After Manchester United, Real Madrid and Arsenal sent their message to Europe on Tuesday night it was the turn of Liverpool, Inter, Barcelona and Chelsea to make their mark last night.
Of those four big guns, only Liverpool really lived up to their billing. Their 3-1 win over PSV was as impressive as it was comprehensive. Inter only managed a draw at home to Werder Bremen, Barcelona scraped a win at Shakhtar Donetsk and perhaps most surprisingly of all, Chelsea were held to a goalless draw away to Cluj.
Three special goals
The three goals scored by Liverpool all had something special attached to them. The first was scored by the much maligned (often by me!) Dirk Kuyt. He is the one player that outsiders look at in the Liverpool team and wonder why on earth Rafa Benitez insists on selecting him week after week. Yes, he works hard, but so would I for twenty five grand a week!
The fact is, of course, that Kuyt has a fine record of scoring important goals, particularly in Europe. Once again, he struck to ease the mood at Anfield and set the tone for a relatively easy evening. Fair play to Kuyt, he always produces the goods when it matters.
The second goal saw Robbie Keane finally open his account for Liverpool. It was only a matter of time, and now he has that particular ‘monkey off his back’ I’m sure he will score many more. We might now begin to see the partnership with Fernando Torres that the Liverpool fans so want to see.
The third goal saw Steve Gerrard hit his one hundredth for Liverpool. There is little more that can be said about Gerrard. I just wish he could perform as brilliantly for his country as he does game after game for his club.
Uninspiring
After Inter’s comfortable win at Panathinaikos in the first round of matches they would have been hoping to take three points from Werder Bremen, who had a disappointing 0-0 draw with Anorthosis Famagusta, and open up a big lead on their main challengers in the group.
In the end, Mourinho’s men stumbled to an uninspiring 1-1 draw after leading 1-0 through a Maicon goal in the first half. Although only two points off the top of Serie A, Mourinho doesn’t yet seemed to have worked his magic as Inter look a little short of the best teams in Europe.
Unlikely victory
Barcelona managed a creditable 2-1 win away at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukraine but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The visitors conceded a goal on the stroke of half-time to go in at the break 1-0 down. It stayed that way until just three minutes from the end when the Argentine maestro Lionel Messi looked to have rescued a point for Barcelona. Then, four minutes into stoppage time, Messi added another to give Barcelona an unlikely victory and a position of some comfort in their group.
Struggle
Chelsea really struggled against their Transylvanian opponents who proved that their victory in Roma was no fluke. Although Chelsea had chances to win the game, their hosts had at least as many.
In the final stages of the game it was Chelsea who were hanging on a little and I would imagine that Scolari will be reasonably relieved to have come away with a point.
One piece of really bad news for Chelsea was that their excellent striker Didier Drogba was stretchered off the field in obvious pain after landing awkwardly. If that injury proves to be one that keeps him out for while, that would be a serious blow for them. The fact is that Drogba is in a totally different league to Nicolas Anelka and the Chelsea with Drogba are a completely different proposition to the Chelsea with Anelka.
Outside bet
So there we are. The second round of matches has been and gone. In the other games last night Anorthosis Famagusta beat Panathinaikos 3-1, my outside bet for the tournament Atletico Madrid beat Marseille 2-1, Roma recovered from their first round defeat with a 3-1 win at Bordeaux and Sporting beat Basle 2-0.
After these games, the teams you would expect to be doing well are pretty much doing well. Chelsea, Inter, Barcelona, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Villarreal, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Juventus are all in strong positions in their groups. Somewhat more surprisingly is the fact that Cluj and Anorthosis Famagusta are also looking good for qualification.
Of course, the team I originally tipped as an outside bet, Zenit St Petersburg, have no points at all after two games. That’s more like my normal prediction performance!
Winners
I’m going to stick my neck on the block now. I reckon that the winners of the tournament will be one of the eleven teams I listed above who are going well. I’m not prepared to narrow it down any more than that. Mind you, it might be worth a fiver on Cluj. Anyone know the odds?
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