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MUMBAI:
A football feast is in the offing for fans on Ten Sports, the most
watched sports channel in the Sub-continent, when it telecasts live
and exclusive the Matchday 4 ties of the UEFA Champions League,
the premier club football tournament in the world.
The
four matches which will be telecast early mornings of November 5
and 6 involve four leading teams from the eight groups – Group
A leaders Chelsea, Group D joint leaders Liverpool and Atlético
Madrid, Group E leaders Manchester United and Group F leaders Arsenal.
On
Tuesday, November 4 (telecast on Wednesday, November 5 at 12:30
am IST), Liverpool take on Atlético, followed by Chelsea’s
match against Roma at 3.15 AM, IST. The next day, at the same times,
Manchester United will be away at Celtic and Arsenal will be home
against Fenerbahçe.
Liverpool’s
match against Atlético is perhaps the best match of Matchday
4, with both teams vying for the top position in the group. Liverpool
will hope striker Fernando Torres will be fit to face his old team,
having missed their 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital.
While
Torres will be up against his former club, the same applies to Atlético
stars Luis Garcia and Florent Sinama Pongolle, who will be heading
back to their former club on Merseyside. Both teams will be looking
to book their place in the last 16 and Liverpool will take confidence
from the fact that they are unbeaten in seven European home ties.
Group
A leaders Chelsea will be looking to build up on their 1-0 draw
at Stamford Bridge. Just when it appeared as if Roma would hold
out for a draw, John Terry struck with a splendid header 13 minutes
from time to give his team a four-point advantage at the top. Roma
remain in third place with three points from three games, but with
two home fixtures remaining there is still an opportunity for them
to revive their challenge and there would be no better way to start
that process than a win against Chelsea.
Celtic
will be at home against Manchester United and will need another
heroic performance like their 1-0 win against the English Premier
League champions two years ago. Celtic lost their away match to
United 3-0 a fortnight back, and with just one point from three
matches so far, they will enter the contest with modest ambitions
of just keeping their hopes alive in Group E. Sir Alex Ferguson’s
men can secure a last-16 berth with a win. United have not lost
a single away match in the competition for their last seven matches.
Having
beaten Fenerbahçe, 5-2 in Istanbul, Arsenal will be looking
to record an easy win and secure early progress to the UEFA Champions
League knockout stages when the teams meet for the second part of
their back-to-back encounters on November 6, starting 3:15 AM IST.
The
UEFA Champions League format sees top European club teams begin
with three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving
teams join 16 seeded teams in a group stage. Eight group winners
and eight runners-up enter the final knockout rounds, which end
with the final match in May. Real Madrid is the most successful
team with nine titles, followed by AC Milan, who have seven. Liverpool
have won the League five times.
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