Here is your group by group guide.

Group A

Bordeaux, who many people thought would be third best in this group, have waltzed away into the distance, and have qualified for the knockout stage in the New Year. Which means one of the giants, Bayern or Juventus will be in the UEFA Cup at best. At the moment, it seriously looks like its Bayern. The German side have 4 points, to Juve’s 8. The two still have to play, but if Juve beat an already through Bordeaux its all over and The Old Lady are through. If not, it could well come down to that one game. Which would be awesome.

Group B

Man United are through after a draw with CSKA Moscow. Wolfsburg sit second with 7 points, three more than CSKA with 4. Wolfsburg still have to host an already through Man United, if United win, it is likely to come down to the two sides playing one another on the 25th of November.

Group C

No-one yet through from this group, which is exceptionally tight. Milan and Real Madrid sit on 7 points, with OM just behind on six. OM are in the worst position as they still have both the other two to play. Fate is in their hands then…

Group D

Group is over, Porto and Chelsea are in the knockouts. Atleti and APOEL fight it out for the UEFA Cup.

Group E

Lyon through, in what is proving a strong year for the French. Fiorentina sit second on 9 points, while Liverpool are third with just 4. Fiorentina need a win over already qualified Lyon in a couple of weeks and they’ll be through. If they draw, a point will be enough against Liverpool in the final game. Thinks not looking good for Rafa Benitez.

Group F

Again, no-one yet through from here. Inter sit just about top, on 6. While Rubin’s taking of 4 points from Barcelona has put them second, with the defending champions are level points in third. Suddenly the forthcoming game between Inter and Barca is massive, a win there could put either side in a very good position, while a loss really leaves them in trouble. Dynamo Kiev are still not out of the running either – bottom but only a point back from Rubin and Barcelona, and only two back from Inter. All to play for.

Group G

Sevilla are through. Any of the others, Unirea, Rangers and Stuttgart could get through here too, again, all to play for.

Group H

Arsenal just need one point from two games and they are through, so job pretty much done. Olymmpiacos have 6 points in second place, while Standard have 4 just behind them. Both have work to do, but its all possible.

What an incredible set of results. Liverpool falling into further turmoil. The European Champions beaten by Rubin Kazan. 7 Goals between Fiorentina and Debrecen.

But we should probably start at Camp Nou, where this happened:

Rubin Kazan went into the game with the absurd odds of 46-1, which in a one off match is a bit ridiculous. But it gives an idea into how much of a chance anyone sane would give them. And yet.

A brilliant opening goal silenced Camp Nou, but deep down, we were all thinking Barca would probably get right back into it. They did, with a great goal from Ibrahimovic (who was Barca’s main source of everything). They then did everything but score, but Kazan held their nerve, rode their luck, and scored again. The European Champions, beaten.

Meanwhile at Anfield, Liverpool have made things hard for themselves losing to Lyon.

They started without Fernando Torres, and lost Steven Gerrard to injury early on. They had an early goal disallowed, which all suggests that the luck, again is not with Rafa’s men.

But they went 1-0 up, and after the goal, Liverpool looked the better team. But after Half-Time, Lyon came out all guns blazing, and scored two good goals (especially the winner) and Liverpool never looked the better side after the break. Lyon now in a great position to get through the group.

Inter meanwhile are winless in Europe for almost a year after only managing a draw against Dynamo Kiev. Jose Mourinho has resolutely not worked the magic he worked on Porto and to a lesser extent Chelsea in the Champions League. Inter still look to be struggling in Europe in the same way they were before. Prepare for the Jose to Anfield rumours.

Elsewhere, for Serie A, Fiorentina did eventually get the job done away to Debrecen. Goals galore here for you to enjoy, in a game that finished 3-4.

Alright, you don’t need to remind me of his stellar record, especially in international football where he can get smaller teams a long way in competitions, where seemingly they have little right. But over the two legs against Chelsea, I think he got it badly wrong.

First off, by going so defensive in the first leg, and not looking to score an away goal, he surely – surely, invited this kind of thing to happen. He knew that by getting that 0-0, Chelsea needed to beat Barcelona, a side that has scored approx. 1,476 goals this season, outright.

