Matchday 1: Results

By: Adam | September 21st, 2007

First of all my sincere apologies since I couldn’t write this post bit earlier. I’m a Chelsea fan for years and past couple of days have been “blackest” for any Chelsea fan in past couple of years. When news arrived that King Jose has left the Stamford Bridge, it was a biggest blow for any Chelsea fan. And I felt like running away from football for few days. Jose is Jose he can’t be replaced.

Anyways moving on matchday 1, it was exciting as ususal. On tuesday teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Celtic and Real Madrid tasted the first blood. Chelsea played with Rosenborg on Stamford Bridge. Even though Cheslea dominated the game, Rosenborg first scored then successfully played for draw when Chelsea scored. Implications of this match have resulted in Jose’s exit. A bitter blow for Chelsea both on the ground and off the ground. Liverpool traveled to F.C. Porto. In my opinion LFC had a bad game. Porto dominated game and deserved to win but they had to settle for draw. Shakhtar surprisingly defeated Celtic by 2 goals to nil. Celtic’s defense was in shambles and Shakhtar took the advantage to fullest. Valencia traveled to Schalke and took all 3 points to mount pressure on Chelsea to win the group. Match ended 1-0 with both the sides being well balanced in game play. Real Madrid comfortably beat Werder by two goals to one. Real Madrid have improved significantly and they are really looking dangerous. Olympiacos and Lazio ended up in draw. I couldn’t even watch highlights of this game hence can’t comment. Marseille started their campaign by a win. Cisse and Rodriguez scored in 2-0 victory. The only negative thing from that game for Marseille is number of cards they got which was 5. Current champions A.C. Milan beat Benfica by two goals from Pirlo and Inzhagi. Pirlo’s goal was superb. Milan started positively unlike last year when they couldn’t win in first two games.

Wednesday was no different to tuesday. Man Utd got the much favored result when they beat Sporting away from home . I thought sporting were good in this game. Slavia beat Steaua by two goals to one. Even for this game I couldn’t even catch highlights hence won’t comment. Roma beat Kiev in a game dominated by Roma. Perrotta took early lead in 9 minutes and Totti sealed the victory in 70th minute. Rangers produced shock waves when they beat German champions by 2-1 in their home. Rangers are extremely strong on home front and have beaten likes of Chelsea in pre-season. One more shocking result was Fenerbahce beating Inter in Turkey. Even though Inter were playing away but given the quality of their squad they were expected to win. I’m not taking any credit away from Fenerbagce and they deserved to win. PSV beat CSKA Moscow in low key affair. Two second half goals guaranteed 3 points for PSV. Barca beat Lyon in style. Both Henry and Messi got on the sheet which made victory more special for all the Catalans. Arsenal continued their excellent form from home in Europe by beating Sevilla by 3 goals. It was vintage (Wenger’s) Arsenal performance and they deserve all the plaudits.

Results:
AC Milan 2-1 Benfica
Chelsea 1-1 Rosenborg
FC Porto 1-1 Liverpool
Marseille 2-0 Besiktas
Olympiacos 1-1 Lazio
Real Madrid 2-1 Werder Bremen
Schalke 04 0-1 Valencia
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 Celtic

Arsenal 3-0 Sevilla
Barcelona 3-0 Lyon
Fenerbahce 1-0 Inter Milan
PSV 2-1 CSKA Moscow
Rangers 2-1 VfB Stuttgart
Roma 2-0 Dynamo Kiev
Slavia Prague 2-1 Steaua Bucuresti
Sporting 0-1 Man Utd