The End of an Era (or the CL Group Stage, at least)

So it's the final day of the CL group stage. My last chance to embarass myself picking the results of matches involving teams about which I know little to nothing. But, come on! Do you know anything about FC Thun? I think not! Have you ever seen (or wanted to see) them play? I think not! Do you even know where Thun is? (I actually do know this. One of the strange benefits of having a fiancee who grew up in Switzerland.) All of this notwithstanding, it sure is fun pick them each time and watch them disappoint me. If I didn't get worked up about this, I might get worked up about something that actually mattered and then where would I be? Huh? Probably somewhere a lot more interesting, doing something a lot more productive. That's where. But enough of this.

I'm not really going to say anything at the moment about my picks for yesterday. I was undone by teams calling it in and by boring, boring Liverpool. Oh well. It's always hard to pick these results when there is so little at stake for some teams except on the last day of the Italian season when everything is so crooked you can pick all of the results just by looking at the table and seeing who needs what from whom. My cynicism aside, here are today's picks.

Group A:

Bayern and Juve are through, Brugge are into the UEFA Cup. I think that Bayern and Juve would still like the top spot, although with teams like Chelsea and Real already entering as 2nd place teams, top spot doesn't guarantee an easy ride. I still think these two will win away to the small fry.

Group B:

Arsenal and Ajax are through. They play each other at Highbury. I would say that Arsenal would rest key players, but Ajax could do the same. I think Arsenal will edge this at home. Thun and Sparta are playing for the UEFA Cup place. I'm picking Thun to go through with the draw.

Group C:

Barca are through. Udinese look poised to go through except that they're playing Barca. A loss and a Werder Bremen win will put Bremen through instead. The question is: will Barca ease up enough to let Udinese get the point they need? I'm betting that they're honorable enough to beat the Italians fair and square. I think Bremen can manage Pana at home, although there is nothing guaranteed with Werder.

Group D:

This is wide open. You might think that that would make it an exciting group. Wrong! I almost don't care who comes out of the Group of Mediocrity. It seems that whoever does is due for an immediate exit in the knockout stages. I'm going to pick two more draws here. That would put Villareal and Lille through and send ManU to the UEFA Cup.