My last
couple of champo league roundups were almost like my dissertation in length,
although probably better written, so I’m going to keep this one shorter. Here are
the results and fallout from another intriguing Champions League matchday.
Group A
After a 4-0
thrashing by Paris Saint-Germain, Dynamo Kiev’s hopes of progression are, if
not mathematically, realistically over. PSG were impressively ruthless with a
team performance yielding 4 different scorers all of which were assisted by
Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Before he came off after 68 minutes Ezequiel Lavezzi had
all three ‘assist assists’ showing us that the pairing of Lavezzi and
Ibrahimovic is not one to mess with.
The other
match in this group saw a bore draw between Dinamo Zagreb and Porto. The
best chances fell to Porto’s Silvestre Varela who saw a header well saved by Zagreb’s Maxim Koval in
the first half and then dragged a left-footed shot just wide of the post in the
second.
This leaves
Porto and PSG to battle it out for 1st
place with the Portuguese side sitting just one point ahead of their French
rivals. The real crunch match comes in Paris
in the last game of the group on December 4th.
Group B
Arsenal
looked to be reversing the scoreline of two weeks ago when, after 26 minutes
the Londoners found themselves 2-0 up and seemingly cruising to a victory which
would see them top the group. However the first-half goals by an impressive
Theo Walcott and a somewhat relieved Olivier Giroud was dampened by a Klass-Jan
Huntelaar goal just before half time. This gave Schalke the impetus coming out
for the second half and half-way through Jefferson Farafan levelled the scores.
Walcott might feel he could have stolen all 3 points for Arsenal at the end but
his tame shot was not nearly good enough to beat Lars Unnerstall in the Schalke
goal.
Olympiacos
strengthened their claim for a spot in
the next round after a home victory against Montpellier put them only two points behind
Schalke and only one behind Arsenal. The Greeks went ahead very early when
Paulo Machado pounced on a loose ball that bounced off the post to slide the
ball into an empty net after just 4 minutes. But when Younes Belhanda netted
from the spot after 66 minutes it looked as if Olypiacos had thrown their advantage
away. However, in the last ten minutes the home side netted twice more to kill
off the French champions, both Greco and then Mitroglou benefiting from Jose
Holebas’ ability with the cross.
With two
games to go and no wins for Olympiacos against the two top sides in this group
you have to suspect that Arsenal and Schalke will go through, but with Schalke
top of the group unfortunately for the Gunners it looks as if the Germans will
be taking top spot.
Group C
Despite AC
Milan having the better of the half-chances in the first half, forcing some
decent saves from Malaga goalkeeper Willy, Malaga were the first ones to score
in the San Siro, a perfectly timed through ball from Isco finding Eliseu for a
simple finish past Abbiati. The Milan
faithful were treated to a frustrating evening and were only gifted one reason
to celebrate when, in the 73rd minute, Alex Pato headed in a Kevin
Constant cross from 2 yards
out to keep AC’s hopes of qualification alive.
It was a
rather tame affair in the other tie in this group, which saw home team Anderlecht beat Zenit to move above them into third
place. The match was fairly even throughout, with the home side having the
better of the chances but the Belgians took all three points thanks to a 16th
minute goal from Dieudonne Mbokani, whose first name literally means ‘God
given’, you can make up your own puns.
This leaves
Malaga to
almost certainly qualify top and the other three teams to battle it out for
second place, and on balance no one really deserves to. In my humble opinion it
will be Milan
to qualify, only just.
Group D
This group
is what it’s all about. Two 2-2 draws saw some controversy, anger and surprise
as both ‘underdog’ away sides, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, took the lead
against Real Madrid and Manchester City respectively. Real Madrid however managed to peg the Germans
back after they had scored only one goal, which was an absolutely phenomenal
strike from Marco Reus. Last week it was the Portuguese main man who got Real
their equalising goal, this time it was the Portuguese centre-back, Pepe, who
found himself at the back post to head home from 6 yards out. Dortmund were,
once again, not to be intimidated and took the lead for a second time just
before half time when Mario Gotze latched onto a Robert Lewandowski pass in the
Madrid box and forced Alvaro Arbeloa to put the ball into his own net. Real
Madrid, however, are a much more difficult force at home, as shown by their far
superior home form in La Liga
this season, and were not to leave empty handed. A dipping Mesut Ozil free kick
should have been dealt with better by Roman Weidenfeller but snuck in at the
near post to give the home side a share of the spoils. Manchester City,
and in particular Roberto Mancini, will be far less pleased with their comeback
to 2-2 as it essentially ends their already difficult qualification mission.
Finding themselves 2-0 down after only 16 minutes to two Siem de Jong goals,
both from corners, City were forced to do it the hard way again in this
competition. After this massive early setback the English champions showed
spirit and at times a large amount of attacking flair and this gave them two
goals of their own, first a neat volley on the turn from Yaya Toure who then
turned provider for Sergio Aguero who latched onto the Ivorian’s flick-on to
score in the 73rd minute. The constant City attacking pressure saw gaps
in their defence and Ajax
squandered chances of their own, especially from second-half substitute Viktor
Fischer. Manchester City might feel they have good reason to be aggrieved about
the an Aguero volley that was ruled out because supplier Zabaleta was adjudged
to have been offside, and Mario Balotelli went down right at the end after
having his shirt almost ripped off his back. These grievances however don’t
hide the fact that Mancini’s boys should not have been 2-0 down at home against
an Ajax side
who, although well organised, are not world class.
This leaves
the table pretty much as you were and Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid will be
favourites to qualify, and it looks like, surprisingly, in that order.
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