The UEFA Champions' League roared back into action today with some interesting results and a fair smattering of goals.
Earlier today I predicted some results, group by group let's see how things transpired.
Group E:
Dynamo Kiev 0 - 3 Olympique Lyon (Right)
Predictably, an insipid Dynamo were ripped apart by Lyon. After Barcelona and Arsenal, Lyon are arguably the most attractive attacking side in Europe. I've had them topping this group right from the start and at the halfway point they seem to be on their way.
Dynamo have chopped and changed far too many times over the last couple of years to develop any fluidity and, due to the financial clout now present at rivals Shakhtar Donetsk, have surrendered their pre-eminent spot as Ukraine's top club. Despite possessing a strong technical style with fluent passing around the park, they lack any real weapons to hurt top quality opposition, leave alone settled elite teams who are playing at the top of their game, like Lyon. Rebrov, despite the pedigree he certainly has, is no longer anywhere near the player he was when he formed a torrid striking partnership with Andriy Shevchenko back in the late 90s. Hopelessly deployed as a playmaking centre forward, in the mould of Bergkamp, just behind Ukraine's next striking sensation Artim Mileyvski, he was starved of the ball and in turn unable to thread enough balls up to the latter.
Lyon, afforded the space in the middle of the park behind Rebrov and in front of Dynamo's twin defensive midfielders, Correa and Yussuf, simply knocked the ball around and took their chances well. One of the true marks of class is the ability to score from anywhere. Lyon scored once in open play (Kallstrom), one of a corner (Malouda) and one off a free kick (Juninho) as they surely now possess Europe's deadliest free kick taker.
Game, set and match. Lyon march on towards the knockout stages and, one would contend top place in the Group.
Why Dynamo did not start with 5 in midfield with Balkevich and Gusev included is beyond me. Lyon have too much atacking fluency to be afforded gaps in the opposition.
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Steaua Bucharest 1 - 4 Real Madrid (Wrong)
Okay, I got this one all wrong.
I completely misjudged Steaua's technical expertise (or lack thereof) and wrongly assumed Real were ripe for the taking, about to suffer another away day blue. Real were, I guess, battered by the stinging press over their defeat at Getafe over the weekend, determined to wrest the initiative early and not let the Romanian team harbour any hopes of an upset. They came out hungry, took full advantage of Steaua's defensive disorganisation and finished well. Ruud and Raul are one dimensional strikers in that they create little but score many - exactly what Real needed against someone like Steaua.
After Ramos had scored an early header (amateur marking at a corner), Real attacked regularly, pouring forward in numbers, adding to the chaos in the home team's box. Raul finished of a scrappy marker after Ruud's equally scrappy shot was blocked and deflected. Robinho jinxed into the box from the left to score an impressive goal that went into the roof of the net while Ruud coverted a typical late strike after being sent in by Mahamadou Diarra (also see Lyon, Olympique and Ambition, Modern Footballing Greed and). At 3-0 down, Valentin Badea scored his second goal of this year's competition when he turned in a close range deflection, scrappy, like the rest of the game.
Real comeback strong, a 4-1 away win is solid against any team in the Champion's League. Steaua, obviously need some more experience in breaking down attacks and using possession well. Their game against Dynamo will be crucial.
Group F:
Celtic 3 - 0 Benfica (Wrong)
Another one I fluffed.
I had expected Benfica to come out and frustrate the Scots, and opening with 3 in the middle supported by 2 pacy wingers, it looked like a contest set for counterattacking. However Celtic, despite being held in the first half eventually broke through, scoring 3 crisp goals in a strong second half performace. Benfica may have regretted playing all 3 of Miccoli, Simao and Nuno Gomes as Katsouranis and Armando Petit were overrun in the middle of the park.
For Celtic, Kenny Miller, Shaun Maloney and Shunsuke Nakamura turned in classic perfomances, full of direct running and swift passing while Gary Caldwell and Paul Telfer were assured at the back. Kenny Miller now has 3 goals in this year's competition while Celtic look to consolidate 2nd place in the group.
