FC Zenit forges ahead

In Russia, FC Zenit is top with the maximum 21 points from the first seven games of the season, beating Dinamo Moskva before Tuesday's visit to Lisbon, Portugal, where André Villas-Boas' side plays Sport Lisboa e Benfica. Chelsea is isolated in the lead of the Premiership, Atlético beat Real in the Madrid derby.

FC Zenit forges ahead. 53572.jpeg

This year I present the European football leagues, the Champions League and Europa League and the UEFA qualifying matches on the same page so that our readers can see what is going on in European soccer at a glance.

UEFA National Championships 2014-2015

Chempionat Rossii - Russian Premier League (After 7 matches)

1. FC Zenit Saint Petersburg 21 points; 2. CSKA Moskva; 3. FC Dinamo Moskva; 4. FC Kuban Krasnodar; 5. Spartak Moskva, all on 15 points. Zenit received and beat third-placed Dinamo Moskva, 3-2; CSKA narrowly beat Arsenal Tula at home by 2-1; Kuban Krasnodar lost at home 0-2 to Ufa and Spartak Moskva beat local rival Torpedo 3-1.

Premier League (England) (After 4 matches)

Chelsea FC is the only totalist after 4 matches with the maximum 12 points. Aston Villa follows on 10 and Swansea City has 9. Chelsea beat Swansea City 4-2 in London, with a hat-trick from Diego Costa, while Aston Villa came away from Liverpool FC with a 1-0 victory and three points.

La Liga (Spain) (After 3 matches)

FC Barcelona has the maximum 9 points from 3 matches, followed by Valencia CF, Sevilla FC and Club Atlético de Madrid on 7. A brace of goals from Neymar saw Barça beat Athletic (bilbao) at home; Valencia saw off Espanyol 3-1; Sevilla beat Getafe 2-0 and Atlético won in Real's stadium 2-1 with goals from Tiago and Alba Turan. Cristiano Ronaldo scored from the penalty spot for Real Madrid.

Bundesliga (Germany) (After 3 matches)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FC Bayern München and Hannover 96 lead with seven points from three games. Leverkusen drew 3-3 at home with Werder Bremen, Bayern beat Stuttgart at home by 2-0, the same result as Hannover's win over Hamburg, also at home.

Ligue 1 (France) (After 5 matches)

LOSC Lille leads with 11 points (2-0 winners over Nantes), Olympique de Marseille is second with 10 (3-1 victors at Évian); third is FC Girondins de Bordeaux (10 points) losing 2-1 at Guingcamp and fourth is AS Saint-Étienne (10 points), 1-0 winners over Caen.

Serie A (Italy) (After 2 matches)

AC Milan, Juventus and AS Roma all have the maximum six points from the first two games. AC Milan won away at Parma in a nine-goal thriller, coming home with a 5-4 victory; Juventus beat Udinese 2-0 in Turin and Roma won 1-0 at Empoli.

Primeira Liga (Portugal) (After 4 matches)

Four teams share top spot with ten points: Rio Ave FC, Vitória SC (Guimarães), SL Benfica and FC Porto. Rio Ave came away from Moreirense with a 1-1 draw, the same result between Vitória Guimarães and FC Porto (both from the penalty spot) while Benfica thrashed Setúbal away 5-0.

Premer Liga (Ukraine) After 6 matches

 FC Shakhtar Donetsk, maximum 18 points from 6 matches, followed by FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (16). Shakhtar beat Chornomorets Odesa 2-0 away while Dnipro won 5-2 at Metalist's stadium in Kharkiv.

In Romania, after 7 games, FC Steaua Bucureşti leads with 18 points, followed by CFR 1907 Cluj on 16 and FC Astra Giurgiu on 15. Steaua beat Gaz Metan 3-1; Cluj beat Astra 4-1..

