Well, it has been a very interesting past couple of days now. While the big stories of the Champions League have been hitting early and often, Galatasaray's 1-1 match against visiting Schalke was an incredibly exciting match-up between two sides who really hungered for the result. Great by anyone's standards, Burak Yilmaz struck a beauty of a goal in the 12th minute of the game following a precision pass from Selcuk Inan. Yilmaz's job wasn't easy as he went over his marker's head with a flick before latching on to a sweet strike into the German side's net leaving Timo Hildebrand with nothing to do but pick the ball out of the back of the net. On the other side of the field, a combination play from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar opens up a great deal of space for Jefferson Farfan who sprints past the Galatasary defense before knocking it to Jermain Jones who graciously did the honors. While the 2nd half was far less enthralling, Schalke's ability to take 52% of ball possession away from home may be seen as a good sign for a team that have had domestic strife lately. On the other hand, Galatasary's number of opportunities leave a great deal of expectation for the 2nd leg where we will doubtless observe another hard-fought struggle. I would like to turn now to Milan v.s. Barcelona which saw a rather back-handed game unfold. While it is true that the Spaniards dominated possession from start to finish, the Italian hosts were actually the only ones who ever really looked like scoring. With 65% of possession, Barcelona played around with the ball a great deal however they could develop absolutely 0 penetration when it came to striking in on AC Milan's goal. On the other hand, the hosts struck twice in the 2nd half with just 35% of possession through-out the game! While they might very well have made it at least 1-0 before the break, Milan's first goal came from the foot of Kevin-Prince Boateng in the 57th minute who was in the right place at the right time after Riccardo Montolivo's rocket of a shot was deflected off to Boateng. Turning abruptly for the shot, the ball sailed neatly into the corner of the net. Of course, there was also Sulley Muntari's 81st minute effort which found net after a nice passing exchange from M'Baye Niang and Stephen El Shaarawy got the ball to Muntari who volleyed convincingly. 2-0 to Milan.
Turning to the Europa League now, Napoli have been cast aside by an outstanding Viktoria Plzen side who acted convincingly in Italy in a 3-0 victory before going 2-0 up at home to make it 5-0 on aggregate. Meanwhile, Fenerbahce edged out BATE 1-0 at home in Turkey to earn their advancement in the competition. As for the match-up between Leverkusen and Benfica, the German side could never really get their act together as they lost 1-0 at home through an Oscar Cardozo goal in the 61st minute while the 2nd leg found Benfica in the lead 1-0 again following a breath-taking goal from Ola John in the 60th minute. Andre Schurrle tied the leg up 1-1 in the 75th minute though Bayer's defense failed them as Nemanja Matic slotted home just 2 minutes later. Bordeaux were tested more strenuously against Dynamo Kyiv as the Russians managed a tie in the first leg though losing out in the 2nd with a 41st minute goal from Cheick Diabate. The aggregate was 2-1 for the French team. Elsewhere, Germany's Hannover were pushed out of contention following a lively 2nd leg against Russian side Anji which saw the visitors score in the 9th minute of added time to the chagrin of the home fans. Other results include: Newcastle's edging of Metalist, Stuttgart cutting Genk down, Lazio carrying the Italian flag onwards after defeating Monchengladbach, Tottenham bidding Lyon adieu, Inter Milan pillaging Cluj, Levante bearing the Spanish representation following the beating of Olympiacos, and Rubin upsetting Atletico Madrid's title hopes. Basel edged Dnipro as Liverpool saved their honor but lost their place in the game against Zenit St. Petersburg. Of course, arguably most surprising was the fact that Ajax lost out to Steaua Bucuresti following each team winning one leg 2-0. The home side ended up winning 4-2 on penalties. Last but not least, Chelsea edged Sparta Praha! Hope you enjoyed the football!
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