Rangers face a crunch Champions League night this week and one of their stars has stressed the importance of the tie.

The Scots are currently bottom of Group G with only one point and enter a tie away in Romania against Unirea Urziceni knowing that another defeat will put an end to their distant hopes of qualifying for the next round, or even booking a place in the Europa League.

In the first game between the two sides at Ibrox, the Romanians triumphed 4-1 and striker Kenny Miller has said he hopes the club can wipe that game from their memory.

He added the team’s performances in the Scottish Premier League have improved since that game but last weekend’s match against Dundee United was abandoned at half-time due to torrential rain with Rangers winning 1-0.

Miller highlighted that his side need to keep tight in defence and hope to nick a goal in Romania to appease the memories of that disappointing night at Ibrox last month.

“It puts it right in our own hands again if we can win this game,” said Miller. “It obviously depends on the other score. We’ve got a home game against Stuttgart next and if we can win that as well then you never know.”

Rangers will need to attempt to upset the Champions League football odds without a number of first-team players. Madjid Bougherra, Pedro Mendes, Kirk Broadfoot and Maurice Edu are all missing for the game against Unirea Urziceni.

Walter Smith’s men have been dealt some good news as Lee McCulloch has been passed fit for the tie.

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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 victory over Getafe CF on Saturday but face a tough task in overturning Milan at home.

Kaká did not have his best match in a Real Madrid shirt since his big money move this past summer. Real will need more from him if they are to win on Matchday 4. Cristiano Ronaldo will miss this match with his knee injury still on the mend. Milan’s major absence will be Marek Jankulovski while Alessandro Nesta is listed as doubtful with a thigh strain.

I’ll be focused on this marquee match-up today but there are plenty of other quality matches that I will be trying to catch up on tonight. Here’s the complete list of Tuesday’s games (my predictions in bold):

AC Milan v Real Madrid (DRAW)
Apoel Nicosia v FC Porto
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Bayern Munich v Bordeaux (DRAW)
Besiktas v Wolfsburg
Maccabi Haifa v Juventus
Man Utd v CSKA Moscow
Marseille v FC Zurich

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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 front of the Helsinborg supporters. The player was joined on the pitch by family and friends as the capacity crowd showed their appreciation for the former Celtic, Manchester United and Barcelona striker.

Larsson could not fight back the tears after he was presented with his club’s Player of the Year award and said his goodbyes to the supporters. Video tributes from the likes of Sweden coach Lars Lagerback, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and international team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic were played at the ground. The emotional night also saw Helsingborg announce the decision to retire the No 17 shirt in Larsson’s honour.

Though he won the Champions League with Barcelona and an EPL title with Manchester United, it was at Celtic that Larsson made his name. He still holds the record as the Scottish Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer, with 158 Premier League goals. He also holds four SPL winners medals and picked up the European Golden Boot in 2000-01 while at Celtic. That same season he was also the top goalscorer in the UEFA Cup as Martin O’Neill’s side reached the final against Porto. Larsson scored twice in that match in a losing effort.

Videos of his farewell and the tributes are up on YouTube.

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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 checking out their Replay service. I think it would be well-worth the price even if I only accessed the extended highlight packages never mind the full-match replays that I’ve watched.

Now onto the big story from Matchday 3 in the Europa League, which was Everton being thrashed 5-0 by Benfica. One could argue that Everton entered the game with a weakened squad.

They have several senior players out injured (Neville, Yobo, etc) and two players are Cup-tied (Johnny Heitinga and Lucas Neill) so manager David Moyes had to field a makeshift backline due to the late withdrawal of Leighton Baines. While they did show weaknesses at the back with two inexperience fullbacks, Everton’s midfield were also outclassed depsite fielding regular starters like Tim Cahill, Marouane Fellaini and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.

It would be wrong to put the defeat solely on Everton, credit must be given to Benfica for a good performance. In particular one of European football’s forgotten stars, Javier Saviola (the former Barcelona and Real Madrid striker is pictured above), played a vital role. Saviola scored a wonderful volley and had a big part in two of the other five goals. Saviola combined nicely with midfielder Angel Di Maria, who assisted on three of the goals and nearly scored one of his own.

