The Champions League is back and our reporters are currently wringing out their wet things (Mitch Phillips at Chelsea)/basking in the evening sunshine by the River Manzanares (Iain Rogers at Atletico) and undergoing all climactic variations in between.

Tonight’s first tranche of eight matches includes a repeat of the very first Champions League final, with AC Milan visiting Marseille, plus the European debut of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka for Real Madrid, with the Spaniards visiting Zurich.

We also have Manchester United at Besiktas, Wolfsburg hosting CSKA, Atletico at home to APOEL, Bayern Munich visiting Maccabi Haifa and Juventus against Bordeaux.

We’ll have every goal as they go in here, plus a few bits of commentary from me, and our reporters if the comms hold up, along the way.

I really appreciate comments, so please give your views in the comment section below. And can you name the player in the photo…?

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FC Zurich 2 Real Madrid 5: Cristiano Ronaldo responded to some less than flattering chants among the home fans by scoring from a free kick from the edge of the area. 1-0 in the 27th minute and Real Madrid are on their way to, well, Madrid. Seven minutes later and it’s 2-0 Real. This time Raul, who tapped in Gonzalo Higuain’s shot and is closing in on that record for goals in the European Cup. Let me have a rifle through the stats book… But in the mean time, Higuain has bagged the third himself. Too easy for Real… or is it?

The crowd livens up again with a 64th minute penalty from Xavier Margairaz and a minute later Silvan Aegerter makes it 2-3. Game on? Well, it got nervy for Real bu another free kick from Ronaldo sealed matters, with Guti’s effort in the 95th minute the cake icing.

Marseille 1 Milan 2: First goal of the 2009-10 edition of the Champions League goes to Milan, and Filippo Inzaghi. A superb cross from Seedorf for Inzaghi, left unmarked at far post, and he taps in from close range. 1-0 to the Italians in the 27th minute. Marseille level four minutes after the restart through the former Manchester United and Real Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze, who heads home a Benoit Cheyrou free kick. 2-1 to Milan with another Inzaghi goal with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Wolfsburg 3 CSKA 1: Wolfsburg have taken to the Champions League like a duck to water. The Brazilian Grafite, a much underrated player I remember well from my time in Germany, scored the first two goals, the first after 35 minutes, the second a penalty five minutes later. Alan Dzagoev pulls one back with 13 minutes to go. But Grafite completes his hat-trick three minutes from time and surely this is over now!

Chelsea 1 Porto 0: Don’t know what happened to my earlier udpate. Chelsea are ahead in the second half after Nicoals Anelka saw his first effort stopepd and then managed to fire on from a tricky angle.

Juventus 1 Bordeaux 1: Vincenzo Iaquinta puts Juventus up in the 63rd minute but Jaroslav Plasil evens things up with 15 minutes to go.

Maccabi Haifa 0 Bayern Munich 3: It’s raining goals now. The Germans are away thanks to a goal from Daniel van Buyten. Most of these matches going to form now and Bayern duly wrap up the win with two late goals from Thomas Mueller. Not a bad week for Mueller, who also scored two as Bayern beat Dortmund 5-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Besiktas 0 Manchester United 1. United are finally awake. It was a powerful shot by Nani that led to the goal in the 77th minute. The keeper parried it and Paul Scholes nodded in off the post, from a reasonable way out. Good header that.

The only match to finish goalless is Atletico Madrid v APOEL.

PHOTO: A mystery Chelsea player at training in Cobham, south of London, September 14, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Boy, the Champions League is back with a bang. How much juicier can you get than holders Barcelona at Inter Milan in their first game?  

If the Spanish champions against their Italian counterparts wasn’t enough, we’ve got the added spice of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto’o playing against their former clubs at the first possible opportunity following their extraordinary close-season swap deal.

Barca midfielder Xavi has told Reuters it will still be strange to line up against Eto’o on Wednesday while Inter’s Jose Mourinho, who has had an up and down relationship with the Catalans, has been stealing the headlines as usual.

“Eto’o is the best attacker in the world. My players are always better. Last year Ibrahimovic was the best forward in the world, now I say Eto’o,” he told reporters.

So will Ibra come back to haunt the San Siro or will Eto’o prove that Inter are not missing him?

No one is really sure what reception the Swede will get on Wednesday.

Although he was the driving force behind Inter’s last three titles, fans were not crazy about him — especially when he clashed with a few at the end of last season when he’d made clear he wanted to move.

So fireworks expected in Milan but there are a few other tasty games such as Chelsea v Porto. And that Rome final only seems like yesterday…

PHOTO: Look they have the same celebration! REUTERS

The draw for the group phase of the 2009-10 Champions League has just finished in Monaco and it’s thrown up a couple of groups to savour especially.

Real Madrid getting drawn in Group C means they will face AC Milan … and that means a return to the San Siro for Kaka, who made the switch over the close season. Likewise, Barcelona’s big signing Zlatan ibrahimovic will be on his way back to Milan, after Inter joined the holders in Group F.

Plenty of other intriguing match-ups … Any of them catch your eye?

