Standard Revisited

The UEFA Cup isn't normally a competition to which you would pay too much attention unless your club is playing in it and, even then, there's no guarantee that it will provide much excitement.

Yet it does offer some interesting games. Watching Herta Berlin against Galatasaray, for instance, provided one with the opportunity to see Andrei Voronin look as disinterested as always, even though his wasn't a bad performance.

The best show on the night, however, was provided by Standard Liege who trashed Sampdoria 3-0. This was Standard's third win in the group where they lie on top and have already qualified. Not to mention that they beat the other team from Merseyside in qualification.

All of which points to the fact that they've got a pretty decent team. It also means that, in hindsight, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Liverpool found it difficult to get past them in the qualifyong round of the Champions' League.

Sadly, with richer clubs already circling, it is unlikely that they'll be able to hold on to their best players beynd January. Which is a pity because, if they do manage to hold the team together then they have every chance of winning this competition.

Not bad for a team that had been written off far too summarily last June. Surely there's a lesson to be had there.

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