Richard Lewington

As we reported on a number of weeks ago, the UEFA Executive Committee has finalized the change in name of the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League starting in the 2009-10 season. Along with the new name come major changes to the competition, which will feature a 48-team group stage. Changes to the name, […]

(Note: I incorrectly quoted a passage from the book that made it seem like the author had made light of a stabbing/slashing incident. It was my misreading of the passage. I've since re-written that section of the review. My sincerent apologies to Ian Hough and to you readers for my oversight.) Perry Boys is a […]

Just a quick editorial note to start, I had hoped to complete my Group Previews before Matchday 1 but that was not the case. I will still be pushing those out, hopefully finish before Matchday 2 hits. Now, on to last night's action. After absences last season for perennial Champions League participants Bayern Munich (pictured […]

Champions League debutants CFR 1907 Cluj came from behind to beat Roma and record a stunning 2-1 victory at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Beyond the absence of Totti, Roma had a strong squad out on the field and will be disappointed with their performance. There has been a bit of turmoil off the field […]

FC Basel 1893 How They Got Here:Basel beat Vitoria de Guimaraes (also known as Vitoria SC) 2-1 on aggregate in the third round of qualifying. Basel won the Swiss League last season. Star Performer: MF Benjamin Huggel. An experienced member of the Swiss national squad, Huggel is a strong presence in central midfield. In his […]

This is a bit late but I did want to acknowledge that UEFA.com has re-launched with a new take on their familiar look. The layout is a bit cleaner though the page now contains more elements. The color scheme is basic white and black though the newly launched photo gallery adds plenty of color. I'd […]

Group B is home to a surprising Cypriot side, a Greek side in transition, a German side sometimes called 'everyone's second team', and an Italian club with a little something special. Confused? Let me explain! Anorthosis Famagusta FC How They Got Here: Became the first and only Cypriot football club to reach the group stages […]

It's taken me a little while to catch up on the goings on this week as I was away over the weekend. My wife and I took a camping trip and got away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while. We ended up with some rainy weather but made the best […]

The group stage kicks off in about two weeks so until then I will be doing previews of the group stage in alphabetical order. I wanted to wait until after the transfer window had closed so that I would be able to judge the rosters fairly. There were some last minute moves that could have […]

It was just a few short months ago, May 17th to be exact, that Portsmouth claimed their first FA Cup since 1939. Well now the whole journey kicks off again. I missed the Extra Preliminary Round (there were 203 fixtures so I am not going to recap!) but I'm jumping in now at the Preliminary […]

The UEFA Cup first-round draw was held on Friday and there are a number of interesting new faces in the competition. One of those teams is Dutch side FC Twente, who as we've detailed in previous posts, is now coached by former England boss Steve McClaren. Twente, who were entered into the UEFA Cup after […]

I'll have more analysis and comments later but for now just a quick update on the results of today's drawing. Some of the groupings, as in past seasons, was almost a bit too predictable but there are some interesting matchups ahead (Real Madrid – Juventus springs to mind as does Manchester United – Celtic and […]

After leading 1-0 from the first leg, Schalke had to have had some confidence going into Madrid for the second leg. A strong performance from Atletico saw them thump the German team 4-0 to advance to the group stage for the first time since 1996-97. I had picked Atletico as my 'dark-horse' team in the […]

This week's match was against Liverpool. Though I had to work, I managed to keep an eye on the game (gotta love Slingbox and P2P technology) and saw Boro forced into a late change to the line-up as keeper Brad Jones injured a hand in the warm-up and Ross Turnbull took his place between the […]

One of the most fascinating moves this summer was Internazionale's hiring of Jose Mourinho as manager after Roberto Mancini was sacked despite winning the title. Mourinho has built a strong reputation in a short time and I am interested to see if he can push Inter further in the Champions League. They've struggled in recent […]