What an interesting night of Champions League football we had last night. Manchester United went to Aalborg promising to put out all of their big guns to ensure victory. Arsenal entertained Porto, promising to make changes from the side that lost embarrassingly to Hull on Saturday.
Celtic travelled to Spain to take on Villarreal hoping to end their abysmal away record in Europe. Real Madrid went to Russia to play many people’s dark horses for the tournament, Zenit St Petersburg and Bayern Munich were trying to forget Saturday’s defeat and their poor league form by beating their visitors from Lyon.
So, how did it all turn out?
Well, Manchester United put out most of their big players although they did include Nani, O’Shea and Da Silva. The team selected by Sir Alex was more than able to complete the task in hand though, as they easily disposed of the Danish minnows 3-0. The opening goal from Wayne Rooney, that’s two in two for him after not scoring before Saturday, was followed by two from Dimitar Berbatov. Everyone will be relieved that he has got off the mark.
Unfortunately for United the game may have caused them a major problem as they lost both Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney to injury. Scholes left the ground on crutches and Rooney looked to be in genuine discomfort.
Surprise
At Arsenal, Arsene Wenger surprised everyone by only making one change to his starting line-up. He brought in Samir Nasri for Emmanuel Eboue, which would have been a popular move with most Arsenal fans who seem to be at a loss as to why their manager selects Eboue game after game.
The players he kept faith with repaid him handsomely as they took Porto apart, winning 4-0. Two goals each from strikers Van Persie and Adebayor showed that they do actually know where the goal is. There was some doubt after Saturday!
Porto were unlucky early on when they hit the woodwork and had another effort cleared off the line, but once Arsenal got into their stride there was only one team in the game.
One point out of forty-eight
Celtic are destined never to win away in Europe. Their 1-0 defeat at Villarreal means that their European away record shows them collecting one point out of a possible forty-eight. It doesn’t get a whole lot worse than that.
They had chances to get something from this game with Samaras in particular guilty of spurning a chance, but Villarreal always looked likely to get a goal. It took until the sixty-seventh minute when Senna scored from a free-kick, but it was enough and the home side were worthy winners.
Own goal
Real Madrid had a tough looking trip to Zenit St Petersburg but any worries they may have had were quickly eased by Hubocan scoring in his own goal on six minutes to put the Spanish champions ahead.
Zenit hit back to equalise but the excellent Van Nistlerooy restored Madrid’s lead soon after. They then saw out the second half to get a well deserved three points and move to the top of the table with six points from their two games.
It has been a tough season for Jurgen Klinsmann and his Bayern Munich side so far. Their 1-0 victory at Steaua Bucharest in the first round of matches had provided some light relief from the disappointing league form and a victory at home to Lyon would have eased the tension.
Unbearable pressure
Juninho put the visitors ahead in the first half and following two successive Bundesliga defeats the pressure on Klinsmann at half time must have been close to unbearable.
Ze Roberto rescued a point for Bayern in the second half and may have kept the knives from out of his boss’s back for another week.
In the other games, Juventus recovered from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov and the Fenerbahce against Dynamo Kiev and Fiorentina against Steaua Bucharest games both ended goalless.
What does this tell us about this season’s Champions League? In truth, not much more than we knew already. Arsenal and Manchester United will be definitely be there or thereabouts, Real Madrid might be, Juventus are unlikely to be and in all probability, none of the other teams who played last night will be.
Tonights games see Panathinaikos travel to Famagusta, Marseille go to Atletico Madrid, Bordeaux entertain Roma, Chelsea visit Cluj, Inter host Werder Bremen, Liverpool play PSV, Barcelona travel to Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting entertain Basle.
The teams most likely
The games are not easy to predict on an individual basis, but does anyone want to bet against Chelsea, Inter, Liverpool and Barcelona joining Arsenal, Manchester United and Real Madrid from last nights games, as the teams most likely?
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