Benfica seemed strangely inept, tepid and nervous. I would blame tactics, you need players to supply the ball to the the wingers or the playmaker - not both. In the event Nuno Assis was wasted while the back field was Celtic's to dominate. Fabrizio Miccoli and Simao Sabrosa are fast, finishing forwards, not wingers who track back. The space behind them in the middle third was criminal. Benfica should finish 3rd in the group but on this form will be hard pressed to do any better. Why didn't Nelson start instead of Assis? Rubbish.
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Manchester United 3 - 0 Kobenhavn (Right)
Easiest call all day. Campaigners for the 11th consecutive time playing at home against first timers from a smaller league - seriously what did you expect. Easy, expected and over. I apologise for being terse but I am sure no one lost any sleep over the outcome of this game. Even the Danes.
Group G:
CSKA Moscow 1 - 0 Arsenal (Did not pick)
I was mildly disappointed by this result but not unduly concerned.
I didn't expect Arsenal to win but was hoping they could nick a draw at least. In the event they should have, Henry being denied an obvious equaliser by a typically inpet referee. All the same, this is not terribly worrying as Arsenal should still top the group. This was a good result for CSKA and easily Arsenal's toughest tie this year. It's good this match is over for the latter before it gets any colder and any more crucial. Porto must look nervously at the calendar - they visit the Russians on the 27th of November.
Arsenal are not Bolton Wanderers. They cannot be expected to bring their own brand of pacy passing and sliderule movement if the pitch resembles a minefield. Additionally, CSKA are no chumps. Having won the UEFA Cup 2 season ago they are currently Eastern Europe's top side, experienced professionals who play a limited but efficient game. As expected they strung 5 across the middle with 3 at the back. The 2 Brazilians, Vagner Love and Daniel Cravalho being the offensive poachers while 5 behind them harried and broke up Arsenal's game. CSKA did play well, in that they restricted Arsenal despite the latter dominating possession, but what can you expect when the ball does not travel flat along the ground ?
To be fair the game should have finished 0-0. Carvalho's rocket from the head of the D was one of the better strikes today while Arsenal should have made more of their possession and been more of a threat from set pieces. However, Arsenal's static defensive positioning was once again a cause for concern. I guess having Djourou and Hoyte starting in the back 4 for an away tie in Europe is still a bit raw. For CSKA, Dudu, Ignasevich and Zhirkov were tireless, playing well in a system meant to win games likes this.
Football is meant to be played on flat lush grass - not hard, bumpy pitches.
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Porto 4 - 1 Hamburg (Wrong)
Very, Very surprising. I didn't expect so many goals in this. I didn't expect Hamburg to be this bad.
Porto have Europe's finest young right winger in Ricardo Quaresma and a direct quick striker in Postiga - able to put away simple clinical goals. Hamburg should have been more impervious with Juan Pablo Sorin, Joris Mathisen and Raphael Wicky surely equal to the task ?
In the event however, Raul Meirales, Porto's deep lying achor and Lisandor Lopez, their attacking left midfield played blinders. When 4-3-3 works, it works beautifully and against a team so defensively inept, it was a joy to behold. Able to hold Hamburg back in their own D simply by knocking the ball around a midfield of Luchoz, Meirales and Anderson(and later Jorginho); supported by Quaresma and Lopez on the wings, they tore Hamburg to shreds. A complete attacking masterpiece. Clinical, direct and deadly. Oh and Dan Ljuboja, one of Serbia's few bright spots from the World Cup, conceded a stupid penalty by raising his hand to a high cross.
Hamburg were overwhelmed on the flanks, Mahdavikia being no match for Lopez and Sorin getting done in by Quaresma. Nigel de Jong is not in the same class as midfield generals like David's Viera and Pirlo and Porto simply passed around him. for the upteenth time today, we noticed a playmaking forward being bypassed by the play and completely wasted in his withdrawn role up front. In his defence, Trachowski atleast scored a goal.
Porto have set themselves up beautifully, Hamburg's campaign looks over.
