The group stage of Champions League 2009-10 is over and now its time for the knockout stages. The teams for the knockout stage are finalized by a draw. This is done by dividing the 16 qualified teams in two pots. The first pot will consist the top team from each of the eight groups and the second pot will consist the runners up teams from each group. All the teams will be place in an alphabetical order in their pots as follows;

Pot 1

Arsenal
Chelsea
Man Utd
Bordeaux
Fiorentina
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Sevilla

Pot 2

Lyon
Olympiacos
Bayern Munich
VfB Stuttgart
Milan
Inter
Porto
CSKA Moscow

A random team from pot 1 will be pitted against a random team from pot 2 which will be finalized by a draw. The draw is scheduled on 18th Dec 2009. All the big teams are looking in great shape to qualify for the quarter finals as there were not many upsets in this year’s group stage apart from Liverpool. So all teams are hoping for a weaker team to play against in the knock out stage.

After facing defeat on home soil, the Irish players were motivated to a win tonight against football powerhouse France. The match was too intense as a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals was at stake. As disclosed by Giovanni Trapattoni, the Italian coach for Ireland’s national team, Irish players were once again successful in scoring an away goal. A beautiful strike from Tottenham Hotspur star Robbie Keane in the 32nd minute made sure that the match was going to the wire.

France was attacking with full strength with every second passing. Anelka and Henry from Chelsea and Barcelona respectively, tried very hard to score but in vain. Manchester United left back, Patrice Evra was also disappointing tonight as he missed some important chances and so did Arsenal’s Gallas and Real Madrid’s Diarra. Gallas’s Arsenal team mate Sagna was impressive throughout the 90 minutes.

Ireland too had a set of good and bad players for the night. Manchester United regular John O’Shea was unfortunate as he was injured and was visibly limping because of which he was substituted in the 66th minute. Manchester City goalie Shay Given made some good saves tonight and kept the score at 0-1 for 90 minutes.

The match entered extra time as the score over two legs remained 1-1. In the 103rd minute, France was awarded a free kick near midfield by Swedish referee Martin Hansson. Malouda lobbed the ball into the penalty box which was clearly controlled by Henry using his left hand near the left post before volleying it towards Gallas who easily headed the ball into the net. The referee allowed the goal and the Irish players pleas fell to deaf ears.

After the goal, France was in control of the game as they had an upper hand now. Ireland tried attacking but their efforts didn’t seem to trouble the French defense. The match ended in a draw after extra time. France goes through to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup Finals and Ireland goes back home as if all their efforts were for nothing.

Manchester United regained the top spot in the league as Chelsea who were playing away this afternoon, lost 2-1 to Aston Villa. Manchester United defeated Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at Old Trafford. The first goal came soon in the 5th minute in the form of an own goal when Evra’s cross into the box was directed into the goal post by Bolton defender Zat Knight.

Ecuadorian Antonio Valencia scored his first goal for Manchester United and it was a goal he won’t forget. In the 33rd minute Valencia pierced through the Bolton defense and with a little help from Neville scored the second goal of the day for United. United kept attacking and if they had converted those chances, the scoreboard at Old Trafford would have seen a double figure score sheet today.

But the last 15 minutes of the match saw a sudden surge from the Bolton side who scored in the 75th minute through Taylor and kept the entire stadium on their feet till the final whistle and for once Old Trafford was delighted for no late goals.

Chelsea looked set to win the match when Drogba netted in the 15th minute. But the home team was not going to give up and won the match by scoring a goal in each half of the match. Dunne equalized in the 32nd minute while Collins scored the winner in the 52nd minute.

Liverpool suffered their 3rd defeat this season when they lost 1-0 to Sunderland this afternoon. Bent scored the only goal early in the 5th minute, surprising the visitors. Arsenal defeated Birmingham City 3-1 at the Emirates.

The only team that secured an away win this afternoon was Tottenham Hotspurs who defeated Portsmouth who continued their poor form this season as they have only 3 points from the 9 games played. Stoke defeated West Ham by 2-1 whereas Everton managed to draw at home against Wolves. Everton were saved from embarrassment when Bilyaletdinov scored in the 88th minute to equalize for the home team.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has replied to his Arsenal counterpart, Arsene Wenger’s accusations regarding his team’s performance during the league encounter by backing FIFA’s ban on Eduardo. Earlier this week, the 26 years old Brazil born Croatian player was punished by the football’s governing body FIFA. Eduardo was found guilty of diving in a match against Celtic midweek in a Champions League playoff.

Eduardo’s dive proved fatal for Celtic as the referee awarded penalty to Arsenal for the foul on Eduardo by Celtic keeper Artur Boruc. Television replays clearly showed that Boruc had not made any contact with Eduardo and referee had given the wrong decision. Though Arsenal went on to win the match by 3-1, Eduardo’s penalty probably killed the match.

Later, the same week Arsenal played Manchester United which was eventually lost by Arsenal. The defeat left Arsene Wenger furious and declared that Manchester United played anti football just to stop the rhythmic passing football of Arsenal. He also accused that playing anti football was a much greater crime than diving, referring to Eduardo’s ban by FIFA.

Alex Ferguson in a fitting reply has backed FIFA’s ban on Eduardo. He also added that there is no way a coach asks his player to do such things as that would lessen a team’s morale. A coach has to be defensive for his players actions and he believes what Wenger did was alright in a way.

England national team looked upbeat as Terry was declared fit to play for a friendly against Slovenia on Sunday which gave him good practice for the Thursday’s qualifier against Croatia. Rooney believes the England team under Coach Fabio Capello has enough depth to win the 2010 FIFA world cup and in a way avenge 2008 EURO loss.