I have to admit that I have an affinity for the Czech Republic as well as teams from the Czech league. So it put a smile on my face to see the results from Matchday 3 for Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague. Last season’s Czech champions SK Slavia Praha have struggled mightily thus far in the Europa League with 2-0 and 5-1 losses to Genoa and Lille respectively.

Going into Thursday’s match, history was against the Czech-based side as Valencia had never lost in six games against Czech sides and were unbeaten over 90 minutes in their last 14 UEFA club competition games. To be fair to Valencia they did dominate the latter stages of the match and looked likely to go on to win, especially after Slavia’s Hocine Ragued was sent off after receiving a second booking for a foul on Rubén Baraja. David Villa was poised to be the hero again off the bench and nearly produced from the free kick resulting from Ragued’s foul. He saw his curled effort crash off the upright and Valencia’s hopes of retaining top spot crashed soon after as Villa received a straight red card for kicking out at Benjamin Vomácka.

Cross-town rivals of Slavia, AC Sparta Praha defeated Romanian club CFR 1907 Cluj by a 2-0 score to climb up to second place in Group K. The win ended a six-year drought for Sparta, who had not recorded a home victory in a European club competition group-stage since beating Lazio in the Champions League on December 9, 2003. This was the first time that CFR and Sparta had met and Sparta’s only previous home game against Romanian opponents ended in a 5-1 defeat by FC Steaua Bucuresti in the first round of the 1988/89 European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

First-half goals from Juraj Kucka and Roman Hubník settled the contest and despite Cluj pressing the home side for long periods of the match, they were unable to find a way past goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek. Group K has become tighter with PSV top on 7 points and the other three clubs (Sparta, Cluj and FC København) all within a point of each other.

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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 real drama lies elsewhere in the schedule.

One need look no further than the Real Madrid – AC Milan clash for a taste of drama. Kaka was at the centre of a massive transfer from Milan to Madrid this past summer and now comes the much anticipated meeting between the two sides. Madrid have been dominant offensively this season but as usual, their defence is capable of giving up suspect goals. Milan have struggled on all fronts, including a home loss to FC Zurich on Matchday 2. Milan scored a big win over Roma at the weekend with Ronaldinho involved in both goals so they cannot be written off so early. I am hoping for a high-scoring affair but both sides have been a little hard to predict this season. I think Madrd will just edge this one given the home-field advantage.

The other game that catches my eye is the Bayern Munich – Bordeaux clash. Bordeaux will hope for an improvement in form after consecutive losses in Ligue 1 – 3-1 away to AS Saint-Etienne and then 1-0 at AJ Auxerre this past weekend. The time could be right to defeat Bayern who will be without star wingers Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben as well as striker Ivica Oli? . Bayern will make some tactical adjustments and still have plenty to work with. In particular, keep your eye on Thomas Müller (pictured above) who has scored six goals in his last eight games, with five of those strikes coming in the final 20 minutes.

Full Wednesday schedule (my predictions in bold):
AC Milan v Real Madrid
Apoel Nicosia v FC Porto
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Bayern Munich v Bordeaux
Besiktas v Wolfsburg
Maccabi Haifa v Juventus
Manchester United v CSKA Moscow (DRAW)
Marseille v FC Zurich (DRAW)

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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 at home today against Arsenal, last season’s Eredivise champions AZ Alkmaar could be done. AZ are struggling this season, having already lost five of their ten Eredivisie matches and have only collected one point from the first two Matchdays. Coach Louis van Gaal, who guided them to the title last season, left in the summer to take over at Bayern Munich, and his successor Ronald Koeman, formerly of Barcelona, has not got the team playing at their best yet. Another loss would severely dent their hopes of even making the Europa League parachute spot.

Another club that has under-performed in recent outings is Liverpool. Life was not a beach for the Reds as a loss to Sunderland in the English Premier League on Saturday followed on the heels of a loss in the domestic league to Chelsea and a defeat in the Champions League to Fiorentina. The once-solid back four has many critics now and a loss to Lyon could have the fans and media calling for change.  Rafa Benitez  might be looking ahead to a crucial clash against Manchester United this coming weekend so it will be interesting to see what his team selection and formation will be. Benitez did indicate in his press conference on Monday that Fernando Torres would not be available so that will likely mean Dirk Kuyt starting up front on his own.

