Bit of a strange one last night. But then this whole
Champions League campaign has been a bit strange; BATE Borisov winning their
first two games including one against Bayern; Shakhtar topping their group so
far; Celtic getting a win. Here’s a quick round up of last night’s results and
what they mean for each team’s hopes of progression as they reach the half-way
stage.
Group E
Strangest of all last night perhaps was the fact that Chelsea
didn’t manage to get a point in Donetsk. Shakhtar are, undoubtedly, a very
accomplished team but the Champions League holders have been on sublime form
this season with only one ‘blip’ being a week where they dropped points in a
0-0 draw at QPR followed by throwing away a two goal lead against Juventus.
Despite having the better of the possession (59% to Shakhtar’s 41%, a not
insignificant difference) Chelsea were unable to find the net until the 88th
minute when the game was all but beyond them. Some indecisive defending led to
the ball breaking somewhat fortunately to Alex Teixeira in the 3rd
minute, who slotted the ball past Cech into the bottom corner. Only some
impressive keeping from Cech kept the scoreline at 1-0 until the 52nd
minute, when two of Shakhtar’s collection of bright young Brazilians, Luiz
Adriano passing to Fernandinho, combined to put the Ukrainian side 2-0 up. The two sides then traded blows until
Chelsea’s own promising Brazilian brought the visitors back to 1 goal behind,
however with only 5 minutes left the goal was little more than a consolation as
Shakhtar had enough about them to see the game out.
The other result in this group was the equally surprising 1-1
draw between Nordsjaelland and Juventus, with Juve only managing to salvage a
point in the last 10 minutes despite bombarding the Danes’ goal for the
majority of the match.
As a result the group is wide open and Shakhtar would have to
fancy themselves to qualify, although a trip to Stamford Bridge is likely to provide
a hefty stumbling block. My favourites to qualify are Chelsea 1st
and Shakhtar 2nd, but Chelsea are going to have to work very hard to
make this a reality.
Group F
In the group where Bayern would’ve liked to have been
progressing nicely towards early qualification they find themselves sitting in
3rd position, albeit on goal difference. A twentieth minute Thomas Müller penalty was enough to give Bayern an away win
against a noticeably Hazard-less Lille, who are fast becoming this group’s
whipping boys, having taken no points from their first 3 games. Die Bayern had
the better of the possession (60-40) but failed to convert this into a large
number of chances on goal, the best being a low cross in the 77th
minute that Müller should’ve converted for his second of the night. The
performance perhaps should have been better but, as Bayern’s Toni Kroos pointed
out, the pitch was in poor condition and Jupp Heynckes
will be pleased that his team leave Stade Lille Metropole with 3 away points.
The other group in the match saw
BATE Borisov, who have been very impressive up until now, lose their 100% record
to a Roberto Soldado hat-trick including a sweetly struck volley from the edge
of the 18 yard box after 55 minutes.
Valencia, BATE and Bayern are all
currently on 6 points and will see an intriguing second half of the group to
come. We still have to assume that Bayern will progress given their squad of
quality players and, despite BATE’s promising start to the group, this 3-0
defeat at home to Valencia leads me to believe that the Spaniards are likely to
qualify in second place.
Group G
Looking at the table you might assume that it has been plain sailing
for Barcelona thus far. You’d be very wrong. For the second time in three
matches Barcelona had to use their grit instead of their immense talent to come
from behind and steal the points from a thoroughly unlucky Celtic team. Giorgos
Samaras put the visitors ahead with a header off of a great delivery from
Charlie Mulgrew. As was predicted before the start of the match Barcelona
dominated. With a somewhat ridiculous 90% of possession and 26 attempts on goal
it seems almost impossible to believe that the crushing blow did not come
before Jordi Alba’s 93rd minute winner, although this was in part
down to some resolute defending from the Scots and some inspired keeping from Fraser Forster.
Perhaps equally as important was the goal that saw Andres Iniesta finish off a
sweet passing move on the stroke of half time, which reminded us of Barcelona
at their devastating best. Neil Lennon will have felt that if his team could
have made it into the changing room at half time with their 1-0 lead intact
they would have stood a much better chance of coming away from the Nou Camp
with something to show for their efforts.
Spartak Moscow and Benfica played out the other game in this
group, with the Russian side taking what could be a big win, 2-1. Spartak
opened the scoring after just 3 minutes with Rafael scoring a neatly placed
finish into the bottom corner. Benfica were back on terms half an hour later
when Lima headed past Artem Robrov in the Spartak goal. The scoring was wrapped
up before half time when Brazilian Lima was somewhat unlucky to turn a difficult
cross from Moscow full back Evgeni Makeev into his own net.
This leaves Benfica bottom with only a point and Spartak
ready to pounce on Celtic should they slip up, with the Russians only a point
behind the Scots. It is very hard to see past Barcelona for first place in this
group, with three wins from three.
Group H
In a night that gave us some surprises what was not
surprising was that Manchester United made it difficult for themselves in their
home game against Braga, third-place finishers in last season’s Portuguese
Primera Liga. United eventually did the business after going two down, a
strategy that you have to feel will start to come undone very soon unless
United make dramatic defensive improvements, having conceded at least two goals
in their last three home games. As Javier Hernandez put it in his post-match
interview “that cannot happen again.” The Captain Alan scored two goals; the
first a solid header that could have been better defended, but it is the second
that Alex Ferguson will certainly take issue with. Michael Carrick was beaten
easily on the wing by Eder before Alan found space between three united
defenders to slot home past De Gea. United fought their way back with Shinji Kagawa
finding Javier Hernandez free for a back post header after 25 minutes and went
in at half time a goal down but definitely with the impetus. It was 17 second
half minutes before Jonny Evans scored his first goal at Old Trafford; a scrappy
left footed finish from a Van Persie corner. After that it was when not if United
scored again and Hernandez completed his brace with another header, this time
from a fantastic Tom Cleverley cross. United still look very much the
unfinished article and the attacking prowess will need to be matched by
defensive stability if they are to make any real effort to win this tournament.
A more interesting match than the 1-1 score would suggest, Galatasaray
had to come from behind after Dany Nounkeo scored an own goal after 19 minutes.
Cluj, however, were the architects of their own downfall, specifically Matías Aguirregaray, after he was sent off for two
justifiable bookable offences. Felipe Melo then missed from the spot after László
Sepsi was adjudged to have handled in the box. Burak
Yilmaz headed home from a Nordin Amrabat cross ten minutes from time but
Galatasaray will be thinking about what could have been at home against 10 man
Cluj.
This leaves, as was predicted by
many, Manchester United top of the group with maximum points leaving the rest
to scrap it out for that second place. It might seem too early to tell but
Galatasaray seem to have ruled themselves out of the chase after failing to win
last night.
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