Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard and Rafa Benitez will need a win versus PSV Eindhoven to keep pace with Atletico Madrid in their Champions League group.

Wednesday sees Chelsea and Liverpool’s second Champions League matches, with the Blues in Romania to face CFR Cluj while the Reds welcome PSV Eindhoven to Anfield. The day’s key matches, however, will be in France and Italy. AS Roma goes to France for a match with Bordeaux with each side is trying to rebound from a disappointing first matchday. In Milan, a contrast in styles sees a controlling Internazionale host the wide-open Werder Bremen.

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Theo Walcott and Arsenal host Portuguese Champions FC Porto on UEFA Champions League’s Matchday 2.

Matchday 2 of the Champions League has already started, with Real Madrid and Zenit St. Petersburg getting an early kickoff in Russia. But before the principle part of today’s UEFA Champions League schedule starts, here is a brief rundown of today’s action, which includes Arsenal, Manchester United, and the match of the day: Bayern Munich hosting Lyon.

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The holders, Manchester United, start their title defense tonight.

The brilliant part of the Champions League group stage is glorious match-ups on every Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the fall.  After theses eight-match-per-day stretches contesting the best clubs in Europe, it’s a slight left-down when the field is halved at the conclusion of this phase.  The drama of the knock-out stages more than makes up for the loss, but for pure quantity of sport, these first days of Champions League group play can not be beat.

But even but Champions League standards, today is a remarkable day:  Manchester United host Villareal; Fiorentina goes to Lyon; Bayern Munich travels to Steaua Bucharest; Zenit looks for further European success at Juventus; Fenebahce looks to build on last season’s success at Porto.  Any of those match-ups could have been the marquee fixture yesterday.  Today, they are all part of an epic schedule.

You may want to take a long lunch.

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Manchester United holding midfielder had been out since the league’s first game before returning to face Liverpool on Saturday.  Minutes into that match, Carrick reinjured his ankle after sliding into a challenge.  He finished the first half limping before being substituted out, but now it looks like the England international will miss more than just Saturday’s second half.

Today United announced that Carrick had broken a bone in his foot.  The injury was discovered after Carrick was unable to train again today in preparation for tomorrow’s Champions League match against Villareal.  X-rays identified the problem, which will take four to six weeks to heal.

The loss of Carrick, who played in each of Manchester United’s Champions League matches last season, makes Paul Scholes and Anderson the choice central midfielders for Ferguson, though the recovery Owen Hargreaves and team leading scorer Darren Fletcher are each likely to factor into Ferguson’s decisions.

Last year’s Champions League ended in penalty kicks. Today, Chelsea starts the road back to the final.

Can you hear the song?

We are only hours away from the start of the UEFA Champions League, with eight matches kicking off the competition’s group stage. Chelsea and Liverpool start play for the Premier League, each being matched up against opponents from Ligue 1. Bordeaux comes to Stamford Bridge off a weekend draw with Marseille, who will host Liverpool. And while we focus on the Premier League’s match-ups below, the day’s marque match-ups may be in the Netherlands (Atletico Madrid visiting PSV Eindhoven) and Greece (Panathinaikos hosting Internazionale).

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Liverpool may be one of the eight teams in the top pool for tomorrow’s Champions League group stage draw, but they were the closest of the thirty-two teams to being out of the tournament after the final round of qualifying finished today.

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The big names in today’s Champions League, third round qualifying draw can breathe a sigh of relief at having avoiding a match-up with Atlético Madrid, but one of the darlings of last year’s tournament was not so lucky.

Atlético, the best of the unseeded teams in today’s draw, stood to be slotted against some of the round’s high profile participants: Barcelona, Juventus, Arsenal, or Liverpool. Those clubs exhaled in avoiding Madrid while Schalke 04 garnered the ignominious distinction.

Having made the final eight last season, Schalke had designs on another Champions League run. Now being matched-up against Atlético one step before the group stage, replicating their knock-out round success last season seems far off. They will enter this qualifying round tie as underdogs to the revamped Spanish side.

Still, Schalke has to be given more than a puncher’s chance considering Sergio Agüero, Atlético’s star striker, will be half-way around the world, staring for the Argentina olympic team. All of Schalke’s complaints about losing Rafinha now ring a little hollow.

The other La Liga side in the draw, third-place finishing Barcelona, got a fortuitous match-up against the winner of the Beitar Jerusalem-Wisla Krakow second round match-up. Jerusalem leads the tie 2-1 after one leg, with the second leg scheduled for Krakow. Barcelona should easily advance into the group stage while being able to use their players judiciously. If their strong preseason form is any indication of how they will perform in two weeks, the Beitar-Wisla winner is in for a long two legs.

Likewise, Juventus looks to be heavy favorites over the winner of the Tampere (Finland)-Artmedia (Slovakia) second round qualifier. Artmedia won the first leg 3-1 in Finland. Like Barcelona, Juventus has looked impressive in preseason, coming off a controlling 3-1 away win in a friendly against Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Juve’s return to the Champions League should get off to a successful start.

Although they will be favored, the same fast start is not guaranteed for fellow Serie A-side Fiorentina. La Viola drew Slavia Prague, the tradition-rich club that is the current champion of the Czech Republic’s league (Grambinus liga). Slavia Prague qualified for the group stage of last year’s Champions League by eliminating Eredivisie-side Ajax in last season’s third round qualifying. A young team that is a year more matured, Prague should not be taken lightly by Fiorentina.

Liverpool was drawn against Belgian champions Standard Liege, better known as the club of United States center back (and former Newcastle United player) Oguchi Onyewu. Liverpool, like Juventus and Barcelona, should breeze through.

Arsenal should also make it easily into the group stage, but their match-up will likely garner the most press in England. Eredivisie side FC Twente, who qualified for their Champions League spot thanks to the Dutch league’s unique playoff system, was drawn against Arsenal, allowing former Middlesbrough and England national team manager Steve McClaren to match-up against Arsene Wenger once again. There is a not-so-subtle irony to the former England coach being matched-up against a Premiership side that is unlikely start an English player. Add this to the fact that McLaren could not get a job in the Premiership yet finds himself in the Champions League and the papers will have a month’s worth of story lines.

Third round qualifying for the Champions League sees 32 teams paired off for two-legged ties, the winner of each moving on to the group stage of the competition. Sixteen teams have already qualified for that stage. Those 32 teams will be draw into eight, four team groups. Each group then plays a double-round robin format, with the top two finishers advancing to the competition’s knock-out stage.

The teams which lose in third-round qualifying will be entered into the UEFA Cup first round.

Other notable match-ups from the third qualifying round:

• Spartak Moscow looks destined to match-up with Dinamo Kiev, with the latter currently up 2-1in their second-round qualifier against Ireland’s Drogheda United.
• Romanian power Steaua Bucharest will take on Galatasaray, last season’s Turcell Super League champions, in a match-up that will feature many players from this summer’s Euro 2008.
• And although each team has to finish-off their lead in second round qualifying, Greek squad Panathinaikos looks destined to meet Czech Republic side Sparta Prague.

 Rating; 3(Likely)

According to goal.com, Romanian giants Steaua Bucharest are expressing interest in FC Dallas playmaker Juan Toja. The 23 year old Columbian joined FC Dallas after spending the year on loan from River Plate. Toja has been capped at the U20 level for Columbia, and has been named to the MLS All Star team each year since his arrival.  Toja is said to be interested in the move as it could see him playing in either the Uefa Cup or Champions League tournaments. What do you think? How much should FC Dallas be asking for? Would it be a good move for Juan?