Full Tuesday schedule (my predictions in bold):
AZ v Arsenal
Barcelona v Rubin Kazan
Debreceni v Fiorentina
Inter Milan v Dynamo Kiev
Liverpool v Lyon (DRAW)
Olympiacos v Standard Liege
Rangers v Unirea Urziceni
VfB Stuttgart v Sevilla (DRAW)

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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” (pictured above) has actually lived up to the moniker thus far. He has become a fulcrum for the French side, pulling the strings in midfield and scoring from free kicks. He was even handed Juninho’s old No8 shirt for this season. Many clubs will be inquiring about him come January but they must keep in mind that the talented youngster rejected interest from Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid to move to Lyon from Metz in 2008.

2) Gergely Rudolf — striker — Debreceni VSC
The 24-year-old is in the final year of his contract and was a bright spot in a losing effort against Lyon. Rudolf made a second-half appearance after recovering from a knee injury and forced Lyon’s keeper into making several good stops. Rudolf has blossomed at Debreceni after spending 5 seasons with AS Nancy’s B team. He has recorded a good strike rate since returning to his native land and could be a target for many clubs this January.

3) Patrick ‘Paddy’ McCourt — winger — Celtic FC
McCourt has yet to appear in the Europa League for Celtic but one feels its just a matter of time before he’s given a chance to shine. McCourt has shown flashes of what Jinky Johnstone used to thrill Celtic supporters with week-in and week-out — terrific weaving runs past defenders. The former Derry City player has been outstanding at times and even managed to get Falkirk supporters to give him a standing ovation for this sublime goal. He scored an even better one against St Mirren.

4) Bryan Ruiz — striker — FC Twente
Fans of the US national team will recognize this name as he scored two cracking goals against them in the most recent World Cup qualifier. Costa Rica is currently on the outside looking in but still have a shot to qualify if they can beat Uruguay in a playoff. Ruiz’s skill and creativity will be vital if they are to have any hope. For his club, FC Twente, he has gotten off to a flying start with five goals in nine appearances. The 23-year-old was signed from KAA Gent for a reported club record fee of €5m during the summer transfer window.

5) Eliaquim Mangala — centre back — Standard Liege
I realize that this article has predominantly focused on midfielders and strikers but I would be remiss if I did not give this young man a mention. The French youngster with Congolese roots has a strong work rate and can be used as a holding midfielder or centre back. He has some technical skill as well. He scored just two minutes into his Champions League debut match against Arsenal FC with a clinical finish.

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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 (HAC) of offering financial incentives to Pogba and his family to break a verbal agreement to stay at HAC until 2011. The accusation was launched in August but Le Havre pushed forth a formal complaint in September, hot on the heels of Chelsea’s transfer ban for inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

A statement released on manutd.com said: “Manchester United is pleased to confirm that the Football Association has been authorised by Fifa to register Paul Pogba as a Manchester United player with immediate effect.”

Reaction to the decision by the world press is mixed. Le Figaro, a leading French newspaper, writes that United exploited loopholes and repeats rumours that inducements of cash and a home for Pogba’s family were used to lure him to England. Le Havre have an outstanding reputation in developing young players, nurturing players like Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra and Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia as well as Atletico Madrid’s Florent Sinama-Pongolle, who moved from the French club to Liverpool, before going to Spain.

This was not the first time United had their recruitment policies called into question. Italian club Lazio were unhappy over United’s pursuit and signing of Federico Macheda, who was 16 when he moved to Old Trafford in 2007. There are many who believe that academy players should be protected from the advances of overseas clubs until they are 18. Others will say that players who join big clubs receive a footballing education superior to the one they would get at a smaller club.

Le Havre have the right to appeal FIFA’s decision so we might not have heard the last of this case.

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The UEFA Champions League is only in the group stage but realistically there are only a handful of teams who have a chance to win. So, who are the favorites to win and how are they looking so far? Here’s a look at the favorites to win the Champions League trophy in May and their current form.

