I’m currently one of a handful of people watching Malaga vs Atlante – by the way, Atlante just achieved what Villa failed to do by scoring. As you’ll probably be aware; if Malaga get any sort of result from this game then Aston Villa can not play any further part in the competition after the game against Atlante. If Malaga lose today then Villa have a chance of making it to the semi finals with a convincing win against Atlante on Wednesday. ‘Convincing’ is not a word I would associate with the Villans based on their performance in the first game, but we shall see.

The prospect of all three teams sharing a win each amuses me as it’s like the football equivalent of a Mexican stand off. I’m not saying it amuses me for long, but nevertheless. Just saying.

My suspicion about the quality of tournament organisation was confirmed by reports that the official match programme featured a picture of Gareth Barry and named the manager as Martin O’Leary (I think I just did a little bit of sick in my mouth). The appalling website doesn’t seem to be updated at all – did these guys run out of money or something? I was hoping we’d win our group to get the extra two games, but now I’m thinking that the sooner we disassociate ourselves from this competition the better.

I’m wondering if Real Madrid feel the same way. I caught most of their 1-1 draw with Al-Ittihad last night and the Saudis squandered two gilt-edged chances that made the Madrid defense look mugs in the process. Madrid have the ability to batter group leaders Al-Ittihad tomorrow if they choose and that would take them through to the play-off stages. Do they actually want to play those games though??

On that subject, Martin O’Neill actually said something about the Malaga game that you rarely hear from him after a loss. He said that he thought we would win the game – so did I, apart from Lichaj, all the starters were first team regulars. Maybe that means that he wants to progress and will go at the Atlante game with some desire, should the opportunity still exist.

Porto will enter the competition for the first time in the next game, playing Lyon in the tournament’s smallest stadium – the 13k capacity Estadio Colombino in Huelva. Somehow I don’t see the capacity being a problem.

I will leave you with something that once seen can not be unseen. Sleep tight tonight little ones.