On Wednesday evening the UEFA Champions League completed its second round of fixtures in the group stage. Current holders of the prestigious trophy Internazionale Milan were involved, as were one of the biggest clubs in the world Manchester United. Other clubs playing in the round included Catalan giants Barcelona, German Werder Bremen and French Lyon. Tottenham Hotspur and Valencia also played.
Tottenham Hotspur were involved in an action packed match with Dutch Champions Twente. Tottenham missed a penalty, had a man sent off, struggled during some parts of the match and still won 4-1. As things turned out, and as Harry Redknapp rightly applauded after the match, it was a good performance and a very good result. Rafael Van der Vaart, recently purchased from Real Madrid, on deadline day in fact, missed a penalty before scoring a goal. He was then sent off. At that stage Tottenham were 2-0 up. Twente quickly pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 and make the White Hart Lane crowd nervous. Soon Tottenham were 3-1 up before Gareth Bale added a fourth towards the end of the night. The result was all the more incredble because Tottenham were awarded three penalties during the course of the match. Van Der Vaart, as mentioned, missed the first before Roman Pavlyuchenko scored the next two. None of the decisions awarding the penalties were absolute certainties and to a large degree the Dutch team will feel hard done by. Chadli scored Twente’s goal. Tottenham now have 4 points in the group.
In the same group Internazionale Milan defeated Werder Bremen 4-0 thanks to a hat trick from Samuel Etoo. The Cameroonian striker has recently found himself playing in a more familiar central striking position, as opposed to the wide right berth Jose Mourinho had asked him to occupy, and he has responded to the decision to place him there very well. He is scoring goals for fun and scored a hat trick in this encounter. Wesley Sneijder scored the other goal for Inter.
In Group B Lyon defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 in Israel. Michel Bastos scoring a pair of goals, one of which was the best of the round (reminscent of his Brazilian compatriot Roberto Carlos) whilst Pjanic scored the other. Strangely enough it was Enyeama, the Hapoel Tel Aviv goalkeeper, who scored his team’s goal, doing so from the penalty spot. In the same group Schalke defeatd Benfica of Portugal 2-0 thansk to Huntelaar and Farfan.
Manchester United defeated Valencia 1-0 in Spain thanks to a Javier Hernandez strike whilst Rangers, in the same group, defeatd Turkish champions Bursaspor at Ibrox. In Group D Barcelona drew with Rubin Kazan in the early kick off. The game finished 1-1 with both sides scoring penalties, Noboa for Kazan and Villa for Barcelona. In the same group FC Copenhagen won in Greece against Panathinaikos, the Greek champions, 2-0, thanks to ex Panathinaikos player N’Doye, who scored the opener, and Vingaard, who scored the second with a nice free kick.