And all quiet on the Italian front....
Well, the first day of the 2012-2013 UEFA Champions League season is in the books! And what a day it was! There were some shockers, some disappointments, and everything in between. The first goal of the Champions League campaign was scored by Malaga's Isco in the 3rd minute. Malaga went on winning that game against Zenit, the only winner in group C, but more on that later.
I do believe that we should first address this mayhem. Now I chose not to watch this game, for the simple fact that I can't stand either team and why would I put myself through that? But I did refresh my phone every minute to get up to date results on all of the other games around Europe (I watched the AC Milan-Anderlecht game). As I was looking at the Madrid-City game I was in total disbelief. Though for a majority of the game it was scoreless, Madrid had ridiculous attacking numbers. The final stats for them were 35 shots and 12 on goal, Joe Hart had his work cut out for him with 9 saves. I did see one of his saves early on, it was incredible, he is hands down one of the best keepers in Europe, possibly the world. If I HAD to choose the team I wanted to win this one it would probably be City, but as soon as they got their first goal in the 68th, Madrid equalized in the 76th. They were on top again with another goal in the 85th, only to be shut down again when Madrid scored again in the 87th. The third and winning goal for Madrid came in the 90th by hands down my least favorite player in the entire worldddddddd. Ronaldo. Good thing Dortmund also won their game against Ajax to keep Madrid tied for 1st in the group of death.
PSG pleasantly surprised me with their 4-1 win against Dynamo Kiev. Ibra scored a penalty early on in the 9th, with three more coming from Alex (yaayy!! I love him even though he's no longer at Chelsea), Thiago Silva, and Javier Pastore. This was PSG's first real test competing at the top level and it seems as if they did pretty well. The group isn't too difficult, their only real test should come when they play Porto, who also won their game against Dinamo Zagreb. After conceding a goal due to a penalty early on, Arsenal won 2-1 against Montpellier with goals from Podolski and Gervinho. They did well against the defending French champs and if they keep this form up, could even win the group. Schalke beat Olympiakos in the other game in group B.
Now onto group C action! I watched the AC Milan-Anderlecht game for several reasons. I normally support AC Milan so I enjoy watching them (which was why I didn't watch a match between two teams I hate) plus, Anderlecht has all of that young Belgian talent that I talk about oh so much. Milan hasn't exactly had a great start to the season, they're currently 13th in Serie A and have yet to score a single goal at home, this includes today's home match. They have been dealing with injury problems and it is still very early in the Serie A season, only 3 games so far. The season in Belgium has been going on for quite a bit longer, Anderlecht have 13 games in the book so far this season. Milan just didn't seem to get it together, they were sloppy and there was no fluidity at all, Anderlecht were the better team. There were some great chances, but no side produced a goal. After a pretty sad first half for Milan, things seemed to pick up for them at the beginning of the second half. The only stand out player for me was Kevin Prince Boateng, who was subbed out in the 59th minute. The last person I thought to be taken off would be him (he apparently felt the same way, the cameras caught him throwing a water bottle on the ground in anger). But his replacement, El Shaarawy made an immediate impact. He had some amazing crosses and a few shots, but, in the end produced nothing. Anderlecht had a few stand out players, Belgian international Guillaume Gillet, (who I wrote about only last week!) impressed me once again with his performance. A right back who always seemed to make his way up to goal, Gillet also had a few promising moments. Malaga beat Zenit 3-0 in the other group C match.
Here's a look at what the tables look like now...
Group A
PSG 3ptsFC Porto 3pts
Dinamo Zagreb 0pts
Dynamo Kiev 0pts
Group B
Schalke 3pts
Arsenal 3pts
Montpellier 0pts
Olympiakos 0pts
Group C
Malaga 3pts
AC Milan 1pt
Anderlecht 1pt
Zenit St. Petersburg 0pts
Group D
Real Madrid 3pts
Borussia Dortmund 3pts
Manchester City 0pts
Ajax 0pts
An exciting day 1 to the UEFA Champions League group stages is already over! Tomorrow has some really great matches, including my defending European Champions Chelsea! I can't wait! Here's to tomorrow being just as exciting as today!! Ciao!!
No comments:
Post a Comment