Football News And Views

Arsenal became the first english club to win at the San Siro against AC Milan after a supurb 2-0 win. Arsenal continued where they left off from the first leg, in control. AC Milan have not had the best of seasons so far domestically and their poor form seemed to have continued against a fantastic Arsenal side. Throughout the whole game Arsenal dominated possession and were allowed to play their slick passing game. AC Milan had a couple of half chances in the first half, one coming after 18 minutes when a good long ball from Kaka found Pato who shot tamely at Almunia. Arsenal had by far the best chance of the first half when Cesc Fabregas shot from outside the area only to see his shot rebound on the crossbar.

Arsenal carried on where they left off in the second half and again had a couple of good chances. A Fabregas corner found it’s way to the feet of an unmarked Senderos who could only shoot straight at the Milan keeper, Kalac. Not long after Arsenal had another chance. Pirlo, who had a terrible night, gave the ball away to Adebayor on the edge of the Milan box and he picked out Eboue but his shot didn’t trouble the keeper. Pirlo almost made amends when his free kick forced a good save from Almunia in the Arsenal goal.

Arsenal bought Walcott on with 20 minutes to go and the young Englishman almost set up a goal when he was found well at the far post by Hleb but Kalac did well to block the shot with Senderos and Adebayor waiting for the tap in. Arsenal finally made the breakthrough when a low 30 yard shot from Cesc Fabregas found the Milan corner in the 84th minute. With the game beyond AC Milan, Arsenal doubled their lead when Walcott crossed low across the goal and Adebayor tapped in to get his first champion’s league goal for Arsenal.

Another fantastic night in the Champions League for the British clubs saw Arsenal and Manchester United run rampant and Rangers keep a strong Barcelona side quiet. Arsenal equaled the highest champions league win by beating Slavia Prague 7-0. It took the Gunners just 5 minutes to open the scoring with some great work from Hleb on the left, who picked otu Cesc Fabregas on the edge of the box who then fired home. The second goal came midway through the first half when the ball bounced around the box after an Arsenal corner and Hleb picked up the loose ball and thumped it in off the Slavia defender, Hubacek. Theo Walcott who got his first start for Arsenal in the champions league when he picked up the ball from a miscontrol by the Slavia goal keeper, Vaniak and kept his cool to make it 3-0 at half time. Arsenal got 4 more in the second half with Hleb getting a deserved goal after turning his man in the box and slotting the ball in at the near post. Walcott then got his second when he was set up by Hleb who played a blinder. Walcott then finished at the highest level to make it 5-0. It was a finish that reminded many of Thierry Henry. Fabregas also got his second of the night just moments later. Arsenal were defending a corner and within moments the ball was in Slavia’s net. This goal really was a typical Arsenal move and was pure brilliance and just typical quick one touch football from Arsenal. The move was capped off with a nice pass by Walcott straight to Cesc who finished well. Slavia had a couple of good shots well saved by Almunia but in the last minute Bendtner who had earlier came on as a sub alongside Gilberto and Rosicky made it 7 when he squeezed the ball past the Slavia keeper and tapped in from a yard.

Manchester United put 4 past Dynamo Kiev away from home. Rio Ferdinand made it two in two when he headed the ball in after 10 minutes. Wayne Rooney scored easily from a few yards to make it 2-0 but Kiev hit back when Rincon headed in from Correa’s corner kick. Manchester United did not sit back though and Giggs delivered a perfect cross to Ronaldo who scored a rare header. Ronaldo got his second of the night when Gavrancic handled in the area. Ronaldo stepped up coolly to slot the spot kick away to make it 4-1. Man Utd will be disappointed to have conceded again but they couldn’t do anything about Bangoura’s sweetly struck strike which made it 4-2.

