Champions League 2012-13: The second matchday, Part I

On the 2^nd and 3^rd of October the 32 teams completed the Champions League 2012-13 second matchday. It is still not clear who is going to leave the tournament and who advance to the play-offs, but some blurry picture of the strengths and weaknesses is already seen, when results of matchday 1 and matchday 2 are summed up. There are already teams, who earned some important points and can elaborate on this; and there are some that need to come into the fight, if they plan to leave a mark in this year’s Eurocups. Let’s take a closer look at the matches played in the second round of the group stage, where half of the matches were won by the visitors.

Group A

Porto-PSG 1-0 (James Rodriguez)

This was one of the central matches of the round, where
Porto and PSG basically needed to show how serious their intentions for the season were. This doesn’t mean that the project called PSG has failed, but they played a poor match. They were barely dangerous in front and helpless in defense from time to time. Thanks to Sirigu the score didn’t change until the 83^rd minute, where the hosts deservedly managed to break the deadlock. The lost points can be earned in the next matches, but Lavezzi’s gestures after being substituted is not a very good sign for the French runners-up.

Dynamo K. -Dinamo Z. 2-0 (Gusev, Pivaric (og))

The Ukrainian runners-up welcomed their old and new coach Oleh Blokhin the best way they ever could; the 2-0 win over Croatian champions brought them 3 points and a little hope after a poor season start. Unfortunately, Blokhin was hospitalized in the period following this victory. Let’s hope he will recover soon. 

Standings:

Porto 6

PSG 3

Dynamo 3

Dinamo 0

Next matches:

Porto-Dynamo

Dinamo-PSG

Intrigue: We all hope to see intriguing matches, but winning over Dinamo Zagreb is necessary for the other three to have progression chances. Assuming they do, the Kyiv side can surprisingly leave one of the favorites out of the tournament if they earn 5 points or more in their next 3 matches (they meet Porto twice and PSG at home). The first step towards this goal is a draw in Porto. On the other hand Porto can become 90% sure of participating in the spring round of the Champions League, if they win.

Group B

Arsenal-Olympiacos 3-1 (Gervinho, Podolski, Ramsey-Mitroglou)

An average performance by both teams confirmed that Arsenal is currently stronger than Olympiacos. Three same-type of goals were implemented by Podolski, Ramsey and the best player of the match Gervinho. 

Schalke 04-Montpellier 2-2 (Draxler, Huntelaar-Ait Fana, Camara)

In an interesting encounter of a Group B match Huntelaar and Draxler scored one and created another for each other, which however was not enough for the German side to register an important win. The French champions could respond adequately to take a point from Gelsenkirchen. This was surely the most exciting and important goal of the matchday. It brought Montpellier hope for a play-off place, and was scored on the 93^rd minute by a team playing a man down for almost a half.

Standings:

Arsenal 6

Schalke 04 4

Montpellier 1

Olympiacos 0

Next matches:

Arsenal-Schalke

Montpellier-Olympiacos

Intrigue: The two leaders of the group will meet face to face in the next two rounds. The clear losers of this double-match encounter will be in danger of being caught by Montpellier, which is surely going to do everything possible to earn their first 3 points in Champions League this Wednesday.

Group C

Zenit-Milan 2-3 (Hulk, Shirokov-Emanuelson, El Shaarawy, Hubocan (og))

Another great match, where we saw two crisis-hit teams perform.  Milan played its best match so far, though Allegri’s side got tired too early. And Zenit was not bad either. Hulk was exceptional. Other than scoring and assisting, he was a constant threat for Abbiatti, who, on his turn, played a great match, too. I don’t dare to say which outcome would be the fairest, but probably the reasons why Milan won and Zenit lost were a) Milan wanted it more, b) Zenit on one and Hulk and Witsel on the other side are too new to each other. Spalletti and time will surely improve Zenit into a more structured team.