FC Barcelona (1)

They’ve looked strong in La Liga and appear ready to make another deep run in this season’s Champions League. Lionel Messi continues to be one of the greatest players in the world and newly signed striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has adapted quickly to the club. Until they are knocked off, they will remain the favorites to repeat.

Chelsea (2)

Right now Chelsea are in great form and could challenge Barcelona for the trophy in May. The transfer window ban could hurt if they have any significant injuries but (fingers crossed) they are firing on all cylinders.

Real Madrid (3)

They spent a ton of money in the offseason and not winning at least one trophy would make this season a disappoint for RM. Ronaldo thrives in the Champions League but won’t have to carry the club with Kaka, Alonso, and Benzema on the roster. They had one slip up in the La Liga but are looking stronger than Man U but just behind Chelsea and Barcelona. They still have to prove that they are for real.

Manchester United (4)

Man U have not impressed so far in the season and will miss Cristiano Ronaldo. They do not appear to have the players to beat Barcelona but could make a signing in the winter transfer window. Sir Alex Ferguson will be able to get United into the knockout stage but right now they would struggle to make the final.

Arsenal (5)

Could this be the year that Arsenal sneaks into the final or actually wins? Well, its possible but not likely. A trip into the quarters or semis is within reach but they will have trouble getting past one of the other favorites. Also, relying on a team youth is prone to inconsist performances, especially on the road.

Liverpool (6)

The team seems a bit lost after losing Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Fernando Torres is one of the top strikers but overall the club has disappointed in the past few season. Steven Gerrard and Torres will have to carry this team if they want to knock off Barcelona or Chelsea.

Inter Milan (7)

Will Jose Mourinho’s team be able to have Champions League success? They have shown their ability to dominated in the Serie A but have struggled in the Champions League. A draw in their first two group stage matches is not a good start but they should be able to make the knockout stage. Don’t underestimate Mourinho’s ability as a manager as they could easily make the quarters or semis.

Jonathon Feyerherm is creater and editor of the The 90th Minute Soccer Blog and Free Soccer Highlights

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Wednesday night sees last years runners up Manchester United take centre stage, as they face Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg at Old Trafford. Both teams got off to a winning start in week one but with home advantage, it’s United that will be under the most pressure to perform in week two.

Wolfsburg have hit a good patch of form after a slow start to the domestic season and will go into the match full of confidence following a a 4-2 win over Hannover 96 at the weekend.

In Edin Dzeko and Grafite, Wolfsburg have one of the most potent attacking partnerships in the competition. Last season they scored 54 goals between them in a hugely successful league campaign and this season Grafite has already shown his quality in the Champions League competition, with a hat-trick against CSKA Moscow.

Wolfsburg may be the team in form but the biggest club in Germany is still Bayern Munich and they will have a chance to show their class when they play Juventus at the Allianz Arena. Juve will be no pushovers though and have a point to prove after only managing a draw in their opener with Bordeaux.

Group C contains two giants of the European game, experiencing vastly contrasting starts to the season. The two clubs have won the tournament 14 times between them but while Madrid are second favourites to add to their tally, an ageing Milan side are now classed as outsiders after an awful start to their domestic campaign.

The Rossoneri currently sit 11^th in Serie A and will be taking nothing for granted at home to FC Zurich, while Madrid will be expected to maintain their 100% start in all competitions, with victory over Marseille.

Finally, Group D plays host to two intriguing fixtures as Cypriot minnows Apoel play host to Chelsea and struggling Athletico Madrid travel to Porto. Apoel picked up an unexpected point at Athletico in their first fixture and will be hoping to take advantage of a Chelsea side still reeling from a weekend defeat against Wigan.

The La Liga outfit meanwhile, will be desperate for any positives, after an awful start to the season that has resulted in fan protests outside the Vicente Calderon stadium.

Wednesday 30^th September

(KO 19:45 unless stated otherwise)

A: Bayern Munich v Juventus

A: Bordeaux v Maccabi Haifa

B: CSKA Moscow v Besiktas (17:30)

B: Manchester United v Wolfsburg

C: Real Madrid v Marseille

C: AC Milan v FC Zurich

D: Apoel Nicosia v Chelsea

D: FC Porto v Atletico Madrid

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