This Week in Europe

With another European matchday just around the corner, I thought it would be time to offer my predictions on this week's fixtures.

Tuesday:

Ajax and Arsenal to draw.

Not that Ajax have been overly impressive anywhere this season, but neither have Arsenal. And Arsenal tend to make European fixtures harder than they need to be.

Barca over Udinese.

Udinese are off to a terrible start in Italy and Barca have had trouble getting going in Spain. Both won last time out in the Champions League with Barca a little lucky to come away with their final score. I just think that Barca have too much quality to let this match get away.

Bayern over Brugge.

They may have had their Bundesliga record run of victories ended over the weekend in Hamburg and they may make heavy going of it here, too, but Bayern are too good to lose to Club Brugge.

FC Thun over Sparta Prague.

No good reason for thinking this. Neither side is terribly strong. But it was just so heartbreaking for Thun against Arsenal and it would add so much to their story if they managed a win. I'm cheering for them.

Juve over Rapid Vienna.

I'm not a big fan of Juve, but I think this is self explanatory.

Villareal over Lille.

They've just dragged themselves out of the relegation zone in Spain but I think Villareal will win this. Riquelme and Forlan alone are stronger than anything Lille can offer.

Man U over Benfica.

No Keane, no Neville, no Heinze, big problem, as the loss to Blackburn showed. They're rickety at the back and since I hate them so much I would love to call this against them, but ManU tend to gut it out in Europe (until the knockout rounds, at least) and Benfica are not really a top calliber team.

Werder over Pana.

Werder tend to be a bit soft, especially for top European competition. But they do have great attacking options. When they are allowed to be they can be quite attractive. I don't think Pana have the ability to contain them or hit them back. This is not Lyon, after all. So the Germans should get their first win of the competition.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll make my predictions for Wednesday. Note that I don't predict scores. I think that since the final score of a match has so much to do with the constantly changing dynamic within the game itself, it's really just guesswork to pick the exact outcome. I'll settle for picking the general result.