UEFA Champions League
The English clubs were rejoicing after the second round of Champions League fixtures as victories for Tottenham and Manchester United made it 4 out of 4 after Chelsea and Arsenal had won earlier. Among the other big clubs Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich also notched up victories.
After having thrashed MSK Zilina on Matchday 1, Chelsea followed it up with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Marseille. John Terry and Nicolas Anelka were the scorers as Chelsea would be disappointed that they couldn’t get more in the back of the net after putting up a scintillating performance. Spartak Moscow is the unbeaten team in the group after beating Zilina comfortably by 3 goals.
It was a night of spot kicks in Belgrade as Arsenal cruised to a 3-1 victory over Partizan. Arshavin, who put the Gunners in the lead before Cleo equalized from the spot, failed to convert his penalty. However goals from new star Chamakh and Squillacy put them in a comfortable position. A penalty save from Fabianzki ensured that Arsenal won by a respectable scoreline.
There were penalties galore also for Arsenal’s North London rivals as Tottenham showed that they belonged to Europe’s elite beating FC Twente by 4 goals to 1 with new signing Rafael Van der Vaart in the thick of action. Van der Vaart failed to convert a penalty early on but made up for it by scoring Tottenham’s first and then was sent off a few minutes later by receiving a second yellow. However Pavulychenko converted two more penalties and a Bale rounded it off by scoring a late goal. In the other Group A game, Samuel Eto’o scored a hat trick as Inter thrashed Bremen 4-0.
In Spain, a late strike by substitute Hernandez gave Manchester United the three points against Valencia in a game which saw Rio Ferdinand return back to action after a long injury lay off. Fellow substitute Macheda put on a sparkling performance and he provided the assist for Hernandez. Valencia will be disappointed that they got nothing out of a match that they dominated.
In a Group E game, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored twice, the second a late winner, as last season’s runners up Bayern Munich kept up their 100% record in this season’s tournament. In the other game of the group AS Roma got off the mark with an unimpressive 2-1 win over Cluj.
A late goal by Mourinho’s new signing Angel Di Maria gave Real Madrid the victory over French club Auxerre while AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw by a stubborn Ajax.
But the surprise of the week was Rubin Kazan denying Spanish champions Barcelona a victory in Russia. David Villa converted a penalty and so did Rubin’s Christian Noboa as Barcelona continued their inconsistent start to the season.
In other games Lyon and FC Copenhagen made it 2 victories in 2 matches with wins over Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos respectively but this was another week where the English clubs continued showing their dominance in Europe’s premier competition as the 4 clubs are yet to lose a match in the tournament scoring 22 goals among themselves while conceding only 4.
Tags: Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Champions League, Chelsea, English Clubs, Football, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Sports, Tottenham, UEFA Champions League
