Champions League ... The Night of Penalties

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Champions League ... The Night of Penalties

September 29th 2010 23:35

Link: twitter.com/mattsaltmer

Referee's were certainly in the centre of the action in the Champions League tonight, as in just eight games, there were seven penalties! An entertaining night, ultimately bore a lot of predictable scorelines, but there was plenty of drama a long the way.

As I mentioned in my preview earlier today, in the 'group of death', Tottenham had to get three points at home against FC Twente. There was plenty of action, most of which centered around Rafael Van der Vaart, and the ref. The dutchman missed a penalty, before then scoring a good finish to put Spurs ahead. He went from villain, to hero, to villain again, as he was sent off for a second booking, before Pavlyuchenko converted Tottenham's second penalty to double there lead. Twente pulled one back through Chadli, before Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his second penalty, his side's third of the match! A late Gareth Bale goal completed a 4-1 win for the English side.

The other game in the group saw Samuel Eto'o score a hat-trick, inspiring Inter to a 4-0 demolition of Werder Bremen. Sneijder scored the other, as the Italians and Tottenham took control of the group. Rangers followed up their point at Old Trafford in round one, with a 1-0 home win against Buraspor. Manchester United kept up with them though, as a late Javier Hernandez goal gave them a crucial 1-0 away against Valencia. Had United failed to win, they would have been a bit of trouble, but now join Rangers on 4 points, with the Spanish league leaders on 3.

In what I expected to be a tough encounter, Barcelona only managed a 1-1 draw away against Rubin Kazan, with both sides scoring a penalty. It was the Russians who struck first after half an hour, but on the hour mark David Villa responded to earn the point. The other game in this group, saw Copenhagen continue their impressive start to the group stage, with a 2-0 win at Panathanaikos. The outsiders in the group, now lead it with 6 points, but face back to back games with Barca next.

As any Football manager player will appreciate, it brings a wry smile to your face, when a young name pops up on the score-sheet, and you think, 'he was scoring for me five years ago'! This was the case tonight, as Lyon won 3-1 at Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Michel Bastos scored ANOTHER penalty, before adding another from open play. And wonder kid Miralem Pjanic (my star player on FM06), added a third. Also, another name football manager fans will be familiar with, Vincent Enyeama, scored the Tel-Aviv goal. Strangely however, he is a goalkeeper, but was on penalty taking duty. The other game in the group saw Schalke beat Benfica 2-0, thanks to late goals from Farfan and Huntelaar.

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