to retire at the end of this season but decided to bow out one game early in order to play his last match in […]

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 […]

There were plenty of upsets yesterday, could we see more today? On paper Manchester United, who have struggled as of late, could be expected to slip against CSKA after a long trip to Moscow but CSKA has not been performing well either. I am not expecting a feast of football from that match and the […]

Matchday 3 sees some crucial match-ups but none may be more important at this stage than the Standard Liege – Olympiacos fixture. Arsenal look to be a lock for top spot in Group H but second place is wide open. A win today for Olympiacos would put them in the driver's seat. If they lose […]

This season's Champions League and Europa League has its usual cast of superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery but I wanted to feature a few names that I think you'll be hearing a lot more about as the January transfer window approaches. 1) Miralem Pjanic — midfielder — Olympique Lyonnais The "new Juninho" […]

The controversy surrounding Manchester United's signing of 16-year-old French prospect Paul Pogba has been cleared up. FIFA have ruled that Manchester United did not contravene any FIFA regulations in their recruitment of the young midfielder – specifically Article 19, which focuses on the protection of minors. United had been accused by French club Le Havre […]

UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services. Last year, the number of games being […]

The draw for the group stage of the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League was held Thursday in Monaco. Last season's finalists face some tough going but they are not alone in that regard. FC Barcelona will begin their trophy defence in Group F with games against FC Internazionale Milano, FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Rubin Kazan […]

After strong showings in the first leg of the playoff round, both Lyon and Arsenal are in a comfortable position to enter the group stage. Lyon can claim a tenth consecutive group-stage appearance unless they completely fall apart. The French club overwhelmed RSC Anderlecht 5-1 last week, while a 2-0 deficit would appear insurmountable for […]

Part of the changes to qualification this year sees the champions of smaller domestic leagues gaining the chance to reach the group stage of the Champions League. In the Champions Path, the feature match-up should be between FC Zurich and FK Ventspils. Latvian titleholders Ventspils edged past last season's group stage participant FC BATE Borisov […]

One of last season's semi-finalists, Hamburger SV, enter this year's competition in the third qualifying round against Randers FC of Denmark. Hamburg have added one of the most exciting young talents in Europe to their squad and will look to make it all the way to the Europa League finals which will be held at […]