Minute per minute
Accordingly, the day was not said to be overly combat. “Barcelona” and “Roma” solved their playoff tasks quickly - synchronized goals in the 13th (!) Minute - and much less blood than could be expected before their meetings with “Bremen” and “Valencia”.
The reduced temperature background of the evening was captured not only at the level of visual observations. They were supported by a number of obvious protocol anomalies. In eight matches, they did not hit a single penalty. It could well have done without red cards, not running into the last minute of the match in Piraeus for a second warning from Steve Bennett, the Donetsk Romanian Razvan Rat.
No pathetics
Even goal scoring could not happen, not to mention hat tricks. But the Liverpool elder Robbie Fowler tried this part, when on the falling flag he hit the Galatasaray gate of Mondragon for the second time. This, however, did not save the Merseysiders from the "steering wheel", which did not really upset them.
Rafa Benitez reacted without any pathos to the visit to the Istanbul sacred grass for his team, where in May 2005 she valiantly beat the Champions Cup from Milan. Early exit in the playoffs to the limit exacerbated Benitez's notorious rotation syndrome. Actually thanks to him, both Fowler and the youth debuted in the League appeared in the starting lineup: Gabriel Paletta, Lee Peltier, Daniel Gantry. The frivolously light composition of the guests, of course, simplified the task for Galatasaray to pray before half empty (and this is at a meeting with an opponent from England!) Stands by the stands of the last row.
By the way, in group C, two other final places were scheduled ahead of schedule. Their owners - PSV and Bordeaux - waved their hands at subordination. In Eindhoven, the French guests were already 3-0 ahead of the break. Moreover, the ball of Stefan Dalm was, perhaps, more effective than all of the 22 goals of the evening. He scored after passing through half the field with a spectacular throw behind Gomez, who lost the goal.
Not without Sheva
However, the most talked about goal of the environment will be without alternative another - London, the first to the goal of “Levski”. In the fifth match of the Champions League, played for Chelsea, Andrei Shevchenko finally scored. By the way, it’s also beautiful. Frank Lampard with a thin “diagonal” drove his partner into the zone between the left corner of the penalty area and the goalkeeper, from where he hit not according to the usual logic - a convenient left, but the right one, cutting the ball with the outside of the foot to the far “bottom”.
Doubled the score by Sean Wright-Phillips. For him, it was a milestone in his biography - the first goal in the Champions League! Chelsea settled down on that. To the slight disappointment of fans of the Moscow “Spartak”. It was so dreamed that they would finally write off the anti-record of the League in the total unluckiness at the group stage as their Bulgarian champion! Alas, to the Spartak bottom 1:18 infantile Sofians “underdone” everything on the ball.
Vieira soaked the anniversary
Goal Patrick Vieira, who brought the “Inter” guest draw with the “Bavaria”, happened at the first of the extra time added by the referee. He did not mean anything in the tournament sense: the Milanese remained in the table second after the Munich team. However, with the degree of disrespectfulness this finishing off into an empty net was akin to spitting in a celebratory cake, on which candles were already lit. Oliver Kahn did not have a couple of revolutions of the second hand to keep the match, which became the hundredth in his champions register, dry. However, Vieira has his own arithmetic. Of course, he doesn’t give a damn about someone else’s ...
Sergey NOVIKOV