First off let me apologize for the current lack of posting on this blog, i’ve been pretty busy with life and have had the opportunity to meet up with friends and long lost friends as they returned for holidays (they are studying abroad) which was a blast, but anywayz i’ve been able to catch up on two Champions League games this weeks and both have been fantastic!
5 Star Barcelona
This was a beautiful game and to think i could have missed it due to a faulty alarm clock!
The reigning Champions began their defence with a best possible result against Bulgarian club Levski Sofia, beating them 5-0.
Andres Iniesta quickly calmed any nerves the Barca fans had when he fired the ball past the stranded Georgi Petkov and into the bottom left-hand corner after a brilliant run by Ronaldinho on the left flank who found Samuel Eto’ on the edge of the penalty area before the Cameroonian delievered a perfect lay-off for Iniesta.
And believe me that was not the end of Ronaldinho’s contribution to the game.
In reality though Levski Sofia played a decent game, the sort of game where you didn’t expect them to lose 5-0 especially taking to account their run in the Bulgarian league where they have yet to conceed a goal, but Barca was a class above and you had the feeling that they didn’t even played 100%..and yet they won 5-0, a scary thought indeed.
Lilian Thuram made his Champions League debut for Barca but there was no place in the starting lineup for Gianluca Zambrotta, Eidur Gudjohnsen and the talented Leo Messi, although Gudjohnsen did make an apperance in the 63th minute replacing Ludovic Giuly.
Giuly did leave his mark on the game though, scoring in the 37th minute after a perfect through-ball by Eto’.
I don’t know what Rijkaard told his players at half-time but they came out stronger and scored the third goal in the 49th minute courtesy of an error by Petkov who could only spill a driven free-kick from Ronaldinho into the path of Puyol, yes..Carles Puyol scored!
But of course the game and scoreline wouldn’t be perfect if Barca main duo of Eto’ and Ronaldinho didn’t get on the scoresheet and they did just that when Eto’o made it 4-0 to the hosts nine minutes later with a superb individual goal which took him past four Sofia defenders before side-footing the ball past Petkov.
Ronaldinho has the last say though with a superb curling shot from the edge of the area that slipped into Petkov’s top corner and bring the Nou Camp crowd to their feet.
The Battle of Britain
On day two of Champions League action, Man Utd hosted Celtic in what was dubbed as the “Battle of Britain” which could have been better had Roy Keane not retired…
But still it was a great game and yet another that produced 5 goals with United edging out a resilient Celtic 3-2.
Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney started for United after serving their 3 match ban dubiously handed to them after their red cards in the Ajax Tournament.
Scholes stole the thunder from Rooney though as he produced a magnificient display and was involved in two of United’s goals.Michael Carrick believes that Scholes is ’special’ and that he will learn alot from the 31-year-old.
“He is so intelligent and clever, he makes the game look really simple and showed it against Celtic by creating those two goals.” said Carrick
United however didn’t get on the scoresheet first, it was the industrious Celtic that drew first blood when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (what a name!) somehow was able to sidestep Rio Ferdinand to beat his international team mate Van der Sar with a low shot towards the bottom corner.
That goal totally stunned United and their fans as they were expected to win easily against a newly assembled Celtic side, but that was a vital goal as the game became even more intresting with United now having a go at every opportunity at the Celtic goal with the knowledge of last season clearly on their mind where they managed to score a measly 2 goals and was eliminated before the knock-out phase, one of their worst run ever in the tournament.
While Ruud Van Nistelrooy and his new teammates were struggling against Lyon, Loius Saha had other ideas and proved once again that he is indeed a top striker by scoring a brace, his first ever goals in the Champions League.The first goal came when United were awarded a penalty when Celtic goalie Artur Boruc, who was on impressive form by the way, was adjudged to have impeded Ryan Giggs, who in turn suffered a hamstring injury and will be our for 4 weeks, a blow to an already stretch United midfield who prior to the game announced that Park Ji-Sung was to undergo a surgery that would keep him out for 3 months.
Saha stepped up to the task after Rooney gave way to the frenchman and as they say ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’, he scored past Boruc to record his first ever Champions League goal.
10 minutes later Saha was to score again as the brilliant Scholes disguised a pass into Saha feet for the frenchman to score his second.Any thoughts of United gaining a foothold in the game were squashed just three minutes later when Japanese player Shunsuke Nakamura scored a fantastic freekick that left Van Der Sar completely helpless, in fact he didn’t even budge from his position.
United began the second half brightly and went ahead after yet another through ball by Scholes who found Saha who in turn took a firm shot at goal but was denied on the first and second attempt by Boruc only for the ball to fall to the player that hasn’t score a Champions League goal in 3 years and was the one that gave United their victory in 1999 – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The baby face assasin made no mistakes from from close range and banged in the goal much to the delight of the Old Trafford faithfull who immediately echoed chants of ‘Ole..Ole..Ole’.
Celtic pilled on the pressure on United but the defence held firm to the end as United continued their 100% record this season and will now face Arsenal on sunday and a win would open a massive 13 point gap agaisnt the gunners, however they will be without Giggs and Park but will welcomed back Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo who was banned from this game due to his one finger gesture to Benfica fans in last season’s Champions League game.
Final score for ‘Battle of Britain” Man Utd 3 Celtic 2
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