“Lille” - “Manchester United” - 0: 1
Players remembered the last, most unsuccessful Champions League season in the recent history of the club. Now the matches with the Portuguese and with the French offenders turn out for a feast for the eyes. Alex Ferguson, who attended the Lille match with Lyon on Friday, spied the most important thing: the hosts' defense saved, faced with a sharp increase in the attack of the French champion. Therefore, Larsson was in the starting lineup paired with Rooney, while Saa was hidden for the time being. And the players themselves were not too lazy to study the features of the Lille game. The persistence with which Ferdinand and Scholes drove Cristiano Ronaldo to the goalkeeper's corner when giving the corner, at first seemed unnecessary, but when the ball flew exactly to the Portuguese, who immediately dispersed the counterattack, there was no reason to speak about the accident of the episode.
Manchester United played almost the entire first half as in the Premier League: attacking, combining and pressing. The classic “Red Devils” attack through the right flank provided scoring chances to three players at once - Rooney, Larsson and Ronaldo, but all the attacks got stuck in the defensive web of “Lille”. After the gate change, the French could have missed twice, but the imposing dribbling of Rooney and Ronaldo for some reason did not imply a final strike. The extravagance of the “MU” provoked the hosts in response. First, “Lille” took possession of the ball, and soon delegated to the goal of van der Sara striker Peter Odemvindzhi to score. However, a graduate of the CSKA school has not been following Russian realities for a long time and has not heard anything about the “divine” status of Nemanja Vidich, and therefore allowed himself to push the Serb in the back.
After 20 minutes, the Mankunians responded to the canceled goal of Odemwindzhi with a free kick without a whistle - Giggs sent the ball literally from the hands of Rooney setting it into a corner free of Silva. Dutch referee Eric Bramhar seemed to know that his instructions for breaking did not fall into the lenses of television cameras, and decided to define “MJ” as the couple’s favorites. 1-0 away - this is serious. The Lille players sent the ball out and were about to leave the field, but still finished the match. Bramhar reacted sternly to the protests, cutting off his compensated time to just three minutes. It seems that the rematch of “MJ” will take place.
PSV - Arsenal - 1: 0
The team entrusted to Arsen Wenger's motivation in the Champions League is much higher than in the championship. And you can only imagine Arsenal playing closed football in one case - remembering the last minutes of the match with Porto. The motivation of PSV is not at all in doubt - the Eindhoven people have nothing to lose, and the approving glances of Guus Hiddink from the rostrum, addressed to their former wards, were justified. The Dutch, albeit not immediately, but responded to the sweeping, multi-way attacks of Arsenal, more than convincingly.
In the opening match Rosicky dangerously beat, but Gomez parried the ball, putting it on a ribbon to the nearest defender. Perhaps the most impressive club collection of lost moments was soon added to Thierry Henry, but here Gomez played a role comparable to the eternal "Arsenal" bad luck. Surprisingly, in the second half, PSV managed to beat the Londoners in their fiefdom - center of the field: not the best match of Fabregas and Gilberto Silva fell exactly on the excellent game played by Philip Koku, who “sat down” in the midfield of striker Arun Kone and Ecuadorian Edison Mendes, who scored the only goal long-range shot into the corner. However, before the “otvetka” to Emirates, the result of the first match is not so significant - at least for Arsenal players.
“Celtic” - “Milan” - 0: 0
Tuesday's calmest match, instead of revelations, offered viewers some confirmation of common truths. The first - in the Champions League, “Milan” plays the second number against any opponent, even “Celtic”. At first, the attacking impulse of the “Celts” even looked ridiculous - the old guard of the Milan defense was so easy to cope with the attempts of Miller and Hesselink. The second - “Milan” still has problems with the attack: Gilardino ruined two excellent chances out of three, and one left Borutsa. Oh, if Ronaldo did not play in the League for Real Madrid ... And the third - everything is decided by the second match. Gordon Strakan, the Celtic coach, will have to smash his head: the tactics of playing at the San Siro cannot be reduced to passages. Whereas Milan will just score.