Champions League 2005-2006

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Panathinaikos 2 - 1 Werder Bremen

Barcelona 4 - 1 Udinese

Manchester United 2 - 1 Benfica

Lille OSC 0 - 0 Villarreal

FC Thun 1 - 0 Sparta Praha

Bayern Munich 1 - 0 Bruges

Juventus 3 - 0 Rapid Wien

Ajax 1 - 2 Arsenal

No upsets tonight. Juventus showed that they are the most inform team along with Chelsea when they scored three fabulous goals. MamUtd breathed a sigh of relief when they win against a gritty benefica team. Barca absolutely thrashed Udinese thanks to a fantastic hattrick by Ronaldinho.

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Wenger and Arsenal were the team of the day to me. Beating Ajax at Amsterdam Arena is always a tough job.

Benfica put ManU in troubles but that was till Nistelrooy proved once again why he is "a nightmare for defenders".

Nistelrooy was not the only one to prove himself, Ronaldhino also proved why he is the best soccer player on this planet right now. Now, Udinese have to finish the "Italian job" when they host Barca. To me, "Italian job" means Del Pierro (in soccer), who failed to register his name on scoring list, but still offered quality play in the second half. Vienna's goalkeeper need credit too, for (only) a 3-goal defeat.

Chelsea won the EPL title, played semifinal of CL last year and they are at their best right now, and so they enter the CL as favorites. Some time back, Arsenal won the EPL, played a Champions League semi, were unbeaten for a record number of games in EPL, were declared as "the most defensive team" by media, entered the CL as favorites with the likes of Milan, Madrid,....but failed to deliver. I doubt, if it was the same season, they were beaten at Home by Inter with a scoreline of 4-1 (or 5-1).

Neglecting russian money for the time being, Jose Mourhino has tried his best to convert average English players into a solid unit. He followed Italian defensive tactics and won EPL title for Chelsea. I appreciate that, but:

[Quote]
"....Italy cannot win against Holland, but Holland can lose.....No one can beat Italians in defense.....They will eventually score one (to win the game)......"
Johan Cryuf, speaks on Total Football and Italian tactics
[/Quote]
In my personal opinion, Chelsea are (most probably) out of the CL wherever they face an Italian team, who will not let them score and will manage 1-0, easily. Shevchenko, Del Pierro, Cafu, Nedved, Figo, Adriano,.... are sort of quality players that are very hard to find in EPL. They can create and score from "nowhere", unlike EPL clubs where a "move" means a "move" and a regular viewer can predict about that. On the other hand, defense of Italian giants is many times strong than that of a top English club.

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I hope you get your records straight next time. Arsenal Never made it to the CL semi final while Chelsea managed to do it two years on a trot. Arsenal were not beaten at home by Inter rather they beat Inter at home 5-1. Kindly dont post wrong information buddy.

I wll agree that Del piero was superb yesterday his volley in second half was exceptional and subsequent save was even more incredible. He is in good form and will make it very hard for capello to drop him.

Yesterday was day of free kicks with some fabulous goals scored on free kicks. Ronaldinho, Deco, Simao, Giggls etc all scored.

I would like to say here that RVN is best 'in-the-box'. He scores goals and plenty of them and a very dangerous striker but he relies on service and finishing the moves while the likes of Shevchenki, Adriano, Ronaldino, Henry all can create goals as well as provide service to the finishes like RVN, Owen thats why those players are considered better. But when it comes to finishing and playing marks-man RVN is fabulous.

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Liverpool and Chelsea will face each other tonight in what is billed as a revenge for Chelsea when they faced defeat in last year's CL semis. Since then Chelsae are unbeaten and are on a 8-match winning streak while Liverpool are sot of hit an dmiss but in europre they usually deliever. Should be a good match.

Real Madrid will be looking to gain lost ground when they were humilated last weekend and wll be hoping that two consecutive wins in La liga turned their ofrm around.

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Tonight’s scores:

Real Madrid 2 - 1 Olympiakos

Rosenborg 0 - 1 Olympique Lyonnais

Fenerbahçe 3 - 0 PSV

FC Schalke 04 2 - 2 Milan

Liverpool 0 - 0 Chelsea

Anderlecht 0 - 1 Betis

Porto 2 - 3 FC Artmedia Petrzalka

Inter 0 - 1 Rangers

Upset of the night was definately Artmedia one. They beat one of the most technically gifted teams in europe by coming from two goals down.

Real Madrid won thanks to a Beckham master class. He was just brilliant all night provided supply to strikers with pin point passes and crosses and had chances of his own. When Beckham plays like this, there is no question about his delivery brilliance. Raul became the first player to score 50 european goals. Awesome too :k:

Liverpool-Chelsea match was a stalemate but considering their status at top of the group, It was understandable. These two teams know each other so well so cancel each other out.

Schalke-Milan match was the most exciting one. Seedorf scored the third quickets goal in the history of CL after just 21 seconds but schalke is a good team and they showed exactly why. The second goal from Altintop was just incredible :eek:

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Chelsea were outplayed tonight. We dominated them in midfield. Gerrard, Hamman and Alonso totally cancelled out Lampard, Gallas, Duff and Robben. It was an amazing performance to see Chelsea dominated but Liverpool lacked creativity at the front, no clear chances and relying too much on long range efforts. Once again the atmosphere at Anfield was electrifying.

