Champions League- Review

Another week of Champions League gone and there were quite a few ecstatic wins and quite a few upsets. It was a mammoth of a week for the Scottish clubs as both Rangers and Celtic recorded their win in their respective matches.

The big story of the week was Rangers beating Lyon. None expected Rangers to get anything from the game but they exhibited the quality of Scottish football. Lee McCulloch opened the scoring for Rangers in the 22nd min and Daniel Cousin doubled the lead, as soon as the second half kicked off. Demarcus Beasley scored the third goal and sealed the game. Juninho led a one-man army on the Rangers goal. The Brazilian was in superb touch especially in the first 45 min with his free kicks getting more and more on target. The French Champions, who lost their opener to Barcelona fortnight ago, are already close to elimination.

Barcelona visited the German Champions Stuttgart, and there was quality football all over. Though Barcelona won the match 2 0, the Germans played really well . Barcelona Goal keeper, Victor Valdez was in awesome form. The Spanish giants scored through an unusual source, Carlos Puyol who returned after a 3-month injury lay off. A well crafted goal. Messi, 15 min later, put the Catalan giants level to Rangers in the Group E. Ronaldinho, returned in this match and showed that he’s still the best. There was excellent Chemistry between Messi and Ronaldinho

Roma visited the Old Trafford and the 7 1 loss to Man U a couple of months back was lingering behind their minds. Totti lead Roma again and the veteran Italian Striker played really well coming really close to scoring a couple of times. In the second half , Rooney finished things of with a sublime finish. That was the only goal of the match and that was enough to get them the 3 points and send them at the top of the group.

Sporting Beat Dynamo Kiev 2 1 and the 3 goals were scored in the first half. Sporting showed real character as their lead was cut short immediately , but they got back their lead in no time.

In the other matches this week , Moscow drew with Fenerbahce 2 2 and the Italian Giants Inter beat last year’s quarter-finalist PSV 2 0 with only 9 men on the field as two of the Inter players were sent off.

Arsenal carried their fine domestic form to Europe and a superb goal by RVP sealed the match against Steaua Bucuresti. It took 75 minutes to get the match going. Sevilla bounced back from their defeat to Arsenal 2 weeks back by winning the match 4 2. Kanoute , the Mali striker got things going for Sevilla in the 8th minute.

Liverpool , at their Fortress Anfield hosted Marseille. Cisse returned to Anfield , not as a Liverpool player though. Liverpool played sloppy football and couldn’t even complete a pass successfully. Sissoko was especially weak in the mid field. He proved to be the weak link in the squad and gave away possession in the 75 th minute which resulted in an awesome goal form Valbuena. Reina didn’t even budge. Liverpool 3rd in the group right now , face a tough task ahead. They are quite close to elimination as Porto recorded a last minute goal form Quaresma to defeat Besiktas to move into the second place.

Avram Grant faced his first match in Europe and had a great start as his Team Valencia yet again. It was 2 1 this time. Villa opened the scoring just after 8 minutes. Joe Cole was instrumental in both of their goals. Scoring the first and being an architect for the next. Drogba scored the 2nd to finish things off.


In other matches , Schalke beat Rosenberg 2 0 & Shakthar beat Benfica 1 0.

Olympiacos beat Werder Bremen 3 1 at the German’s home. And a double strike by RVN wasn’t enough to get Real Madrid the 3 points against Lazio who fought back for a 2 2 draw.

Celtic had an awesome time against AC Milan beating them 2 1. Milan’s form has been a bit slack all over. Mcmanus scored first in the 61st minute. Kaka equalized through a penalty 7 min later but a late goal from Celtic left Milan thinking what went wrong.