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Girondins Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, VfL Wolfsburg

Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique Marseille, FC Zurich

Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Group E: Liverpool, Olympique Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Group F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan

Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, VfB Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni

Group H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta holds the trophy after their Champions League final soccer match victory against Manchester United at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, May 27, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

If reports in Spain are correct and Real Madrid have agreed to sell Arjen Robben to Bayern Munich for 25 million euros, that would seem to be an excellent piece of business for the Spanish club.

Real paid a king’s ransom to take Robben from Chelsea a couple of years ago — when £24 million pounds was a lot more in euros than it is now — and I think it’s fair to say that he didn’t quite make the impact the fans were hoping for.

Injuries have been a consistent problem, just as they were at Chelsea, and I’m sure Real will be delighted to recoup another chunk of the 250 million euros they’ve spent on players so far this close season.

With Wesley Sneijder also on his way, for perhaps 15 million euros, it’s been a lucrative week for Real, but there are plenty of doubers out there (see The Real Liga for a flavour).

As the linked article notes, having players like Robben and Wesley Sneijder to turn to as substitutes might make the difference between getting through that tight Champions League game and making another early exit.

Real have made huge improvements to their first team by signing footballing royalty like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka … but, as in Florentino’s first spell as president, will they end up regretting the decision to cull the ‘middle classes’?

PHOTO: Arjen Robben reacts after missing a chance during Real Madrid’s Peace Cup match against Al Ittihad at the Bernabeu, July 26, 2009. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Has there ever been a more stupid and pointless sending off than  Simon Vukcevic’s dismissal for Sporting against Fiorentina in the Champions League play-off round on Tuesday night?

The 23-year-old Montenegro striker, booked for getting involved in a petty squabble with an opponent after 12 minutes, then scored after 58 minutes to put Sporting level at 1-1 after Fiorentina had taken an early lead.

Its impossible to know what went through his head next. Running back with his team mates he took off his shirt in celebration and despite putting it back on a few seconds later was shown a second yellow card and then a red by Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai who gave him a look as if to say, “Sorry mate, rules are rules.”

Not only did that leave Sporting with 10 men for over half-an-hour it also means the Montenegro international will be banned for next week’s second leg in Italy, and that arguably could cost them the tie which is up for grabs after the sides battled to a 2-2 draw in Lisbon.

I have never ever understood why players take their shirts off to celebrate a goal. I think its disrespectful to the shirt, your team mates, to your fans and the club that pays your wages.

It’s an utterly pointless gesture and when the authorities decided a few years ago it was a bookable offence, most players saw sense and stopped doing it.

What made it even more ridiculous was that Vukcevic looked surprised when he was red carded. You ought to read the rules, mate.

PHOTO: Sporting’s Simon Vukcevic (L) celebrates with Miguel Veloso after his goal against Fiorentina during their Champions League playoff first leg at Alvalade stadium in Lisbon August 18, 2009. REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

The draw for the Champions League final qualifying round raises the question whether Michel Platini and UEFA have done the right thing by giving teams from Europe’s less heralded leagues a better chance of reaching the money-spinning group stage.

On one hand, restructuring the qualifying campaign has opened the group stage doors to Latvian champions Venstpils, Cypriots APOEL Nicosia, Hungarian title holders Debrecen and Moldovans Sheriff Tiraspol.

On the other, it has pitted former European Cup winners Celtic against 2006 finalists Arsenal, with the loser confined to taking part in the Europa Liga, the continent’s second tier competition.

The new formula means the Champions League lucrative group stage will now have more champions from obscure countries on Europe’s soccer map at the expense of third and fourth-placed teams from the top leagues.

It gives unfancied teams a chance to boost their finances and close the gap on wealthier rivals, but it also runs the risk of depriving Europe’s premier club competition of some of its glamour.

Would you rather watch both Celtic and Arsenal in the Champions league proper or draw pleasure from seeing a pack of underdogs take centre stage instead?

And crucially, will the new qualifying format last long enough for the new arrivals to establish themselves as regular campaigners?

Give us your thoughts.

PHOTO: UEFA President Michel Platini gestures during a news conference at the end of the organisation’s executive committee meeting in Bucharest May 13, 2009. REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel

There’s been a fair bit of speculation, here and elsewhere, about whether Manchester City could actually win the Premier League title but a more realistic goal is a top four finish. That being the case, the summer spending spree seen by some as being brash and uncoordinated is actually very shrewd.

Look carefully, and what City have managed to do, with the recruitment of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure from Arsenal, is to weaken two of their rivals for fourth place.

Last season Villa and Arsenal fought tooth and nail for that position and with his transfer policy Mark Hughes has struck an early couple of blows in this season’s fight.

Note that City also have their sights on defender Joleon Lescott from Everton, another team with Champions League aspirations.

Add to that the hugely satisfying signing of former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez and there would seem to be a pattern to their spending spree — even if results are not yet going their way.

Champions League qualifying has begun so the new football season in Europe is well and truly underway.