Rangers faced their toughest test yet when they hosted Barcelona at Ibrox. In a game with few clear cut chances Ronaldinho came the closest to scoring for Barcelona when his long ranged effort was tipped onto the crossbar and Lionel Messi also came close when his shot was cleared off the line. Daniel Cousin and Barry Ferguson both also came close for Rangers but they wont be too disappointed with a point from this one. They are in a good position after 3 games and will be hoping to qualify from this group.

The group stages have been drawn and Bolton find themselves meeting Bayern Munich in their group. Bolton, who have been struggling under Sammy Lee face their biggest test yet when the two clubs meet. It will certainly be a tasty tie and there are a few more in the group draw. Everton face tough games against Zenit St Petersburg and AZ Alkmaar while Fiorentina have been drawn in the same group as Villarreal. Tottenham will be happy with their group with Anderlecht their main threat. When Scotland got drawn in their Euro Qualifying group and Rangers got drawn in their Champions League group I described them both as the group of death and both have been in fine form recently in their groups so I will tempt fate again as say that Aberdeen are also in the group of death which includes Panathinaikos, Lokomotiv Moscow and Atletico Madrid.

Here is the full draw.

Group A
AZ Alkmaar
Zenit St Petersburg
EVERTON
Nuremburg
Larissa

Group B
Panathinaikos
Lokomotiv Moscow
Atletico Madrid
Copenhagen
ABERDEEN

Group C
Villarreal
AEK Athens
Fiorentina
Mlada Boleslav
Elfsborg

Group D
Basle
Hamburg
Stade Rennais
Dinamo Zagreb
Brann

Group E
Bayer Leverkusen
Sparta Prague
Spartak Moscow
Toulouse
FC Zurich

Group F
Bayern Munich
BOLTON
Braga
Red Star Belgrade
Aris Thessaloniki

Group G
Anderlecht
TOTTENHAM
Getafe
Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Aalborg

Group H
Bordeaux
Austria Vienna
Galatasaray
Panionios
Helsingsborgs

Is there some kind of super pill that all Scots are taking at the moment? First their national team beat France home and away in their European qualifying group and are currently sitting at the top of it, despite World champions Italy also being in that group, then Rangers beat German champions Stuttgart and French champions Lyon and now Celtic have joined in by beating European champions AC Milan 2-1 in a game that will mainly be remembered for Dida’s slapstick antics in the dying moments (or maybe his dying moments) after a fan ran on the pitch and… well watch the highlights and enjoy.

Lyon 0 - 3 Rangers

Well I have said a few times that Rangers are in the group of death yet here we are after 2 of the 6 games and Rangers are joint top after winning them both and if I had put a few quid on them beating Lyon 3-0 away from home I would have got a very good return indeed. I am still not 100% convinced that they will get out of this group but 3rd place and a Uefa Cup spot seems almost certain already. Rangers went in at half time 1-0 when Lee McCulloch thundered in a header from DaMarcus Beasley’s corner after 23 minutes. Just before the break Lyon won a free kick which Juninho smashed against the crossbar.

Juninho nearly scored again just after the break but his shot was just wide of the mark. Rangers then doubled their advantage with a breakaway with Hutton who picked out Cousin after a great run. Cousin then turned his marker and fired his shot past the Lyon goalkeeper, Remy Vercoutre. Moments later it was 3-0 when DaMarcus Beasley ran onto a long ball from Cousin and then calmly slotted in his shot.

Lyon kept on pressing but couldn’t find a breakthrough and in the last 20 minutes they hit the woodword twice when Juninho hit the post from his long range effort and Beraldo had a header hit the crossbar. This win leaves Rangers in a good position to qualify and they ideally need about 4 more points from 4 games which I think they can get but half of them games are against Barcelona and even on this form rangers will find them very hard to match.