In Armenia, after 6 games, the leader is Ulisses FC with 16 points (2-0 winners at Alashkert); second is FC Pyunik (12 points, 4-0 winners at home over Ararat) and third, FC Gandzasar, 10 points (3-1 home victory over Banants).

In the Azerbaijan Premier League (Topaz Premyer Liqası), Sumqayit FK leads with 12 points out of 5 games (1-0 over MKT Araz) while Inter Baki PIK is second on 10 points (1-0 defeat at Xäzär Länkäran).

Champions League: The Groups

Matchday 1 September 16,17

Playing Tuesday September 16

Group A: Juventus v. Malmö; Olympiacos v. Atlético

Group B: Liverpool v. Ludogorets Razgrad; Real Madrid v. Basel

Group C: SL Benfica v. FC Zenit; Monaco v. Leverkusen

Group D: Dortmund v. Arsenal; Galatasaray v. Anderlecht

Russia has two teams in the Champions League Group Phase: FC Zenit (Saint Petersburg) and PFC CSKA Moskva (Moscow). Zenit is in Group C with SL Benfica (Portugal), Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany) and AS Monaco FC (France), while PFC CSKA Moskva is in Group E, with FC Bayern München (Germany), Manchester City FC (England) and AS Roma (Italy).

Group A: Club Atlético de Madrid (Spain), Juventus (Italy), Olympiacos FC (Greece), Malmö FF (Sweden) 

Group B: Real Madrid CF (Spain), FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland), Liverpool FC (England), PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)

Group C: SL Benfica (Portugal), FC Zenit (Russia), Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany), AS Monaco FC (France)

Group D: Arsenal FC (England), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Galatasaray AŞ (Turkey), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium)

Group E: FC Bayern München (Germany), Manchester City FC (England), PFC CSKA Moskva (Russia), AS Roma (Italy)

Group F: FC Barcelona (Spain), Paris Saint-Germain (France), AFC Ajax (Netherlands), APOEL FC (Cyprus)

Group G: Chelsea FC (England), FC Schalke 04 (Germany), Sporting Clube de Portugal (Portugal), NK Maribor (Slovenia)

Group H: FC Porto (Portugal), FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Athletic Club (Spain), FC BATE Borisov (Belarus)  

England (4): Liverpool FC, Arsenal FC, Manchester City FC, Chelsea FC

Germany (4): Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern München, FC Schalke 04

Spain (4): Club Atlético de Madrid, Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona, Athletic Club (Bilbao)

Portugal (3): SL Benfica, FC Porto, Sporting Clube de Portugal

France (2): AS Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain

Italy (2): Juventus, AS Roma

Russia (2): FC Zenit, PFC CSKA Moskva

Belarus (1): FC BATE Borisov

Belgium (1): RSC Anderlecht

Bulgaria (1): PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

Cyprus (1): APOEL FC

Greece (1): Olympiacos FC

Netherlands (1): AFC Ajax

Slovenia (1): NK Maribor

Sweden (1): Malmö

Switzerland (1): FC Basel 1893

Turkey (1): Galatasaray AŞ

Ukraine (1): FC Shakhtar Donetsk

The qualifiers

August 27

Alexis Sánchez puts Arsenal FC through to the group phase of the UEFA Champions League for the seventeenth consecutive season, an amazing feat for manager Arsene Wenger, approaching the totallists Real Madrid, FC Porto and until this season, Manchester United. Steaua Bucureşti went out on penalties and this year misses out on the Champions League.

