Champions League preview: Deschamps' lucky escape and Taiwo's career advice

The Champions of France take on the Champions of England tonight, exciting times.

Despite their recent upturn in form, you'd have to say that Marseille turning over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is about as likely as Ed Milliband discovering some charisma, but coach Didier Deschamps has got a plan:

"We need to close the space down and impose ourselves physically. These kind of games are settled in the finer details and let us hope it is settled in our favour," he told the BBC, while also dropping the bombshell that he turned down the chance to speak to Liverpool in the summer about their managerial vacancy. Sensible chap.

Meanwhile OM left back Taye Taiwo has revealed the dedication it takes to make it as a pro: "My mum and dad didn’t want me to be a footballer and they were always saying: ‘Taiwo, you better go to school today!’ and I said: ‘Mum, Dad I love football so I’ll go to school another day!" A valuable lesson for youngsters everywhere there.

Auxerre have a chance to put their miserable league form behind them when Real Madrid visit the Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps. Despite their star-studded forward line, Real have struggled for goals a bit this season, and Jose Mourinho could hand a start to French international Karim Benzema in place of Gonzalo Higuain. Benzema or not, I fancy Jean Fernandez's men to get an unlikely draw. You heard it here first. Maybe.

Then tomorrow Lyon will be looking for three points when they travel to Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Any result other than a victory is likely to tighten the noose around Claude Puel's neck, and I think they should be capable of repeating their 1-0 win over Schalke on match day one.