UCL 2008-2009 Group Stage Day Two

17 September 2008

MANCHESTER UNITED 0
VILLARREAL 0

Attendance : 74,944
Assists : n/a


CELTIC 0
AAB 0

Attendance : 57,432
Red Card : Beauchamp 79 (AAB)
Assists : n/a


STEAUA BUCHAREST 0
BAYERN MUNICH 1 (Van Buyten 15)

Attendance : 20,000
Assist : Schweinsteiger (fk)


LYON 2 (Piquionne 73, Benzema 86)
FIORENTINA 2 (Gilardino 12, 42)

You can always rely on prize fuck-up Boumsong to make a blunder and he
did just that on 12 minutes, carelessly handing back possession after
intercepting a speculative cross. Zauri chipped the ball into the box,
Lloris slipped as he came off his line and Gilardino headed into an
empty net. Almiron sent Mutu free down the right and his far post cross
was met by the unmarked Gilardino who punched a header into the bottom
right corner.

Fiorentina were fuming when that terrible Swedish ref, Peter Frojdfeldt,
failed to stop play following a clash of heads between Zauri and Govou
that left the Italian midfielder on his knees, Lyon continued to attack,
Benzema collected a Juninho pass and centred for Piquionne, played
onside by the injured Zauri to tap in. Shades of the Netherlands first
goal against Italy at Euro 2008. Zauri was substituted minutes later
with a suspected fractured cheekbone. Fiorentina collapsed but seemed to
have rode out the storm until Frojdfeldt gave the home side a soft free
kick. Juninho played the ball around the wall and Benzema broke from the
pack to smash past Frey via a deflection. Terrible officiating and
terrible sportsmanship by the French.

Attendance : 43,000
Assists : Zauri, Mutu, Benzema, n/a


PORTO 3 (Lisandro 10, Lucho 13, Lino 92)
FENERBAHCE 1 (Guiza 29)

Meireles found Lisandro Lopez with an excellent cross on the turn
leaving the forward with an easy volley at the back post. Lucho scored a
fantastic second. Lugano, who dwarfs Lisandro, tried to re-enact a scene
from Brokeback Mountain but Lisandro spurred his advances and played a
ball inside to Rodriguez, he pulled his centre back to the edge of the
box and Lucho arrived with such speed both feet left the air as he
connected with blistering right foot volley which absolutely flew into
the net. Helton made a superb point blank save to deny Helton but Guiza
beat him on the rebound.

Fenerbahce should have been awarded a penalty at 2-1 for a foul on
Lugano. Hulk, the nickname used by Givanildo Vieira de Souza in much the
same way Kaka' plays under his nickname, ran through a sloppy challenge
by the normally dependable Lugano and angled a pass between three
defenders for Lino, on as an injury time wasting sub, to score with his
first touch. Brilliant match.

Attendance : 43,000
Assists : Meireles, Rodriguez, n/a, Hulk


DYNAMO KYIV 1 (Bangoura 64 Pen)
ARSENAL 1 (Gallas 88)

Sagna wrestled Dynamo's Vukojevic to the ground to concede a stupid
penalty. Bangoura made Almunia look like a chump, he went down early as
the striker fired into his bottom left corner. Arsenal's shit captain,
Bill Gallas, came to his teams unlikely rescue. Man of the moment
Walcott fired an unplayable centre across the box, Adebayor misskicked
and Gallas made sure by driving the ball into net.

Attendance : 20,000
Assists : Vukojevic (won pen), Adebayor


JUVENTUS 1 (Del Piero 76 fk)
ZENIT ST PETERSBURG 0

Attendance : 22,000
Assist : Nedved (won fk)


REAL MADRID 2 (Sergio Ramos 11, Van Nistelrooy 57)
BATE BORISOV 0

A cleverly worked corner set Real on the way to an easy win. Van der
Vaart played a corner to Guti who was standing about 10 yards from the
edge of the D, he threaded a ball to an unmarked Sergio Ramos and his
first time shot beat Veremko at his near post. A superbly timed run took
Raul past two defenders onto a Diarra pass, his first time left footed
shot was punched away by Veremko but bounced off team-mate Stasevich as
he tracked Van Nistelrooy and the Dutchman stabbed the ball over the
line to claim his 54th Champions League goal.

Attendance : 65,000
Red Card : Khagush 62 (Bate Borisov)
Assists : Guti, n/a


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> from Brokeback Mountain but Lisandro spurred his advances and played a

That should read spurned his advances.


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Benny wrote:

[...]


Ugly but effective performance by Bayern. Demichelis a monster in the
back, only two or three dangerous situations by Steaua, one of which
nearly put in for them by Rensing. Bayern didn't do enough in the 2nd
half but it wasn't punished. Three golden chances all ended with a shot
into the goalie's chest, and a fourth was wasted by Lucio as after he
broke through on the right side didn't square it to Toni. The good
signs: we got the necessary win in Bucharest so the other two have to
win there, and they drew each other in Lyon, and all the one-touch
keepaway by Bayern functioned pretty well especially given the soggy
pitch. This is a welcome contrast to last year when the first touch was
awful and we could always be counted on to give up a late equaliser or
winner.

--
ciao,
Bruce

drift wave turbulence: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Benny wrote:


I've never really liked Guti, but it needs to be noted that he played
this one beautifully. He totally faked out the defense, who thought he
was shooting.

Benny wrote:

Your concern for sportsmanship would sound more genuine if you hadn't been
an apologist for Materazzi's blatant cheating. Frojdfeldt officiated the
NED-ITA match at Euro2008 so he seems consistent in his not calling
'suspected' injuries (BTW, if Zauri plays this weekend without a face mask,
I'll seriously consider calling bullshit). Also, as it turns out Benzema
seemed slightly offside on this action.


Vukojevic dragged Sagna down by his shirt to make it look he had been
tackled. His faking seems quite probable in the replay so I am not sure how
you could have missed it.

Bangoura made Almunia look like a chump, he went down early

Could your disgraceful bias be anymore obvious?

Bruce Scott TOK wrote:

Which of Van Buyten, Lucio, and Demichelis was playing in midfield, or
did you play 3-5-2 or something ?

only two or three dangerous situations by Steaua, one of which

MH wrote:


I couldn't tell from the telecast and only noticed that anomaly after
the match. The FCB website lists:

Rensing
- Lucio, Demichelis, Van Buyten
- Lell, Schweinsteiger (83. Borowski), Van Bommel, Ze Roberto (75. Ottl), Lahm
- Toni, Klose (46. Podolski)

So yes, 3-5-2

--
ciao,
Bruce

drift wave turbulence: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

On Sep 18, 8:54*am, Benny <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

Vukojevic's arm reached behind Sagna and dragged him on top of him.



Almunia's going to be a liability this season -- like he was last
season.


Gallas' defending has been atrocious lately. Arsenal are in desperate
need of another central defender.

On Sep 19, 1:14*am, "Bob" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

Well, the commentators of the official UEFA highlights package missed
it.



Where's the bias? Gallas sucks. Both as a captain and lately, as a
defender. In fact, he's alway been overrated as a defender.

On Sep 18, 8:41*am, JK <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

Not only that, but his vision in spotting Ramos was incredible.