And they nearly did. But its going to be pretty tricky to hold off that front line for 180 minutes, and not concede somewhere along the line. Indeed, Bojan should have sealed the game in the first leg, and Barca could have easily been given a penalty in that game too.

Chelsea attacked more in this second leg – as they had to – but there were still some odd tactical choices. Against a ten-men side for example, he brings off his solitary striker (Anelka was on the pitch still, but he was out wide) Drogba off and bought on Beletti, a defender-come-defensive midfielder. This is surely asking for Barca to attack and come get the one goal they needed?

On a side-note, as dodgy as the referee’s game was, I don’t think Chelsea can blame that either. Guus Hiddink has suggested that some influential people might not have wanted a all-English final again, but this stupid stuff has to stop. There is no UEFA conspiracy. Why wouldn’t the Henry penalty been given last week? Why would Abidal have been sent off? Come off it. Its just paranoid madness.

There is a real element of doubt over the Fletcher card though – as he appeared to nick the ball as he got tangled up with the Catalan Kid. But whatever the rights and wrongs of the call, Manchester Unitied cannot appeal the sending off, unless its a case of mistaken identity.

Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t his usual raging self in the after match interview, calling the referee, Roberto Rosetti “One of the best”.

But that’s probably because he knows he can’t do anything about it.

If it was the Premier League, the ref would be allowed to look at it again and admit he made a mistake, and it would be looked over by the FA, who would decide whether the red card was justified. So should UEFA implement a similar system?

On the face of it, it would seem that they probably should.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of a touch and go call in this case (you can definitely see why the ref would react the way he did, its only the slowest replay that suggests a touch from Fletcher on the ball), if a referee – however unlikely as these are supposed to be the best officials in the game – makes a bad call, it seems bad that a player could miss the biggest match of his club (or in Fletcher’s case entire) career based on a mistake.

Obviously you don’t want it to go too far, where referee’s are completely underminded, and fans just assume that every call is going to be appealed. Indeed there is long suspected (and probably unfounded) suspicion from English club fans that the big clubs usually get the advantage of such appeals from the English FA. The last thing we want is that creeping into the Champions League.

So where do you stand, should Man United have the right of appeal?

So the first leg of the first semi-final has finished, goalless. The first game this season that Barcelona have failed to score, and Chelsea’s tactic of making sure the Catalan side didn’t score certainly worked. But how much of a good idea was the “park the bus” tactic?

Certainly they did had an admirable job on Barca, who for long stretches of the game failed to create any real clear-cut efforts. Lots of shots came from range or at tricky angles, and the best chance of the first half actually fell to Didier Drogba, who really should have scored, despite Valdes heroics.

Barca showed that it’ll be tricky to shackle them for the full 90 minutes though – late on in the game, Bojangoals missed what should have been a textbook header, and Hleb forced a good save from Cech, and then followed it up with a rush of blood to the head that saw the ball in row z.

So Barca had to fight hard for their chances, but they were very good chances, that they really ought to have taken. The big question is, can Chelsea keep them out for another 90 minutes, and score themselves?

Afterall, at Stamford Bridge, they are going to have to push forwards, they have to score to win the game. This will allow that Barca front line to get a bit of room and create chances. And of course, if Barca score, its an away goal, and Chelsea have to score twice. If they do they have to push forward, and you can only see that leading to more goals from the Catalan giants.

On the other hand, Chelsea will go into the second leg with a slightly renewed confidence. They were all but written off going into this Semi Final, and now they’ve shown that they can go toe-to-toe with Barca, at the Nou Camp, and come out fine. They will have the home advantage in London next week.

And perhaps, after a tricky game against Valencia at the weekend and todays showing, perhaps for Barcelona the pressure and expectation is begining to show. They also will probably go into the second leg with a somewhat makeshift defence – Puyol will miss the second leg suspended and Marquez limped off under no challenge in the Second Half.

It certainly should be a more exciting second leg than first. And I maintain that Barca might just have that slight advantage.

Group A we may as well begin in, and Roma might have been worried when a half-strength team took to the field against a free-scoring Chelsea, but the teams were seperated by just one goal, a John Terry header from a CK. Meanwhile surprise package Cluj suffered a defeat at the hands of Bordeaux, which throws qualification for this group wide open.

