UEFA Champions League Oct 3 wrap

Apart from Liverpool's lackluster match against Marseille, the rest of the fixtures for groups A,B,C and D played out as follows...

Real Madrid and Lazio battled their way to equal points and a 2-2 draw. A brace from Van Nistelrooy took the prolific striker to 56 champions league goals but Pandev had a brace of his own for Madrid. The defensive ability of the great club was brought into question yet again as they were left exposed on various occasions. They were lucky to take any points away from this trip to Italy.

AC Milan traveled to meet Celtic in Glasgow and weren't up to the task of defeating the "hoops" at home. The club with few wins in serie A of late can't even turn to their usually good performances in Europe at the moment as Celtic took all points with a 2-1 win. McManus headed in from a corner to make the score 1-0 and Milan leveled after Kaka' put away a penalty awarded for a foul on Ambrosini. Celtic made it 2-1 at the death after another Dida blunder that allowed the Aussie striker, McDonald, to slot away the rebound.

Olympiacos beat Werder Bremen, 3-1 after an amazing second-half come back to leave the German hosts with a sour taste in their mouths. Almeida was able to put away at least one of his many chances during the night to put Bremen in the lead, 1-0 but it wasn't to last as Olympiacos came back to put 3 goals away in the second half. An amazing second goal from Patsatzoglu found the back of the net with a little help from a deflection.

Schalke defeated Rosenburg 2-0 with goals from Jones and Kuranyi making a successful roadtrip. Shakhtar were also able to upset their hosts, beating Benfica 1-0 in Lisbon. Continuing the tradition of wins on the road, this time it was Benfica's league rivals, Porto, that were able to take 3 points from Besiktas in Turkey. The brilliant Quaresma waited until the 92nd minute to put the only goal of the match away.

Finally it was Chelsea that were also able to defeat their Spanish hosts proving that they're not in crisis just yet after Mourinho's departure. But it was David Villa that opened the scoring for the home side with a bit of luck allowing the ball to fall in a good position for him. Drogba combined well with Malouda, allowing the later to play the ball across the 6-yard line for Joe Cole to tap in and level the scores. Finally Drogba calmly placed a shot towards the far post and allowed Chelsea to go home 2-1 winners over Valencia.


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Right back fever

There's been much interest in right-backs of late!

Cicinho's on-again, off-again transfer to Roma seems to be finally complete. It seems that Roma went to great lengths to sign him, going from a 5 million euro offer to 8 million and finally 9 million with 2 million extra based on performance.

Chelsea have given up on Daniel Alves after offer upon offer has been knocked back by Sevilla. It's good to see a club that values it's players and future more than a one-off pay cheque and it's good to see that Chelsea can't always buy whoever they want! The last offer was in the region of 36 million euros! They have instead settled for Belleti who's had a tough time going from champions league hero to bench warmer after Barca brought Zambrotta in from the demoted Juventus. Not of the same calibre as Alves but a good right back that opens up attacking options on the flank.

So the Brazilian shuffle continues (also with Emerson joining many compatriots at AC Milan)...

Latest Transfers Update (21st Aug 07)

Chelsea continue to throw their money around and build on their ability to field 3 first-class teams (talent-hoarding, hehe). They've offered Sevilla 30 million euros for Daniel Alves, I wonder if the temptation will be too much for them.

Tottenham have put together 15 million euros in a bid for Riquelme, a steal for such a quality player. Problem is that creative players like him don't always do well in the fast-paced and physical EPL. Don't forget Veron's less than memorable spell at Manchester United.

It seems that the Cicinho deal may be off (yet again) as now Real Madrid appear to want to feature him in their plans for the current season. Either way Panucci doesn't seem to be worried about losing his spot in the starting 11 suggesting that Cicinho would have a tough battle to take his position.