Real Madrid won 2-0 against Ajax on Wednesday evening. Two of the giants of European football, who have won a plethora of Champions League trophies between them, thirteen in fact, went up against each other in the Santiago Bernabeu but it was Real Madrid who were comfortable winners. The first goal of the night was an own goal conceded by Vurnon Anita, although it might later be confirmed as Gonzalo Higuains goal. The second Real Madrid goal was officially scored by Gonzalo Higuain. The Argentinian striker did not have a particularly impressive performance against Osasuna in La Liga on the weekend but his finishing was impressive on this occasion. He once hit the crossbar, he certainly scored one and there is a possibility he will be awarded another. Martin Jol, the Ajax coach, will be slightly disappointed with the performance of his players but he knows qualifying from this group will not be easy and the Dutch giants will have to accumulate the majority of their points at home. Meseut Ozil, the new Real Madrid signing and one of the star perfomers of the German team at the 2010 World Cup, performed very impressively and appears to have settled very quickly into the Real Madrid team. This will please Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid coach, as he has to integrate a large number of new signings into his side and if one of them, Ozil, is completing the transition easily it makes the job a little easier and more likely to be achieved.
Disappointingly Cristiano Ronaldo, the most expensive player in the world, did not perform especially well. Ronaldo is slowly working his way back to form from injury so Jose Mourinho will unlikely lose much sleep worrying about his compatriots talent.
AC Milan, another giant of European football, did not get off to the quickest of starts but they still ended up winning 2-0 against Auxerre. Auxerre who defied all expectations by qualifying for the Champions League in the first place, did not perform at their best on Wednesday and Ireneusz Jelen, their most influential player, was starved of support in attack. AC Milan did not open the scoring until past the hour mark and it was new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic who scored both. The Swede will be delighted to have scored the two goals after missing a penalty on the weekend in the rossoneri’s defeat in Serie A. Robinho also made an appearance from the bench and suggested he is slowly finding his form by displaying a couple of promising touches and contributing to a few effective attacking moves.