The Table at Half Time

Chelsea 7
Cluj 4
Roma 3
Bordeaux 3

In Group B, Adriano secured a safe 1-0 win for Inter over Anorthosis, while Werder Bremen and Panathinaikos played out a cracking 2-2 draw. Bremen nearly nicked it at the end, but a draw was probably a fair reflection. Table as below.

Inter 7
Anorthosis 4
Bremen 3
Panathinaikos 1

If there were meant to be less goals today than yesterday, noone told Group C. Well one side anyway. Barcelona put 5 past Basel. Leo Messi, Busquets, Bojangoals (twice) and Xavi were the goalscorers. Who needs Eto’o and Henry eh?
In the other game Sporting nicked a 1-0 against Shaktar

Barca 9
Sporting 6
Shakthar 3
Basel 0

Finally, Group D. Liverpool can count themselves very lucky, as not only did they open the scores with a questionable Robbie Keane goal, Atletico had a goal disalowed for offside even though it was legit. The game finished 1-1. In the bottom of the group clash, PSV stuck 2 past Marseilles.

Liverpool 7
Atletico 7
PSV 3
Marseilles 0

36 goals across the games, including two goals from Offside positions for Dietmar Berbatov, a briliant one from Alessandro Del Piero, Five different scorer’s for Arsenal (six if you include a Silvestre own goal) in Arsenal’s visit to ‘Hell’ made it a bit easier than thier visit to Hull, and nine goals in Villarreal’s game against Aaolborg just some of the many topsy turvy highlights on offer.

Full Roundup after that there, jump.

Juventus against Real Madrid was arguably the tastiest fixture on paper at the begining of the games, and it looked to all kick off when Del Piero scored inside five minutes with a beautiful strike that left Iker Casillas standing. The game never really ignited though. Real failed to perform in the first half, and Juve kept them out, and it looked to be over when Amauri scored a second half header. Real suddenly found thier grove, playing wider, and Ruud Van Nistolrooy got a unmarked header to put Real back in the game. Snijder hit the post, but it finished 2-1 to Juve.

The other game in that group was a draw, between BATE and Zenit St Petersberg. The Russian side completely dominated, but could easily have come away with nothing, a late goal rescued a draw.

At the half way stage, that group now looks like this:

Juventus 7
Real Madrid 6
BATE 2
Zenit St Petersburg 1

Nine goals came in Villarreals win over Aalborg, it finished 6-3. Substitute Llorente grabbed a hat trick with a last minute goal, to cap off a remarkable match. Fans certainly got their money’s worth, whichever side they support.

Elsewhere, Celtic’s bad luck on the road continues, losing 3-0 after Dietmar Berbatov scored two goals from offside positions. Wayne Rooney capped off the scoring at Old Trafford.

At the Half Way Stage, That Group Looks Like This:

Manchester United 7
Villarreal 7
Celtic 1
Aalborg 1

In the group of Death, Bayern took on Fiorentina, and despite a shakey performance, La Viola couldn’t punish them, and the German side ran out 3-0 winners. Bayern took the chances that they had, early and late in the game, while Fiorentina scuffed their chances. That’s the difference at this level.

Lyon had to fight back from behind to beat Steaua 5-3, a result which seems them move up to second in the group. The French side had gone down, and it looked like another miserable night for French sides in the CL, but the showed their fighting power, and attacking quality to come back.

At the halfway stage The Group of Death looks like this

Bayern 7
Lyon 5
Fiorentina 2
Steaua 1

The intimidating atmosphere is always talked up when teams travel to Turkey, but it didn’t phase Arsenal tonight who ran out 5-2 winners, with five different scorers, Adebayour, Wallcott, Ramsey, Diaby and Song Bilong all getting on the scoresheet. So did Mikel Silvestre, but it was at the wrong end.

The other game in that group was the dullest of the lot, with Dinamo Kiev nicking a 1-0 against FC Porto. A beautiful 30 yard free kick was the difference between the two sides.

Half way, and the group looks like this

Arsenal 7
Kiev 5
Porto 3
Fener 1

Lets hope tomorrow is as exciting.