Malmö 3 Salzburg 0 (aggregate 4-2); Arsenal 1 Besiktas 0 (1-0); Athletic 3 Napoli 1 (4-2); Ludogorets 1 Steaua 0 (1-1, 6-5 on penalties); Leverkusen 4 Kobenhaven 0 (7-2)

First leg

Salzburg 2 Malmö 1; Besiktas 0 Arsenal 0; Napoli 1 Athletic 1; Steaua 1 Ludogorets 0; Kobenhavn 2 Leverkusen 3;

August 26

FC Porto 2 Lille 0 (aggregate 3-0); Zenit 3 Standard Liège 0 (4-0); Celtic 0 Maribor 1 (1-2); BATE 3 Slovan Bratislava 0 ( 4-1); APOEL 4 AaB 0 (5-1)

First leg

Lille 0 FC Porto 1; Standard de Liège 0 Zenit 1; Maribor 1 Celtic 1; Slovan Bratislava 1 BATE 1; Aab 1 APOEL 1

Zenit passes to the group phase of the Champions League after beating Standard de Liège (Belgium) over two legs, 1-0 away in Belgium and 3-0 at home tonight in Saint Petersburg. The goalscorers for André Villas-Boas' team were Rondón (30') and a brace from Hulk, a penalty on 54' and another on 58'. Zenit, Porto, BATE, Maribor and APOEL pass.

UEFA Europa League

Thursday  September 18

Group A Apollon Limassol V FC Zürich; Borussia Mönchengladbach V Villarreal

Group B Club Brugge V Torino; FC Copenhagen V HJK Helsinki

Group C Besiktas V Asteras Tripolis; Partizan Belgrade V Tottenham

Group D Dinamo Zagreb V Astra Giurgiu; FC Red Bull Salzburg V Celtic

Group E Panathinaikos V Dynamo Moscow; PSV V Estoril Praia

Group G Sevilla V Feyenoord; Standard Liège V HNK Rijeka

Group H Everton V VfL Wolfsburg; Lille V FK Krasnodar

Group I BSC Young Boys V Slovan Bratislava; Napoli V Sparta Prague

Group J Rio Ave V Dynamo Kiev; Steaua Bucharest V Aalborg BK

Group K Fiorentina V Guingamp; PAOK Salonika V Dinamo Minsk

Group L Legia Warsaw V KSC Lokeren; Metalist Kharkiv V Trabzonspor

UEFA 2016 Campaign Kick-off

Fabio Capello's Russia began the campaign for the UEFA European Cup Finals in France in 2016 with a 4-0 win over Liechtenstein in Khimki at the Arena Khimki. Two own goals from Martin Buechel on 4' and Franz Burgmeier on 50', a penalty from Dmitry Kombarov on 54' and a strike by Artem Dzyuba on 65' fixed the scoreline in the Group G tie.

Group A

Kazakhstan 0 Latvia 0

Czech Republic 2 Netherlands 1

Iceland 3 Turkey 0

Group B

Andorra 1 Wales 2

Bosnia-Herzegovina 1 Cyprus 2

Belgium and Israel have not played yet

Israel v. Belgium Match postponed September 9; This match will be played March 31, 2015

Group C

Spain 5 Macedonia 1

Ukraine 0 Slovakia 1

Luxembourg 1 Belarus 1

Group D

Georgia 1 Republic of Ireland 2

Germany 2 Scotland 1

Gibraltar 0 Poland 7

Group E

Estonia 1 Slovenia 0

San Marino 0 Lithuania 2

Switzerland 0 England 2

Group F

Hungary 1 Northern Ireland 2

Faroe Isles 1 Finland 3

Greece 0 Romania 1

Group G

Russia 4 Liechtenstein 0

Austria 1 Sweden 1

Montenegro 2 Moldova 0

Group H

Azerbaijan 1 Bulgaria 2

Croatia 2 Malta 0

Norway 0 Italy 2

Group I

Denmark 2 Armenia 1

Portugal 0 Albania 1

Serbia has not played yet

Fixtures:

There are ten matchdays for the group stage, and two matchdays for the play-offs

Matchdays 2014

1 - September 7-9; 2 - October 9-11; 3 - October 12-14; 4 - November 14-16;

2015

5 - March 27-29; 6 - June 12-14; 7 - September 3-5; 8 - September 6-8; 9 - October 8-10;

10 - October 11-13;

Playoff First leg November 12-14; Playoff Second leg November 15-17

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

([email protected])