…And The Reds Go Marching On! On! On!

Round-Up

What a fascinating night of football!! I mean, had you told me that AaB would score 3 goals at Villarreal or that Dynamo Kiev would win at Porto without conceding a goal, then I’d have frankly said “not a chance mate!”. But, the strange mistress that is football reared her head truly last night.

 

League form appeared to count for nothing, especially when Fiorentina were swept away 3-0 by a rampant Bayern Munich. Olympique Lyonnais managed to save face after trailing 3-2 at a tenacious Steau Bucharest, coming back to win 5-3 despite a couple of shaky results in their domestic league. Manchester United eased past Celtic with a classy display, and despite 2 of the goals being blatantly offside (as most United rivals are keen to point out, surprisingly!) even Celtic manager Gordon Strachan agreed that United were far superior and deserving of their victory. Villarreal had a real fight on their hands with an out-of-form AaB, and indeed found themselves drawing 2-2 at home at half-time. However, in the second-half, Villarreal launched an incisive assault upon AaB and won the game somewhat comfortably 6-3, largely aided by the incompetent Zaza in goal. Juventus blatantly disregarded their own league form for the reunion with old foes Real Madrid by beating the Spanish champions 2-1 after being set on their way by a typical wonder goal from veteran Alessandro Del Piero. Zenit St Petersburg laboured to a 1-1 draw at home to fesity BATE Borisov after falling behind. Zenit’s league form was certainly shown here as the Belarusian side more than held their own in this encounter. Dynamo Kiev, one of most notorious poor-travellers in Europe managed to overcome Porto, a side with one of the better home records in European football, and managed to do so 1-0! Not even a goal conceded for the in-form Ukrainians. The only reason I can give Porto for this defeat is the fact that they’re not played a competitive game for 2 weeks. Last but not least, Arsenal showed their talents by overcoming a weak Fenerbahce team on the unenviable trip to Turkey, winning 5-2 thanks to some clinical finishing and an abysmal display from the home side. The result could well be a nail in the coffin lid of Spanish manager Luis Aragones due to Fenerbahce’s awful performances & results both domestically and in the Champions League.

 

 

 

 

Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool (3)
Basel vs Barcelona (7)
Bordeaux vs CFR Cluj (6)
Chelsea vs AS Roma (8)
Internazionale vs Anorthosis Famagusta (9)
PSV Eindhoven vs Olympique de Marseille (5)
Panathinaikos vs Werder Bremen (5)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting Lisbon (5)

Enjoy