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Posts Tagged ‘Manchester City’

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?

What is going on? Last year three English sides were up for the title in quarter-finals. Now the reputation of English football relies only on Chelsea.

Manchester City and Manchester United did not pass the initial stages of the competition, and Arsenal was swept away by an amazing Milan lead by an even more amazing Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Of course, a second leg still remains to be played, but, frankly, even Arsène Wegner is pessimistic, saying that their performance, last Wednesday, was “the worst in Europe ever”. Something similar was said a few days ago when Chelsea´s manager Andre Villas-Boas stated that his team defeat to Everton (2-0) was the worst of the season so far. So let´s just way that right now it is difficult to have faith on Chelsea, the only English team alive in Champions. They will face Napoli next Tuesday in Stadio San Paolo.

If neither Arsenal nor Chelsea passes this round, it would mean the worst European Cup performance in 16 years by English teams.

On the other side, Italian football seems to be making a comeback. Napoli beat Manchester City, and Milan crashed Arsenal.

Could it be that Italians are back, and English teams are rapidly fading way? Or are we jumping to conclusions too soon?

The most anticipated football game of the weekend, El Clasico, finished leaving behind any doubts that FC Barcelona continues to be the best team in the world, beating Real Madrid (1-3) at their own home.

The match started, surprisingly enough, with one of the fastest goals in El Clasico history. Víctor Valdés sent a pass into midfield that ended up in Benzema´s feet, scoring just 22 seconds from the start.

But Barça, far from going down, started to play the way they know, being always truthful to their own style. Slowly but surely they started dominating midfield and that´s how in the 30th minute, Alexis scored the equalizer after a great assist from Messi. Another mistake, this time on Madrid´s side, ended up with Marcelo scoring an own goal in the 53th minute. And then, in the 66th minute, a great team play finished up with a diving header by Cesc Fàbregas.

It was an easy win on Barcelona´s side, and a complete shock for Madrid. And now Barcelona is in Japan, ready to win the Club World Cup, but first would have to beat Al Sadd, the Asian Champions on Thursday´s semi-final in Yokohama.

England´s Clasico

Manchester City visits Stamford Bridge. The City are the Premier League leader, and after being kicked off the Champions, they will focus on maintaining their flawless league record. The Blues are 10 points behind and currently on fifth place, but, they did what the City couldn´t, and are still up and running in the European Realm.

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

Another round of Champions League matches went by without surprises.

AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, CSKA Moscow, Manchester United, Ajax, Real Madrid, and Olympiakos beat their opponents as expected. The highlights were Madrid´s easy win over Olympique Lyonnais (4-0) and Chelsea’s 5 goals against Genk, two of them from Fernando Torres.

Let´s start with Group H, were AC Milan and Barcelona both shared the same result beating their team (2-0). Milan went ahead with a strong Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and after that the whole match was a stroll for the Italians that won effortless against Bate Borisov. Barcelona had multiple occasions, mostly came from Messi, but at the end it was Iniesta and later on David Villa the ones that ended up scoring.

On Group A, Bayer Munich dropped their first points of the Champions League against Napoli (1-1) and Manchester City beat Villarreal only a few minutes away from the end, thanks to Sergio Aguero that scored the second goal for the City (2-1)

On Group C, Benfica beat Basel, (2-0) and Manchester United registered their first Champions League win of the season against SC Otelul Galati (2-0)

On Group B, CSKA Moskva beat Trabzonspor (3-0) with a stellar performance from Seydou Doumbia who scored twice. Inter Milan won over Lille (0-1)

On Group D, Real Madrid was the highlight of Tuesday night matches beating easily Olympique Lyonnais (4-0). Ajax won away against Dinamo Zagreb (0-2)

The following day, on Group E it was Chelsea’s turn to hit the net on multiple occasions beating Genk (5-0) with two goals from Fernando Torres. Bayer Leverkusen wiped off Valencia´s hope beating the Spanish team (2-1)

On Group F Arsenal beat Marseille (0-1) and Olympiakos won Dortmund (3-1)

On Group G there were two draws, Shakhtar Donetsk against Zenith (2-2) and FC Porto-Apoel Nicosia (1-1)

The first qualifying round will continue on November 1st and 2nd.