The colorful defeat inflicted by the Romanians on the team of Anatoly Demyanenko turned out, although unexpected, but to some extent logical. Having driven away the idea that the Kievites got into the pit because of forced preparations for the qualifying matches, two weeks ago I wanted to assume that this daring “Steaua” (in Russian - “star”) is really not an easy nut . But with tuesday victories in Madrid and Bucharest, Real and Lyon in Group E brought a semblance of order, deepening the Kiev pit and unveiling the weaknesses of the Romanian champion.
The first Bucharest goal was scored by Fred at the close of the closed and poor at the events of the first half. The success of the Brazilian once again emphasized that the main problem of “Steaua” is located at its gates. The tendency of their Portuguese guard Fernandes to eccentricities was spoken even before his visit to Kiev. But there, as you know, there was no evidence there - “through the fault” of the opponent. This time it turned out differently.
But the hosts almost reached the break, desperately fighting off with the complete domination of the team of Gerard Houlier. This left them a chance: to take a breath in the locker room, to talk about how to stay until the final whistle. But Fernandes crossed all plans. The penalty from Juninho Pernambucano looked unsuccessful - the goalkeeper, it would seem, had already fixed the ball soaring off the wall, but then unexpectedly dropped it on Fred’s foot ... But the hosts hadn’t delivered a single shot to the goal, and they got close to parity in possession of the ball only closer to the break.
Fernandes, by the way, did not play, as it should, in the episode of the second goal. Thiagu upset his compatriot ten minutes after the resumption of the match. He banged his head ahead of the goalie, surrounded by three (!) Defenders. The question of the winner was removed ahead of schedule. And the goal of Benzema a minute before the end of the playing time only aggravated the sad result of the return of the Champions League to the renewed Arena. There were no matches of the main Euro Tournament for ten years.
The main creator of the Lyon victory was, as usual, Juninho Pernambucano. The coach of the Romanian club, Cosmin Olareu, assigned him an experienced Marina to his guardians. But this did not stop the Brazilian from assisting the partners at every goal, even if the shot from the free kick turned out to be blurred. But the transfer of the heel, which preceded the third ball, stood out for the eyes of the eyes. The entire protective line of the hosts peered too ...
“Lyon” with two dry victories in a row led the group. In it, everything goes to the fact that the two upcoming rounds will exhaustively answer the question of favorites and outsiders. For Steaua, these are matches with Real Madrid, for Dynamo with Lyon ...
Nikolay HODASEVICH