Top Stories

UEFA Champions League Rewind

Alessandro_del_piero_2_reuters

If there is a Fountain of Youth, Alessandro Del Piero just might have found it.

The Italian star is enjoying an amazing season, both in Serie A and UEFA Champions League, where he added two more goals on Wednesday to help Juventus topple Real Madrid for the second straight time.

Juventus’ victory was one of the more impressive performances in Wednesday’s batch of Champions League matches. You had Aalborg AB tying Villarreal, Bayern Munich scoring late to tie Fiorentina and Manchester United finding a late equalizer from Ryan Giggs to draw at Celtic Park.

Here is a recap of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League action:

AaB 2, Villarreal 2

Giuseppe Rossi worked some magic but the suddenly shaky Villarreal defense made it five goals allowed in two meetings against the Danish club. Should the Spaniards be worried?

Celtic 1, Manchester United 1

The Hoops looked poised to cash in on a big win before Artur Boruc spilled a Ronaldo shot, leaving Ryan Giggs to bury the equalizer. Man Utd will take it considering it rested some starters ahead of the Arsenal clash on Saturday.

Fiorentina 1, Bayern Munich 1

The Italians had been struggling lately but put together a good showing, only to have Bayern score late and drop Fiorentina deeper in the group. Now it’s looking like Fiorentina will have to settle for the UEFA Cup.

Lyon 2, Steaua Bucharest 0

The French champions cruised to a win that will keep them on course for a Round of 16 berth. Steaua never really stood a chance in this stacked group.

Arsenal 0, Fenerbahce 0

The Gunners keep on struggling and all of a sudden the Round of 16 isn’t as much of a lock. Arsenal must now knock off Dynamo Kiev at home to regain control of the group.

Dynamo Kiev 1, FC Porto 2

One of the more surprising results on Wednesday, Porto has catapulted itself from UEFA Cup candidate to Round of 16 contender with an unlikely road win. Can Dynamo rebound against Arsenal in London in the next match?

Real Madrid 0, Juventus 2

Del Piero keeps on scoring them and Real Madrid suddenly doesn’t look like a lock for the knockout round. As impressive as Juve’s attack was, their defense has come together well in recent weeks.

BATE Borisov 0, Zenit St. Petersburg 2

The Russians with a convincing win and just might be able to catch Real Madrid for the second Round of 16 spot.

What did you of the matches? Has Del Piero amazed you? Surprised at Real Madrid’s struggles? Is Arsenal’s season slowly slipping out of control?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Man City – Twente was a blast! Funny to see Steve McLaren (sp…) put together an entertaining and forward thinking side, if he approached England that way he would have been a hero. I forgot about the Kljestan rumor, I’d love to see him join the Smilin’ Steven revolution, that or Herenveen seems to have a hole in the middle of the midfield…

    Anyways, I had switched over from the so-so AC Milan-Braga match, and don’t regret it despite it apparently being decided in injury time by a bit of Ronaldinho magic.

    Also, great win for Gooch and crew over Sevilla (1-0) – remember that one for next week’s top 25!

    Reply
  2. Its not just this season, Del Piero was tied for the lead in scoring at the end of Serie A last year. Its as if the trip down to Serie B rejuvenated him. His performance yesterday should help stomp out all those rumours of him going to TFC though.

    Reply
  3. Manchest city, 3 FC Twente, 20…. divided by 10….get it? haha its a pun…*ahem* anyways, Robinho broke loose. If Sacha came to Twente i wouldn’t be that depressed other than the fact that Twente have horrible defensive skills.

    Reply
  4. Wow, they love him on this Villa site I’m reading Some comments:

    Feckin’ hell, Guzan is amazing

    Great Fecking save !!!

    What did we buy Friedel for when we had this guy in the reserves? Hehe.

    Only joking. but he looks good already, no wonder MON was trailing him for so long. He could turn in to something special

    Reply
  5. According to Sky he made a “splendid” save in the 38th minute. Slavia just had a goal disallowed for offside. Seems like they are putting pressure on in the 2nd half.

    Reply
  6. Awesome that Guzan got the start. He made a very nice save in the 6th minute according British Talksport.net’s match sideline reporter.

    Reply
  7. Hey, I’ve got a problem with saying that Manchester United rested it’s “starters”. For one, the dangerous duo of Berbatov and Rooney emerged from the bench. Ronaldo went the full 90. And, let’s face reality: with the amount of money Manchester United has, even the “non-starters” are world class.

    Give Celtic some <3.

    Reply
  8. I dont think Del Piero is headin to MLS anytime soon based on last night. I’m not much of a fan of the Italian game, but it was a pleasure seeing Del Piero roll back the years last night. Truly a master class perormance of one of the best players of the last 3 decades. Also, has anyone seen a worse wall than the one that Del Piero scored on? Its like Casillas had placed a bet with Ladbrokes on Del Piero scoring a double.

    Reply
  9. Juve made the biggest statement yesterday. They totally looked down the midfield behind Tiago and Sissoko, and their defense is playing great. Del Piero is on fire, even if both goals had some uninspired defense to help (lack of tackling, Casillas looking lost and unready).

    Which reminds me – Casillas isn’t really the best keeper in the world right now, right? I know Buffon isn’t playing, and Cech isn’t on his best form, but looking at all the award lists, there seems to be a big push to anoint him as the world’s #1. He’s good, but his game has many lapses.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Isaac Cancel reply