But while Mogren of Montenegro celebrate their victory over Hibernians of Malta in the first qualifying round last week, spare a thought for those famous European sides who are unlikely to grace the competition even in a qualifying tie, let alone the group stage.

I live in London and there’s at least one good example right here. With Martin Jol at the helm, Tottenham Hotspur missed out on fourth spot in the Premier League (and a Champions League qualifying place) in the 2005/06 season by virtue of a defeat by local rivals West Ham United on the final day of the season.

Fans will always blame that on a virus that floored several first team players, but that’s another story…

They finished fifth again the following season but weren’t ever really in with a chance of coming fourth and since then they have reverted to their normal role of mid-table underachievers.

The future promises more of the same: too big to go down, too small to mix it with the big boys in the top four.

Tottenham’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis has the money — £2.5 billion according to Four Four two magazine’s latest annual Rich List (which puts him fourth behind the owners of Manchester City, Queen’s Park Rangers and Chelsea in British football) — but not the inclination to lavish hundreds of millions on transfers every season to bring in the world’s top players.

The club once snatched former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne from under the nose of Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United but it is inconceivable that a player of his class would choose White Hart Lane over Old Trafford today.

Without big-name signings Tottenham are unlikely to ever break into the top four. Finishing sixth to 10th seems their best hope.

There are a lot of other clubs in the same boat, too — not just in the Premier League but around Europe.  Sampdoria and Athletic Bilbao are examples in Italy and Spain. 

Playing in the Champions League itself probably still feels a long way away for Mogren, but for Tottenham and the like it’s even further.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez fought long and hard for greater control of the Anfield club’s transfer funds and first through the door since he agreed his new contract is Portsmouth’s Glen Johnson. He didn’t come cheap, either.

At a reported 17 million pounds, Johnson is an expensive acquisition for a player who never quite made it at Chelsea, and has only recently found success in the England team after raiding down Portsmouth’s right hand side last season.

There may be a lot of rebuilding work still to come from Benitez if Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa are allowed to leave to join the Real Madrid party (and who knows, perhaps Javier Mascherano along with them).

Johnson is not at all a bad player. His general attacking play is more appealing than his defensive talents, but they can be coached. It is not his capabilities that are in question, it’s his price tag.

Another striker must be high on the priority list, but having always openly admired Barcelona’s Dani Alves and then settling for Johnson, Liverpool fans could expect links with Samuel Eto’o or David Villa and end up with Carlton Cole.

PHOTO: England’s Glen Johnson outjumps Kazakhstan’s Tanat Nuserbayev (R) and Zhambyl Kukeyev during the World Cup 2010 qualifier against Kazakhstan at the Central Stadium in Almaty June 6, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Notts County might have been in the wilderness for many years now but they have never been far from the footballing consciousness.

Remember the great Glen Campbell hit of the 1960s “Wichita Lineman” which opens with: “I am a lineman for the county”.

It didn’t take long for wags to change that to: “I am the linesman at Notts County” and I’ve been told that linesman at Meadow Lane have been humming that tune to themselves ever since.

Notts also has the unique distinction of linking Italian giants Juventus, post-war English scoring hero Tommy Lawton and 19th century footballer Harry Cursham, who has scored more goals in the history of the FA Cup than any other player.

But more of that in a moment.

Now fans of Notts, the world’s oldest football league club, have rather more to think about than dwell on their club’s 147 years of under-achievement after hearing some truely astonishing news this week.

For Notts, whose glory days were long, long ago and who finished five places off the bottom of League Two (the fourth division in old money) this season, are about to be taken over by a mega-rich consortium of Middle East businessmen.

They dream of taking them back to the top after decades in the doldrums.

It is an interesting development and shows that it is not just Premier League clubs like Manchester City, Portsmouth and the others attracting overseas owners with millions or billions to invest.

John Armstrong-Holmes, the club’s chairman, says it makes perfect sense to him that overseas investors would want to buy a club and manage it carefully through the divisions rather than by raising debts and paying out millions in interest every year.

Taking the club back to the top might be highly romantic on one hand and appeal to the game’s traditionalists but also shows that perhaps in football, money is ever more increasingly the driving factor for success, even more than talent.

But it wouldn’t be the first time that Notts County have stunned the football world. In November 1947 Lawton, then an England international at the peak of his game, moved from first division Chelsea to third division County for a British record transfer fee of 20,000 pounds ($32,090), helping them win promotion in 1950.

It truely was a sensational transfer at the time.

In the 1880s Cursham could not stop scoring goals for County and his 49 in the FA Cup is a record that has never been beaten.

Meanwhile, Juventus owe their famous black-and-white striped kit to County. Years ago Juve used to play in pink shirts which faded with every wash. An English player at the club had a mate at County who sent him a decent set of black-and-white shirts to use instead. Juve have worn those colours ever since.

Notts County v Juventus in the Champions League come 2015 or 2016? Don’t bet against it. Stranger things have happened in soccer, like County being taken over by a Middle East consortium…

PHOTO: Seen that kit before? Former Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved celebrates after scoring against Lecce during their Serie A match in Turin May 3, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo