Champions League, 7.45pm, Sky Sports Xtra, Free £10 bet

Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted that it wouldn’t be a surprise if Chelsea were to lose in Romania tonight but, considering the start they have made to the season, not many people believe him. However, our pals at chickendinner believe that even if the Blues avoid their first defeat of the season against CFR Cluj, there’s no way they’ll leave with three points. Here’s why:

1. Chelsea have won their first four away games this season but in the last twenty years Chelsea have only once - 2003-04 - got through their first five on the road without dropping a point.

2. The Blues dropped points against all three of their group stage opponents last season - Valencia, Werder Bremen and Rosenberg - and against two out of three in each of the three seasons prior to that.

3. CFR Cluj have lost just three of their last forty home games in both the Romanian League and Europe.

Blues produce enormous list of demands for away trip

Being incredibly sophisticated gentleman with delicate culinary sensibilities, John Terry and his Chelsea side have refused to let the five star Opera Plaza hotel in Romania cook for the side ahead of their Champions League tie with CFR Cruj tonight.

Full time Chelsea chef Nick Broad, pictured above, will instead prepare meals that do not contain icky animal cooking fats and yucky vegetable oils. The folks at the posh hotel aren’t impressed with the Blues or the 35-page list of demands they issued:

“Then they went through the whole kitchen and threw everything out that isn’t organic.

“This is a good hotel. We’re used to stars and VIPs but this lot think they’re royalty.”

There could be sensible nutrional reasons for avoiding the foreign cuisine, but perhaps the well remunerated players shunned it when they realised the most popular Romanian meal, sărmăluţe cu mămăligă, is known as a “poor man’s dish”.

[The Sun]

French find themselves up baguette creek without a croissant

After Franck Ribery dropped to the ground in agony, clutching those around him as if he were frantically uttering his final words, the Italians were destined to control last night’s Group B match. Still, France boss Raymond Domenech considered the defeat a ‘beautiful moment’ and found time to propose to his girlfriend live on French TV straight after the final whistle. Maybe he can put his impending payoff from his employers towards the wedding.

Despite Adrian Mutu’s attempts at covering every position on the pitch, the Romanians couldn’t break down Holland’s B team.

Dutchman forced to choose between country and future club career

Dutch boss Marco van Basten is perfectly within his rights to field a weakened team against Romania tonight (”It’s not against the rules, it’s a fact of life,” said UEFA spokesman William Gaillard), and eliminating the possibility of meeting France or Italy in the semi-finals would appear to be a wise move. However, former Italy gaffer Cesare Maldini has claimed the Dutchman can forget about coaching in Milan if he rolls over Portugal-stylee tonight:

“Van Basten has a two year contract [with Ajax after the Euros] but I know that after he wants to come to coach in Italy.

“Will it be at Milan? We will see. But for sure he will want to arrive in Italy with a clean slate, and he cannot do this by losing to the Romanians on purpose.”

The word ‘vendetta’ comes from Italian (I know, I was surprised too), so there’s little chance the boot-shaped nation will forgive and forget the coach if he fields a weakened side against Adrian Mutu and co tonight. But will he succumb to Italian pressure? Is he even interested in the AC Milan job? Let us all know your thoughts with a comment below.

[Goal.com]

chickendinner make an excellent call on Holland’s run so far

Apart from that whole thing about Paul McCartney dying in the sixties and being replaced by a doppelganger, The Spoiler isn’t one to believe conspiracy theories. However, we couldn’t help but take notice of the chickendinner bet blog, which correctly called the second Group C games, last Thursday night:

Picture this perfectly plausible scenario for a second. Tomorrow, buoyed by victory over Italy in the opening game, Holland defeat a France side struggling to find their feet.

In the other Group C game, Italy are low on confidence after their shock loss and Romania are able to take a point by “playing to their strengths” as they did against France.

That would create a situation where Holland would have the group sewn up with six points, Romania would be second with two points and Italy and France would be struggling with one point.

At first glance, it’s hard to imagine Romania beating Holland, which would mean a straight shootout for the final place between Italy and France, with the winner qualifying.

But what if Holland, already having the group won, gave Romania

Oranje prove too strong for World Champions

After the sheer boredom of watching one not-my-fault shrug of defiance after another in the France/ Romania game, we really needed something to stop Group C becoming the ‘Group of Dull’. Without the two best keepers in the tournament, this classic game would have had a much bigger scoreline. Great stuff.

After last night, the Netherlands’ odds on winning the competition were slashed to 11/2, putting them just behind Germany and Portugal as third favourites. Italy and their shaky defence (!), on the other hand, are all the way down at 12/1.

Also, it was great to see that Materazzi was the first player to be pulled off at the Wankdorf.

Bringing a smile to Romanian faces in the Group of Death

With Italy, the Netherlands and France in their group, Romanians can’t be too hopeful of making it to the knockout stages of Euro 2008. Their departure may not make a great deal of difference to the neutral observer, but for WAG fans it will be devastating news, for it means Adelina Elisei will be going home early. The Romanian model and TV personality is the current ladyfriend of Inter Milan defender Cristian Chivu, and she’s awful pretty.