Tuesday Football Open Thread: Group Of Death Kicks Off And Loanees In Action

There's lot's of football today, as the group stage of the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League gets underway and there is plenty of Chelsea loan action going on. Most of you will undoubtedly be tuning in for the mouth watering game between Manchester City and Real Madrid from the Santiago Bernabeu, featuring Michael Essien in the starting lineup, but there are several other tasty games on the agenda for this afternoon as well.

Arsenal, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, and Zenit St. Petersburg are all legitimate contenders that are in action today, and traditional powerhouses like AC Milan, Ajax, and FC Porto will also be playing this afternoon. There will also be quite a few non-Madrid games today that could feature Chelsea loan players and I've listed them all after the jump:

• Birmingham City vs. Bolton (Ben Gordon): 19:45 BST
• Watford vs. Brighton (Nathaniel Chalobah): 19:45 BST
• Crystal Palace vs. Nottingham Forest (Sam Hutchinson): 19:45 BST
• Blackpool vs. Middlesbrough (Josh McEachran): 19:45 BST
• Portsmouth vs. Swindon (Conor Clifford) 19:45 BST
• Leyton Orient vs. Yeovil Town (Archange Nkumu, Rohan Ince) 19:45 BST
• Plymouth vs. Bristol Rovers (Sam Walker) 19:45 BST

There's a lot of potential Chelsea related stuff to talk about, and there are some really good games on tap. As always, have fun, keep it clean, and no links to illegal streams.