Champions
League matchday 4 is where the first winners and losers emerge. We had three
teams to qualify and three to give up the fight.
Group A
PSG-Dinamo
4-0 (Alex, Matuidi, Menez, Hoarau)
4 is
becoming a magic number for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish superstar organized
his national team’s most famous comeback recently, equalizing after being down
by 4 goals. Now he assisted 4 times, to humiliate Dinamo Zagreb. Last week he
scored all four of Sweden’s goals in a friendly against England. Carlo
Ancelotti doesn’t have much to worry on this side.
Dynamo-Porto 0-0
One of the
few goalless matches of the current Champions League, where the most
interesting episode was related to a football fan, somehow appeared on the
pitch to break a promising Dynamo attack.
Standings:
Porto 10
PSG 9
Dynamo 4
Dinamo 0
Porto is in
and Dinamo Zagreb is out! PSG will need a point in Kyiv to secure its place in
the rounds starting after the winter break. Dynamo will have to deliver a
miracle and hope for some luck: the Ukrainians will have to win over PSG, rather
3-0 or higher, and Dinamo; plus they need to pray for Porto to win in Paris in
the last match.
Next
matches:
Dynamo-PSG
Porto-Dinamo
Intrigue: This will be the match of the
season for Dynamo. A win over PSG is necessary but not enough for
qualification, so the road starts here for Oleh Blokhin’s side. PSG will get on
with a draw, and even a loss, provided they play better in their last match.
Group B
Schalke
04-Arsenal 2-2 (Huntelaar, Farfan-Walcott, Giroud)
Schalke
earned a fine comeback in a beautiful match, where a draw was the fairest
result. Despite scoring two goals each, the teams missed lots of chances.
Schalke was absolutely delighted with such an outcome, while Arsenal would
rather take its revenge after the home loss.
Olympiacos-Montpellier
3-1 (Machado, Greco, Mitroglou-Belhanda)
The Greeks
took another three points from Montpellier, leaving the French champions with
nothing. Kostas Mitroglou scored his third in this group stage, sealing the
victory for his team.
Standings:
Schalke 04
8
Arsenal 7
Olympiacos
6
Montpellier
1
Montpellier
is out! Olympiacos needs to survive the tour to Gelsenkirchen, for Arsenal to
remain reachable. If so, the last match in Greece is going to be a real cracker
of a match. Arsenal will probably advance even by earning only one point in
Greece, but the only scenario for them to go there as tourists is winning and
expecting Olympiacos to lose to Schalke. Schalke, despite leading the group,
will still need a win in any of the two remaining matches to secure promotion.
Next
matches:
Arsenal-Montpellier
Schalke
04-Olympiacos
Intrigue: The match in Germany is going to be
important for all of the 4 teams in the group. Other than the fact that Schalke
04 will need a win to make things easier in the last match, and Olympiacos
needs at least a draw to remain in the game, Arsenal and Montpellier will pray
for Olympiacos’s loss, to have better chances to advance to play-off and Europa
League respectively.
Group C
Milan-Malaga1-1 (Pato-Eliseu)
It started
to go the right way for Milan after a hard period of tough matches was behind.
Allegri decided to get rid of experiments and get back to a play with four
defenders. They started with Krkic in playmaker’s role and Pato as a
centerforward. Malaga didn’t invent anything new, played its usual formation,
with Isco in the center of the pitch rather than in the wing. Overall a very
quiet match, the tempo of which was dictated by Malaga: Milan couldn’t do
anything with that. Thanks to Isco’s great pass, the young Spaniard delivered
several fine moves during the match, Eliseu managed to open the score in the
first half. The visitors didn’t really have many other chances in the match,
but were absolutely firm in behind. Milan was a bit better than in the previous
match in Spain, however the absence of Ambrosini played a crucial role. First,
De Jong and Montolivo weren’t good in delivering the ball to their teammates in
the attack, plus Milan was losing everything in the air, especially in Malaga’s
penalty area. Some enthusiasm shown by the home side, and an overall positive
performance by Bojan Krkic brought the equalizer in the second half, however,
the last 20 minutes of the match went in a nervous atmosphere, and Milan’s
substitutes couldn’t bring freshness either.
Already on
the 6th minute Abate had been substituted by De Scilio, which was
certainly not the main reason why Milan didn’t win, but the young defender kept
on misplacing passes and teammates couldn’t rely on decent crosses from the
right wing. 1-1, a fair result, which also showed that Malaga, despite the
perfect results in the first three matches, is vulnerable when challenged by
some pressure. Luckily for them there has not been a team capable of doing so
in their group. They just conceded their first goal, but they were the last to
do so in this group stage of Champions League 2012-13.
Anderlecht-Zenit1-0
A thesis
can be written about the developments related to the Russian club Zenit St.
Petersburg. The loss to Anderlecht fits this Zenit perfectly.
