Champions League Results: Matchday4 - Tuesday

AC Milan 1-1 Real Madrid
Apoel Nicosia 0-1 FC Porto
Atletico Madrid 2-2 Chelsea
Bayern Munich 0-2 Bordeaux
Besiktas 0-3 Wolfsburg
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Juventus
Man Utd 3-3 CSKA Moscow
Marseille 6-1 FC Zurich


Although I was fixated on the Milan-Madrid tie, I did flip over to the other matches to see what was going down. I was shocked to see that Man U had come back from 1-3 down to equalize. So they’re practically through. I did manage to catch CSKA’s first goal, and it was sublime! It kinda of reminded me of Roberto Carlos’ “impossible goal” (see my post: http://wp.me/pGB6F-2F ). I suppose it’s exactly that which separates the mediocre teams from the big boys. One team can’t hold onto a 2 goal cushion, while the other can recover from being two goals down.


Atletico Madrid managed to salvage a point. Aguero came on in the second half despite carrying an injury, and the game livened up. Braces from him and Drogba saw the scoreline finishing 2-2. I feel, despite Atlectico’s poor run of form, they would’ve backed themselves to come away with 3 points. Nevertheless, a draw against Chelsea is always a good result.


It was a display of good attacking football at the San Siro. I feel Madrid created the better chances and Milan initially gave them too much room, which is what I felt, led to the goal. Referees seem to be making the headlines as much as players lately and German ref Felix Brych made a few controversial decisions. First the awarded a penalty to Milan for a handball that Pepe really couldn’t do anything about. Then a couple minutes later, he disallowed Pato’s goal, for reasons I’m not entirely sure about. Milan took longer to settle into the game and Madrid were playing with purpose, going forward, while Milan tried to counter. Whilst Dida looked shaky yet again (sigh), he did pull off a save from Raul’s strike in the dying moments of the match, so all is forgiven. But the Milan backline, once they found their rhythm, really were outstanding. Madrid were attacking from all angles and they did well to not concede more than the one. Pato, the “baby-face assassin” put on a good show, but he goes too easily to ground, maybe he’s not physical enough? (Come on he’s only 20!) He did however manage to get Arbeloa and Pepe booked, so job well done! But Milan’s true star was Ronaldinho (well, for me at least)! Ahh, hopefully the comeback to his best is on! He had a couple of good tricks up his sleeve today, and put away the penalty with ease. He was however limited by Ramos, another solid performance by the Spaniard. Other Madrid players that shone were Marcelo, who complemented the attack; and Diarra! The disappointments were former Liverpool boys Alonso (I barely saw him the 90mins) and Arbeloa who struggled to deal with Pato.


Tomorrow’s the crucial Lyon-Liverpool and Rubin-Barcelona ties. Thankfully they’re at different times, so I’ll be able to watch both.