Thursday, February 22, 2007

Last 16: Leg 1, Day 2




In a night of draws, Liverpool's victory over FC Barcelona in the Camp Nou grabs all the headlines.

FC Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool


In a battle between the two most recent winners of the Champions League, the Catalans were left scratching their heads after falling a goal behind Liverpool in a match in which they dominated time of possession 67% to 33%. Barca came out flying and looked to be on cruise control after Portugese international midfielder Deco scored a dazzling header on a beautiful cross by Italian international defender Gianluca Zambrotta in the 14th minute. However, just before the half, Liverpool manufactured the equalizer on a header by Welsh International Craig Bellamy. Barca keeper Victor Valdes had appeared to make the save but his backwards momentum carried the ball over the line and into the net. In the 74th minute Norwegian international defender John Arne Riise capitalized on a Barca defensive mixup to give the visitors the lead. The blaugrana came tantalizingly close to the equalizer late in the match on a Deco free-kick which bounced fruitlessly off the far post. The reigning champs have their backs against the wall as they travel to Anfield for the second leg of the tie. Eastern Influence's cheeky matchday pick-switch appears prescient as they look to pick up some points from the rest of the pool.


FC Porto 1-1 Chelsea


The 1-1 draw in Porto's Estadio do Dragao saw all the scoring occur within the first 20 minutes. Portugese international midfielder Raul Meireles struck first for the home side in the 12th minute, but Chelsea quickly answered when Ukrainian international, and second leading European goalscorer of all time, Andriy Schevchenko volleyed the leveller on a nifty pass from Dutch forward Arjen Robben. Jose Mourinho received a relatively warm welcome from Porto's home crowd on his return to the stadium where he'd led the Dragones to a Champions League title in 2004. He'll be happy with the away draw, but disappointed with the injury to captain John Terry whose ankle injury in the first half may keep the English international out of the second leg.


Inter Milan 2-2 Valencia


Valencia's David Silva's late match heroics gave Los Che a crucial equalizer on the road at Inter Milan's San Siro. Inter's attack dominated most of the night but ultimately squandered many opportunities. Argentine international midfielder Esteban Cambiasso opened the scoring for the Nerazzurri with a header in the 28th minute. It wasn't until the second half that Valencia's David Villa was able to volley the leveller on a powerful 30 foot free-kick in the 64th minute. Brazillian international midfielder Maicon restored the home side's advantage on a brilliant give-and-go run with teammate Julio Cruz in the 74th minute, but in the last two minutes of regulation time, David Silva hammered home Valencia's second score giving the away side the psychological advantage to start the second leg in Spain.


Roma 0-0 Lyon


In a tightly contested but scrappy match noted more for its set-pieces and fouls than its attacking play, Roma and Lyon battled to an 0-0 stalemate at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Overall the visitors had more chances on net, but their failure to capitalize deprived them of the all-important away goal they came to collect. Still Lyon will like their chances to advance to the Final 8 and qualify for the tournament's quarterfinals for the fourth year in a row as the tie heads to France for the finale.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hola, Maggie here.
So, what I want to know is...where are the team standings so far? Is it already somewhere and I'm just missing it? Cooper wants to know how everyone is doing!

jv said...

hey, mags... you can tell the little man that there are no rankings yet. the results of the first round (and all the rounds except the final) are determined over two games - home and away. the sum scores of both matches are added up for an aggregate score. in the event of an even score, the first tie breaker is number of away goals. that's why it's so important for these visiting teams to score on the road. the next leg of this round is in two weeks on march 6th & 7th. by the night of the 7th (or early on the 8th) we'll have our first standings.

bvacanti said...

Math too complicated. Give me more potato chips.

Unknown said...

ok

Unknown said...

what about the power rankings? get the jerver to import some of his baseball scribbled forumulas and translate them to this setting - taking into account people's choices the strength of home and away crowds - injuries - goals scored to provide an interim report.