First few clinch in Champions

The longer I leave this post unfinished, the older the news gets. But here it is.

Champions League matchday 4 has come and passed, with some boring games and some thrillers, and the results are that 6 of the 16 spots for the knockout stage have been filled. Here are the advancing teams:

Group B: Bayern
Group C: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven
Group D: Valencia
Group E: Lyon, Real Madrid
Group H: Milan*

*As Gazzetta rightly described the situation, "Qualificazione agli ottavi: manca solo l'aritmetica." Milan will clinch as long as they don't lose their next match by more than three goals, so consider them in.

Let's see how my predictions for those advancing are holding up:

Barca, Bremen, Bayern, Inter, Liverpool, Eindhoven, Valencia, Olimpiacos, Real Madrid, Lyon, Man U, Benfica, Arsenal, Porto, Milan, Lille

Wow! Seven for seven so far. It remains to see how accurate the rest are (especially my wishful thinking that Olimpiacos will beat out Roma merda).

One final matter regarding this past week in Champions League. It appeared that the Milan derby was the match of the week on Saturday. Then Fiorentina - Palermo surpassed that in excitement. But Chelsea's heroics against Barca to salvage a 2-2 draw on Tuesday were incredible. If you haven't had a chance to see the match, at least check out Frank Lampard's physics-defying goal. This is one of those shots that had no right to even be attempted, but got the result. There's also some quality footage of Samuel Eto'o doing commentary. Check it out. Champions returns in two and a half weeks.