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Posts Tagged ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’

Real Madrid and Manchester City the current league champions in their respective countries having had a shaky start to the season, played against each other in their first Champion League match. The bets were on the English squad, but at the end it was Real Madrid the one that prevailed, winning (3-2)

All goals were scored 21 minutes from the end. Basically, Real Madrid dominated the match but Manchester City scored first, thanks to Edin Dzeko (68´). The goal proved to be the best motivator for “Los Blancos” who started to attack aggressively. They suffered but shortly after Dzeko´s goal, Marcelo (76´) scored the equalizer.

En el minuto 85, Aleksandar Kolarov marcó el segundo del City. Los ingleses apenas saborearon algunos minutos de victoria, debido al fantástico contraataque que realizaron los de Mourinho y que culminó con el gol de Benzema (87’).

But the one that put an end to the match was Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring the winner goal in the 90th minute. It was a very emotive moment for Real Madrid, not only because they had just won against Manchester City, and their first Champions match, but because its star player reconciled with his fans after a much talked comment the Portuguese made about being sad.

At the end both teams pleased their fans, because they played a spectacular match, putting on a great show on the field, but…  Will they keep this attitude in their respective leagues?

Since Spain broke its string of bad luck in quarter-finals, it is unstoppable. Euro 2008, the World Cup 2010 and now is about to win its second Euro title. If it wins, Spain will become the first National Team achieving three Championships in a row.

The match against Portugal wasn´t an easy one, though. 90 minutes of regular time, then 30 more minutes of extra time, and the scoreboard remained 0. Spain ended up beating Portugal in the penalty shoot-outs. But it did not start with the right foot, because Xabi Alonso missed the first penalty kick. Lucky for Spain, Iker Casillas made a great save preventing Moutinho from scoring.

But the decisive kick came from Cesc Fàbregas. He asked to kick the fifth one, because he got the feeling that it was going to be the decisive one. And he was certainly right! He did not miss it, giving Spain the opportunity to go to finals, and preventing Cristiano Ronaldo from even try to kick.

The final will take place next Sunday July 1^st in Kiev, but we still don´t know who will Spain play against: Italy or Germany?

Things did not look good for Real Madrid fans when Mourinho announced his final line-up to take over FC Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter finals. The list included Carvalho and Altintop .

But, still, in the 11th minute, thanks to a great assist from Karim Benzema, and the always appreciated help from Pinto (Barça´s eternal question-mark goalkeeper in the Copa del Rey competition), Cristiano Ronaldo scored and for a moment it looked like the conservative tactic planned by Mourinho was going to be successful.

Time only proved that Ronaldo´s goal was just good luck, and when Barcelona started to play the way they always do, Madrid started to shake.

Let´s just say that Barcelona did not crushed Real Madrid thanks to Iker Casillas and the posts. Instead, Barcelona scored in a very unusual way that only emphasizes that the whole team was really connected and concentrated on the work at hand. In the 49th minute Puyol shoot a powerful header after a corner kick. This goal, this way, really took Madrid players by surprise. So did the one by Abidal, who scored the coolest goal in the 77th minute after a wonderful play and assist by Messi.

And the Argentinean was, unintentionally so, one of the main characters in the bad play starring the overly aggressive Madrid defender Pepe, who showed us once again that something terrible in going on in his brain. The Portuguese stepped on Messi´s hand voluntarily, when the Argentinean was getting on his feet after falling down. Still, he saw no red card.

What did Mourinho said after the match? “I haven’t seen it, but obviously if it is deliberate he will be punished,”

And Pep Guardiola… well, he was extremely happy, politely saying that he did not see the aggression thanking instead all the players for their wonderful job and even taking the time to single out Alexis: “I want to especially thank Alexis [Sanchez],” He has played a fantastic game. He has stolen my heart”.

This result leaves Barcelona a comfortable leeway to prepare for second leg taking place next Wednesday at Camp Nou.

Plenty of goals and records in the last round of Champions League matches, all coming from FC Barcelona.

The highlight: Lionel Messi and his fabulous hat-trick, becoming the second 200 goal scorer in FC Barcelona´s history. It was also the day Pep Guardiola coached his 200th official game for Barça and goalkeeper Victor Valdes set a new Barcelona record for minutes without conceding a goal.

On Group G Zenit won Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0) with an only goal from Nicolas Lombaerts. And Apoel surprisingly remains the group´s leader after beating Porto (2-1)

On Group H an early and only goal from Ibrahimovic wasn´t enough for Milan, that had to settled with a draw against Bate Borisov (1-1). And now the match of records: Plzen players did whatever they could but still had to endure the whole force of FC Barcelona (hat-trick from Messi included ) losing (0-4)

On Group E Valencia beat Bayern Leverkusen (3-1) with one of the quickest goals to remember. The Brazilian Jonas scored after only 12 seconds from the start of the match. And Chelsea doesn’t seem to be at its best moment, getting just a draw with Genk (1-1)

On Group F there were few goals. Arsenal and Marseille finished with a draw (0-0). The euphoria after beating Chelsea (5-3) on the Premier did not last and even though they tried, Arsenal players did not score a single time.
The only goal in this group was from Borussia Dortmund ´s Kevin Grosskreutz, giving his team a victory over Olympiacos (1-0)

On Group A there were plenty of goals between Bayern and Napoli, (3-2) with a hat-trick from Mario Gomez that secured the victory for the Germans. On a sad note, Bastian Schwinsteiger fractured his collarbone in the 51st minute in an unfortunate collision with Gökhan Inler. Manchester City smashed Villarreal hopes, now eliminated from the tournament (0-3)

On Group B no goals in Turkey between Trabzonspor and CSKA Moskva (0-0). And Inter beat Lille (2-1), thanks to goals from Walter Samuel and Diego Milito.

On Group C Manchester United did their homework at Old Trafford beating Otelul Galati (2-0). Benfica got a home draw (1-1) against Basel, missing the opportunity to secure qualification.

On Group D Real Madrid did as expected of them in France, beating Olympique Lyonnais (0-2) with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice, thanks to a free-kick and and a penalty. Ajax also won easily, and with style, Dinamo Zagreb (4-0)

Next Champions activity on November 22nd and 23rd