Standings:
Malaga 10
Milan 5
Anderlecht
4
Zenit 3
Malaga is
already in the play-off. Even if an unbelievable scenario takes place, where,
for instance, Malaga loses twice, while Anderlecht wins the last two matches,
and the last one in Spain with a 4-0 score, Milan will still be unable to reach
Malaga. Three teams fighting for the second play-off place stand too close to
each other. Milan will probably get on with one victory in two matches, but if
they win over Anderlecht, and Malaga doesn’t lose in Russia, they will join the
Spaniards already after the fifth matchday. 6 points are exactly what the
suddenly activated Belgians need to be 100% sure of advancement. Zenit will not
only need to win the last two matches, but also hope that Anderlecht will not
do so. The most incredible scenario could happen if the match in Belgium ends
in a draw, Anderlecht doesn’t win in Spain and Zenit wins in Italy. In this
case this will be the first time with current rules of three points for a win, when
a team qualifies to Champions League play-off with only 6 points. In another
unbelievable scenario Anderlecht can win 1-0 over Milan and lose to Malaga without
scoring. For the first time in the history a team will qualify having scored
only two goals in six matches. There were only two teams in the history who
qualified to the next round scoring only three goals: Roma managed to do so in
2002-03 season, while Villareal even managed to win a group in 2003-04 season.
Next
matches:
Anderlecht-Milan
Zenit-Malaga
Intrigue: Milan had to win in the first
round, not to appear in such unusual situation. Now they have to survive in a
nervous trip to Anderlecht, where the Belgians will do everything to win and
extend their life in Champions League.
Group D
Manchester
City-Ajax 2-2 (Toure, Aguero-De Jong (2))
As in the
first match of the teams two weeks earlier, City was awful in defending
corners. If they conceded the winning goal from this type of aset piece in
Amsterdam, here they did it twice. Fortunately for Mancini, they managed to
equalize this time. But a draw was not what the supporters at Etihad Stadium
had come for. Manchester City had to win this match and it didn’t happen. The
reason is, of course, the preparedness of Ajax. De Boer’s players showed how to
play football against a stronger team when leading. They were calmly passing
the ball in the opponent’s half, creating some danger from time to time and
lulling the other team. Eriksen and De Jong were the key players in the
midfield. In contrary, City didn’t seem to have clear tactics. Mancini was
relying on the individual abilities of his players. That is why he introduced
Balotelli after the break. The Italian won the ball in the air to assist Aguero
in the equalizer, but the home team didn’t really deserve more than this. If
they were attacking non-stop during the second half in the previous matches,
here they were passive. The players in blue will certainly blame the Danish
referees for disallowing a goal in the second half and not giving a penalty in
the last second of the match, but after earning only one point in three matches
you simply have to put some remarkable performance together. Now they will earn
even fewer points than in the previous Champions League.
Real-Borussia
2-2 (Pepe, Oezil-Reus, Arbeloa (og))
This time
Arbeloa was back to the left wing of Real’s defense. It didn’t help much,
though. Borussia managed to score twice in the first half: the defender was too
late to cover Reus in the first case, and in the second he scored that goal
himself, not letting Goetze become a goalscorer. The match developed in a very
high tempo. After the first ten minutes it was already clear, that Real
seriously wanted to win, but Borussia’s quick counterattacks were not going to
be easy to get away with. As in the first meeting of the teams two weeks
earlier, the Germans scored in the middle of the first half, and the opponent
responded quickly. Generally speaking, Borussia spent a better half, marking
Ronaldo in first place. The Portuguese got no space at all, although he was
trying to change his position all the time. On the other side of the pitch,
Lewandowski was winning the air balls and distributing the ball to his quick
teammates. This is exactly how Borussia scored both of its goals. The second
half was much different. Mourinho introduced Essien and Callejon for passive
Modric and Higuain, plus instructed the team to use pressing all over the
pitch. What made this match different from many others is that Borussia players
were not trying to break the tempo, credit to them for that, but trying to
organize quick counterattacks. Thanks to pressing Real was easily intercepting
the ball. However, Borussia was superior defensively. For 90 minutes Mourinho’s
side was not able to find a small breach in Borussia’s defense. The match could
last for another 45 minutes, but the score wouldn’t change. But discipline in
football is only perfect when you don’t commit fouls close to your goals. On
the last minutes of the match Real players got opportunities to score from free
kicks. If the first shot hit the wall, the second one hit the post and appeared
in the back of the net. 2-2.
Standings:
Borussia 8
Real 7
Ajax 4
Manchester
City 2
All of the
teams have chances in this Group of Death. Dortmund team has got the best
position. Hey can even qualify earning a point on their last two matches. Real
needs a win or a draw in case Ajax loses to Borussia. Even two losses may give
Mourinho’s team a chance to advance, if Dortmund crashes its opponents. Ajax
can only be 100% sure of a next round place, if they win their matches, having
a minimum 3 goal difference in the away match against Real. Finally, Mancini’s
Manchester City will have to win both of the remaining matches, and hope that
Ajax will win over Borussia.
Next
matches:
Manchester City-Real
Ajax-Borussia
Intrigue:
Is it meant for Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City not to qualify for the
Champions League play-offs, or they are determined to leave the Spanish
champions out instead of themselves? The central match of the day will take
place in Manchester.
Read Part II
Read Part II
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