Anderlecht-Malaga0-3 (Eliseu (2), Joaquin)

Anderlecht is one of the teams that haven’t scored a goal yet, while Malaga has all the chances to become the breakthrough of this season. It didn’t go smoothly from the start, but the Spaniards became more comfortable in the second half. The super goal of Eliseu right before the break contributed much. The Belgian champions could only complete one single shot on a target. No matter how good your goalkeeper is, you need to shoot more to get points in football.

Standings:

Malaga 6

Milan 4

Anderlecht 1

Zenit 0

Next matches:

Zenit-Anderlecht

Malaga-Milan

Intrigue: Will Malaga go on stamping 3-0 victories in Champions League, or the team moral was touched after the hard defeat to Atletico? Keeping in mind the fact that Milan is always good in Champions league no matter how big the problems within the team are, this is going to be a cracker of a match. In the other match of the group the two underdogs will get one last chance to claim their right on anything more than Europa League this season.

Group D

Ajax-Real 1-4 (Moisander-Ronaldo(3), Benzema)

Mourinho, Real and Ronaldo didn’t leave any chances for conspiracy theory followers. The Spanish champions screamed loudly that they are not going to die in the “group of death”. 4 beautiful goals, including a hat-trick by Ronaldo, made Real fans confirm that nervousness in the season start was over. Ajax lost its second match, though they could theoretically save a point there. After the score became 1-2 the home side started to believe in itself. The Amsterdam team created several chances to equalize, but Jose Mourinho was quick to respond, throwing Khedira and Oezil in. The Germans helped their team to unwind the energized Ajax and organize two productive attacks.  

Manchester City-Borussia 1-1 (Balotelli-Reus)

The central match of the day took place in Manchester, where the English champions were meeting their German counterparts in a match, which, in circumstances of a superior Real Madrid, could give an answer to the question which team had made appropriate conclusions from  the last Champions League season. We saw some great football. The German quartet, including Gundogan, Goetze, Reus and Lewandowski, was fantastic. They were quick, determined and knew where to push. Before they got their deserved goal the ball had hit the post two times and saved by Hart for many more. The disaster for the home crowd happened on the 34^th minute, when Javi Garcia, the main force capable of stopping Borussia attackers, got injured and replaced by Jack Rodwell. The substitute couldn’t get adjusted to the match tempo and finally made the fatal mistake, when he delivered the ball to Marco Reus, who happily utilized the present, opening the score without difficulties. Manchester City had 30 minutes to go and one single substitute left. As in the previous Champions League match, Mancini’s substitution worked out. After massive attacks on Roman Weidenfeller’s defensive powers, the home side earned a penalty, which was converted by Mario Balotelli, thrown in 10 minutes before.

Mancini could be on the loser side, if not the numerous saves of his goalkeeper, but who says it is a bad tactics to have a great goalkeeper? It is not that Manchester City had a bad day, but if it was boxing, Borussia would win on points. And the German champions made a big step towards the play-offs, by earning a point at the Etihad Stadium. However, the home side deserved a point, and the reason for that was their attacking ability. They were good in organizing speedy counterattacks during the whole match, and they were capable of changing into turbo mode, when they conceded. A small detail might become crucial when counting the final points in December. Jurgen Klopp’s players are enthusiastic about their job, and Roberto Mancini has got a team with a character. This has probably something to do with experience, which speaks in favor of Manchester City. A very interesting group!

Standings:

Real 6

Borussia 4

Manchester City 1

Ajax 0

Next matches:

Borussia-Real

Ajax-Manchester City

Intrigue: The central match of the day is going to take place in Dortumund, though the matches in Malaga and London could claim this title as well. There is again time to watch a big match in Group D, when Borussia will be tested by Jose Mourinho’s Real at Iduna Park. Assuming that Santiago Bernabeu is not the place to hope for too many points, the Germans need to win, not to let Manchester City catch them destroying the 3 point gap between them. A win counts for more than 3 points in the “group of death”. Go to Part II