Bring on Sunday :cool:

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Yes I put that message on flash (without a re-check) and confused scores)

Arsenal 0-3 Inter Milan
Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal (A match that had no meanings to inter, as they had achieved their goals prior to this match)

(This was similar to AC Milan side who won their initial 4 games and lost the remaining 2)

The battle was on for Arsenal to beat Chelsea to play their first CL semi, but Chelsea made it instead to lose the semi.

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Next time, I will try to put bet on 0-0 when 2 big English clubs will face each other.

Milan Schalke game was the best of the day.

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Inter 1 - 0 Rangers

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Re: Champions League 2005-2006

Season 2002 - 2003 - First round
Milan 6 4 0 2 12 7 12

Milan 2 - 1 Lens
Deportivo 0 - 4 Milan
Bayern 1 - 2 Milan
Milan 2 - 1 Bayern

Lens 2 - 1 Milan
Milan 1 - 2 Deportivo

**Season 2002 - 2003 **- First qualifying round
Milan 6 4 0 2 5 4 12

Milan 1 - 0 Real Madrid
Dortmund 0 - 1 Milan
Milan 1 - 0 Lokomotiv Moskva
Lokomotiv Moskva 0 - 1 Milan

Real Madrid 3 - 1 Milan
Milan 0 - 1 Dortmund

( Victories with 1-0 indicate strength of Milan defense)
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=2002/round=1637/Group=1498.html

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AGAIN CSKA Chelski get away with a stonewall penalty claim against them.:mad:

their luck will run our on Sunday though when the Reds beat them fair and square. cheating *******s.
couldve easily been 3 points in the bag. wonder how much in total Abramovitz has payed these refs for matches againt us in the past 2 years.:mad: :rolleyes:

Fat Lampard is a joke. our Xabi was awesome.:slight_smile:

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The battle of Champions

Group stage of CL is often less interesting but still there are some big clashes amongst former champions. This week Italians will face there counterparts.

Bayern Munich v Juventus
This (both legs) is perhaps the biggest game of this year's CL group stage. Two teams who lifted the trophy in past and are still able to lift it. Makaay is out of form for Munich while Del Pierro is keen to score.

AC Milan v PSV Eindhoven
FC Porto v Inter Milan

Italians and Dutch are always most likely to find themselves in tough groups and tough opponents. :)

Another tough game (not involving CL winners) also involve an Italian club:
Udinese v Werder Bremen

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PSV defeat mighty Milan 1-0 and avenged their terrible loss in the semis last season.

Chelsea are losing 1-0 to Betis :eek:

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Chelsea defeated by Betis :eek: That is a surprise but Chelsea will still qualify alongwith liverpool who already did today. I am so happy for Morientes scoring a fabulos goal for Liverpool. Class acts like him should not go golless that long.

Lyon and Real Madrid both qualified after wins away from home tonight.

Inter beat porto to go on the brink of qualification and Might Milan defeated by Psv. Somehow Vieri doesnt fit along well with Gilardino. Shevchenko does.

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hmmm. I don't care for the teams that played yesterday. Chelsea could afford the loss. Liverpool needed the win!

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^ Dont care for Inter either? :eek:

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ManUtd shockingly lost to Lillee. To what depths this great football club fall to? They are a team in decline. Arsenal qualified for the next round but to be honest even Pakistani Makrani team could have gotten out of that group :rolleyes:

Juve avenged the defeat at the hands of Bayern by defeating them with the same margin but this match was not the one sided like the last one. Barca murdered Panathinaikos 5 - 0. I must say that this yougn player Messi, he is just too good. A new footballing star.

Villareal got most important away win against Benefica. Most exciting match of the night was betwen Werder bremen and Udinese which Werder bremen won 4-3 after letting a 3-0 lead slip. This group is still wide open though.

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Inzaghi is back for Milan after a long time and he is most likely tol ensure Milan win remaining games.

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ManU can (and they most likely will) go back after first round if Nistelrooy will not get a single ball in 90 minutes during remaining games. As he himself said, ManU (youngsters) must play FOOTBALL and learn to PASS. No other ManU player can score goals more easily than him.

Other big clubs can leave the group stage as well. Milan must win their games.

A red card to Udinese (with almost 20 minutes remaining) was enough to stop the score at 4-3 in favor of Bremen.

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Result for tonights matches:

Liverpool 0- 0 Betis

Anderlecht 0 - 2 Chelsea

Porto 1 - 1 Rangers

Inter 4 - 0 FC Artmedia Petrzalka

FC Schalke 04 3 - 0 PSV

Fenerbahçe 0 - 4 Milan

Rosenborg 1 - 1 Olympiakos

Real Madrid 1 - 1 Olympique Lyonnais

Liverpool, Chelsea and Inter are through their groups. Milan, shcalke and Psv are very tight in this group and Match day 6 will decide the teams that go through.

Shevchenko scored four goals away from home against Fenerbache :eek: and Adriano scored three against ArtMedia.

The most entertaining match of the day was Lyon - Real one. Both teams had already advanced to next round but the battle was for top spot in the group and it was pure end to end stuff. Did anyone see goal from John Carew? :eek: It was stunning.

Match day 6 has some really tense moments for Manchestar United as they need to get a result against Benefica. It would be unthinkable that ManU go out in group stages no matter how crappy they are nowadays.