Group H:
Lille 3 - 1 AEK Athens (Right)
It was close for a while but eventually Lille's class told. Jean Makoun, one of Ligue 1's most underrated players and also, as far as Lyon is concerned, one of the most crucial. Lille play a frenetic game - a bit like Lyon but without as many weapons to hurt the opposition.
They dominated play right from the start and despite creating a fair smattering of chances did not take the lead till the second half. Even then the goal was emblematic of their play, Ivorian Kader Keita running down a ball to the byline and then crossing for Robail to poke home. Talk about commitment.
And as often happens, like a gale force wind beating against a barn door and then backing off for a few minutes, Lille switched off after this goal and AEK promptly scored. The ball was typical, long and direct, there was a flick on but the finish from Ivic was cultured. Goal 2 for Lille was like Goal 1 except this time Swiss Daniel Gygax met Keita's cross before a scrappy third sealed the points at the end.
Makoun and Keita were machines, running, passing, harrying and scurrying. Tavlaridis was solid at the back for Lille while Daniel Bodmer was quietly efficient in the withdrawn striker role. AEK were naive in their defending at times and just didn't have either guile or gumption in their engine room to cause Lille any problems. This should be a learning campaign for them. It certainly will be a short one.
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Anderlecht 0 - 1 Milan (Right)
First of all - it's Milan, not AC Milan - just Milan. In the globalisation of the game, especially in North America, team names have been slaughtered. Several teams might have suffixes, prefixes or second and third parts to their name BUT there is usually a simple name that they are referred to by and that's their name. Glad we have that sorted out. I swear, the next time I hear someone go Inter Milan FC......
Anyway, moving on to this game. For all their resources, Milan should annhilate teams in games like this - and they may well have - but sadly, eventually they had to rely on an individual piece of wizardry to finally put away their opponents. On paper it was a mismatch, a no-contest, David versus Goliath. In reality it was one, well taken goal that separated Milan from their Belgian opponents.
The difference was one piece of harsh referreing that denied Milan their normal attacking fluency. Havind lost Daniel Bonera to a red card early in the second half they had to take striker Ricardo Oliveira off and put on the lumbering Cafu. Oliveira's acquisition, from Betis, is an understated, yet astute piece of business from Milan - he was one of Europe's best strikers last year - but they barely got a chance to use him here.
Still, Milan dominated, rifling in 16 shots but the one that counted was a 25 yarder from Kaka. Sweetly struck, it gave Zitka no chance.
Milan playing 4-3-3 upto the dismissal were composed while Anderlecht were competent - parrying the italians with a well organised 3-4-2-1. They never looked like putting Milan under much pressure yet strangely never looked out of it either. Like Belgium, they are well marshalled, strong in the air and well drilled at the back. If only their paucity of attacking talent can be addressed, they might actually be a force to be reckoned with in Europe. Vanderhaege played a great game sitting in front of the back 4, breaking down attacks and feeding the midfield. Frutos, Tchite and Boussaffa however were anonymous up front, not good enough to cut it at this level.
Milan, as expected, produced the only away win of the day - and were decent value for it too. Anderlecht, on the other hand, will have an interesting battle with AEK for the UEFA cup spot in Group H.
Wrap Up:
Best Goals:
Robinho - Real versus Steaua
Kaka - Milan versus Anderlecht
Carvalho - CSKA versus Arsenal
Juninho - Lyon versus Dynamo Kiev
Bad Tactic of the Day:
Dynamo Kiev, Hamburg, Lille and Benfica deploying a withdrawn striker who spent most of the night chasing shadows, crying for action. Hamburg went one step further, playing Nigel De jong by himself in the middle of the park against the cavalry.
Good Tactic of the Day:
4-3-3 - used to excellent effect by Milan, Lyon and Porto (see Bad Tactic of the Day)
How did I do?
I got 4 right - 3 wrong.
Lille, Milan, Lyon and United won.
Hamburg, Benfica and Steaua were destroyed when I picked them to draw. So much for the away team holding out for a precious point.
Team of the day:
4-3-3
Dida; Ramos, Tavlaridis, Caldwell, Abidal; Keita, Kaka, Juninho; Robinho, K Miller, Lopez
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