Ger McCarthy
Wayne Rooney made headlines for the right reasons, Man City left it late before squeezing past Villarreal while Aaron Ramsey scored late in the south of France to put a rare smile on Arsene Wenger's face.
WINNERS
Wayne Rooney
THE ENGLAND striker put a turbulent week behind him with both Manchester United goals in the 2-0 win over Otelul Galati in Bucharest. Two converted penalties saw Rooney write himself into the history books as the top-scoring Englishman in Champions League history with his 25th and 26th European strikes.
Manchester City
ROBERTO Mancini went from angrily gesticulating at Carlos Tevez in the Allianz Arena on Matchday 2 to triumphantly pumping his fists in the air at the end of Tuesday night's last-gasp victory over Villarreal. Sergio Aguero's injury time winner kept City's Champions League campaign alive after the Premier League side struggled for long periods against a Villarreal team currently sitting in the bottom half of La Liga.
Karim Benzema
THE FRENCH striker helped Real Madrid maintain their 100% record in Group D on Tuesday with a terrific individual display in the 4-0 victory at home to Lyon. Benzema tormented his previous employers with an all-action display that began with scoring the opening goal after 19 minutes. The Madrid striker setup Sami Khedira for Jose Mourinho's side's second and was instrumental in the build-up to Mesut Ozil's deflected third goal.
Chelsea
IN a season Man Utd and Man City dominate the domestic and European headlines; Andres Villas-Boas is quietly overseeing a renaissance at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea are playing an attractive brand of football under their new manager and firmly involved the Premier League title race thanks to the form of Juan Mata and emergence of youth players such as Daniel Sturridge. Chelsea repeated their improved domestic form in Europe on Wednesday night with a 5-0 dissection of Genk. Is this the year Roman Abramovich finally gets his hands on the coveted Champions League trophy?
Arsene Wenger
ARSENAL were far from convincing in their narrow 1-0 win over Marseille on Wednesday to move to the summit of Group F following a dull and un-inspiring contest. Wenger's introduction of substitute Aaron Ramsey proved the deciding factor with the Welsh international netting an injury-time winner. Wenger has shipped plenty of deserved criticism for Arsenal's poor start to the season but a lucky win in the south of France may yet prove the catalyst to another long run in Europe.
APOEL
THE CYPRIOT champions are the surprise package of the 2011/12 Champions League. APOEL currently top Group G with 5 points from their three games to date. Wednesday night's gutsy 1-1 draw away to FC Porto followed a similarly impressive draw away to Shakhtar Donetsk and shock win over Zenit St. Petersburg. Should Ivan Jovanovic's side overcome Porto in their GSP Stadium in Nicosia on Matchday 4 then the Cypriots will have one foot in the knockout phase.
LOSERS
Nemanja Vidic
THE SERBIAN defender returned to first team action for Man Utd in Bucharest on Tuesday and marked his comeback with a red card. Vidic had not played since tearing a muscle in the opening game of the season at West Brom and looked short of match fitness. Vidic was dismissed for a clumsy second half tackle on Galati's Gabriel Giurgiu and could potentially miss United's three remaining group fixtures depending on the result of a UEFA Disciplinary hearing.
Villarreal
THREE consecutive defeats have left Juan Carlos Garrido's Villarreal rooted to the bottom of the Group A table and heading rapidly towards the exit door of European football for another season. Consecutive 2-0 defeats to Bayern Munich and Napoli plus Tuesday night's 2-1 loss at the Ethiad Stadium has left the Yellow Submarines’ Champions League aspirations in tatters. Things appear even bleaker on the domestic front with Villarreal currently marooned in 14th spot in the Primera Liga standings.
Borussia Dortmund
JURGEN Klopp's all conquering Borussia Dortmund team that strolled to the 2010-11 Bundesliga title has yet to win a Champions League game this season. The Germans have been the biggest disappointment of this year's tournament with only a point to show for their three Group F outings. An opening day draw with Arsenal represents Dortmund's solitary point of an otherwise dreadful campaign while back-to-back defeats at the hands of Marseille and Olympiacos has Borussia firmly rooted to the bottom of their group table.
Follow Ger on Twitter: @offcentrecircle
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/EX0MPIwVlP0/post.aspx
Health & wellbeing Dennis Bergkamg Boxing Lancashire Egypt Self-catering
No comments:
Post a Comment