Champions League 2012-13: The sixth matchday, Part II

Read Part I

Group E

Shakhtar-Juventus 0-1 (Kucher (og))

The central match of the day took place in Donetsk, where the Italian champions needed a point to eliminate title holders Chelsea from the group stage. The conspiracy theory of a peaceful agreement
didn’t work, as the teams were prepared to a tactical football. However, it was obvious that Shakhtar had lack of freshness and motivation. The team didn’t attempt a single shot during the first half. Juve wasn’t perfect either. The second half was much different, as the home side started to attack and create some danger in front of Buffon’s goals. In one of the counterattacks Juventus managed to open the score, which wasn’t meant to change any more. Juventus, despite the lazy start, won this tough group, mainly because of its fantastic defense comprised of Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and captain Gianluigi Buffon. The team didn’t concede in the last three matches. Antonio Conte’s presence will be a big motivation for them to continue this streak in the next round.

Chelsea-Nordsjælland 6-1 (David Luiz, Torres(2), Cahill, Juan Mata, Oscar-John)

A new coach and new hopes for Chelsea’s Champions League. Unfortunately for them, the story was not meant to repeat. Chelsea didn’t get any chances from Juventus, thus becoming the first ever Champion of Champions not qualifying from the group stage. Benitez’s men did all they could, however. They destroyed the Danish champions, scoring six goals. The match could have gone another way, had Nordsjælland’s captain Nicolai Stokholm scored from a penalty when the score was still 0-0.

Standings:

Juventus 12

Shakhtar 10

Chelsea 10

Nordsjælland 1

Group F

Lille-Valencia 0-1 (Jonas)

Lille lost its third home match in the group stage. Valencia, playing its first match with Ernesto Valverde in charge, had a chance to win the group. They did all they had to, but Bayern had other plans.

Bayern-BATE4-1 (Gomez, Mueller, Shaqiri, Alaba-Filipenko)

The match became famous for Mario Gomez’s first goal in Champions League 2012-13. There were also a couple of red cards shown, but these incidents didn’t impact the much a lot. Bayern took what it had to, meanwhile taking revenge for the defeat in Minsk. BATE players are leaving the tournament with heads high, despite losing four in the last four matches.

Standings:

Bayern 13

Valencia 13

BATE 6

Lille 3

Group G

Barcelona-Benfica 0-0

The Portuguse visitors had all the chances in the world to earn a place in the next round. Barcelona was playing in an experimental line-up, which left a huge space for creativity. Benfica can only blame itself for failing to qualify, as they missed several big chances in this match. The biggest event that evening, however, was Leo Messi’s injury. The Argenitinian still needed a goal to reach Gerd Mueller’s record of 85 goals in a calendar year. It was not clear by then whether Messi would get a chance to play again.

Celtic-Spartak 2-1 (Hooper, Commons-Ari)

The Scottish team had a fantastic Champions League on the year of its 125^th anniversary. The team was lucky to be underestimated by all three teams in the group. In the last match Neil Lennon had to win and hope for unmotivated Barcelona to fight against Benfica. The team managed to score the winner only 9 minutes before the final whistle. The final whistle at Nou Camp brought some amazing celebrations at Celtic Park.

Standings:

Barcelona 13

Celtic 10

Benfica 8

Spartak 3

Group H

Manchester United-Cluj 0-1 (Luiz Alberto)

That amazing goal by Luis Alberto could send the Romanian champions to the next round. Manchester United didn’t have anything against. Later in the evening it became clear that even a win would not be enough for Cluj to qualify for more than the Europa League.

Braga-Galatasaray 1-2 (Mossoro-Burak Yilmaz, Aydin Yilmaz)

Previously in the Champions League 2012-13 it was only Burak Yilmaz, who had the monopoly to score for Galatasaray. He scored six goals in six matches, but the most important of goal was the goal scored by another Yilmaz, Aydin, on the 78^th minute of the match in Braga. The goal sent the Turkish champions into the Round of 16. As for Braga, Jose Peseiro’s team played some cheerful attacking football, but couldn’t get more than one goal scored.

Standings:

Manchester United 12

Galatasaray 10

Cluj 10

Braga 3

	League	Pts.
1 (-)	Spain (4)	49
2 (-)	Germany (3)	39
3 (-)	England (2)	35
4 (-)	Portugal (1)	24
5 (-)	Italy (2)	20
6 (-)	France (1)	20
7 (-)	Ukraine (1)	15
8 (-)	Romania (0)	10
9 (-)	Scotland (1)	10
10 (-)	Turkey (1)	10
11 (-)	Russia (0)	10
12 (-)	Greece (0)	9
13 (-)	Belarus (0)	6
14 (+1)	Belgium (0)	5
15 (-1)	Netherlands (0)	4
16 (+1)	Croatia (0)	1
17 (-1)	Denmark (0)	1

Only Spain, Germany, Italy, Scotland and Turkey didn’t lose a team after the group stage.
England, Portugal, France and Russia left two teams behind the 1/8 finals, while Romania, Greece, Belarus, Netherlands, Belgium, Danmark and Croatia, missing their only participant. Ukraine lost one of its two representatives.  

Topscorers:

6 – Burak Yilmaz (Galatasaray), Ronaldo (Real),

5 - Alan (Braga), Oscar (Chelsea), Messi (Barcelona)

3 Best goals of the day:

3. Ari (Spartak Moscow) – the Brazilian managed to chip the ball beautifully over the goalkeeper Foster, who was confidently moving towards the ball.    

2. Andrij Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kyiv) – in the snowy match, where not much was possible to figure out, the Ukrainian international Andrij Yarmolenko tried a far-flung volley, which turned to be a perfect one, with the ball hitting the bar and appearing right between it and the keeper’s hands.

1. Luis Alberto (CFR Cluj) – Yet another fantastic strike from a distance becomes the winner of the best goal of the day award.

RANKING AFTER THE SIXTH MATCHDAY

Place	Club
1 (-)	FC Barcelona (Spain)
2 (-)	Real Madrid (Spain)
3 (-)	Man. Utd. (England)
4 (-)	Bayern (Germany)
5 (-)	Borussia D. (Germany)
6 (-)	Juventus (Italy)
7 (-)	PSG (France)
8 (-)	Shakhtar D. (Ukraine)
9 (-)	Porto (Portugal)
10 (-)	Arsenal (England)
11 (-)	Malaga (Spain)
12 (-)	Schalke 04 (Germany)
13 (+1)	Valencia (Spain)
14 (-1)	Milan (Italy)
15 (+1)	Galatasaray (Turkey)
16 (+2)	Celtic (Scotland)

There is no place in the best 16 for champions of champions Chelsea, together with Benfica and Cluj. The ranking didn’t change much, as most of the qualified teams didn’t show their real strengths in the last matchday. 

Read about matchday 1, matchday 2, matchday 3, matchday 4 and matchday 5