The two days of the first games in this years champions league have now passed and there was a mixed bag of results for the British clubs involved. The Tuesday games saw Celtic, Chelsea and Liverpool involved and neither of them managed to pick out a win. Celtic went 2-0 down in just 8 minutes away to Shakhtar Donetsk and couldn’t find a reply. They managed to resist the wave of Shakhtar attacks to avoid an embarrassing result. Chelsea took on minnows Rosenborg at Stamford Bridge and fell behind in the 24th minute to a Miika Koppinen flick but Andre Shevchenko headed in a second half equaliser for Chelsea. The biggest shock in this match was the poor attendance of just 24,973. Liverpool could also only manage a 1-1 draw but they were against a very good looking Porto side who took the lead after 8 minutes when Porto were awarded a penalty which Gonzalez converted. Drik Kuyt equalised with a close range header. Porto looked good all through the match and Liverpool did well to resist their challenge and earn themselves a good away point.

Wednesday saw Rangers, Manchester United and Arsenal all in action and all winning. Goals from Fabregas (which took a deflection on the way so may go down as an OG), Robin Van Persie and Eduardo saw off Sevilla at the Emirates stadium. A diving Cristiano Ronaldo header was the only goal of the game when Manchester United beat Sporting Lisbon 1-0 away from home. Rangers had to come from behind to win against VfB Stuttgart at Ibrox. Mario Gomez fired Stuttgart ahead in the first half but a great goal from Charlie Adam and a Jean Claude Darcheville penalty gave Rangers a precious win in what can only be described as the group of death.

There was mixed fortunes for the British clubs in the champions league draw. In my opinion the English clubs have all got a very good draw. Considering that all 4 English clubs were top seeds there was good chance of them all getting good draws. Liverpool have a very nice group with Porto, Marseille and Besiktas and Arsenal also have a good groupd with Seville or AEK, Steau Bucharest and Slavia Prague.It is another story for the scottish clubs though. Celtic have AC Milan in their group whilst Rangers have Lyon and Barcelona. Chelsa and Manchester Utd have slightly tougher groups with Chelsea facing Valencia Schalke 04 and Rosenborg and Manchester Utd facing Roma Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev. I still think both clubs are good enough to top these groups though. Below is the full draw with the British clubs in bold.

Group A
LIVERPOOL
Porto
Marseille
Besiktas
Group B
CHELSEA
Valencia
Schalke 04
Rosenborg
Group C
REAL MADRID
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiakos
Group D
AC MILAN
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk
Group E
BARCELONA
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers
Group F
MANCHESTER UNITED
Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kiev
Group G
INTER MILAN
PSV Eindhoven
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce
Group H
ARSENAL
Sevilla/AEK Athens
Steau Bucharest
Slavia Prague

There is sad news from the opening weekend in Spain. Seville and Spain star Antonio Puerta suffered a heart attack during Sevilles first game of the season which ended with a 4-0 win over Gatafe. The 22-year-old suffered problems midway through the first-half of the match. Medics prevented Puerta from swallowing his tongue, but he collapsed again after going off when he was in the changing rooms and was given cardiac resuscitation before going to hospital where he is being kept in intensive care. There is not much news on his condition but it is believed that the doctors are becoming more and more optimistic which is a good sign. I hope he has a full recovery and will be back playing at some point. It was nice to see that Seville coach Juande Ramos didn’t want to speak about the game after it had finished to the media and rightly so. After something like this happening to one of his players he showed good sportsmanship by showing up to the media after the match but then stating that he was only interested in the players condition and not the match itself.

“I don’t have the mind to speak now. The reason I am here is because we are all professionals, but I have no desire to talk of the game or anything. I would like to see the player. The game does not have any importance compared with the health of a player.”

Edit: Puerta died on the 28th August 2007. His passing is a sad loss for Spanish and world football. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.

Real Madrid are reported to be adding three new Dutch stars to their ranks before the summer transfer window closes. You may be aware that they are determined to land Arjen Robben and reports in Spain say that they are close to striking a deal with Chelsea for him. Also close to signing for Madrid is highly rated Dutch youngster Royston Drenthe. The left winger was easily the best player for Holland in the recent under 21s tournament even though some Liverpool fans may argue that is was Ryan Babel who was also very impressive. These two transfers seem very likely to go through but there is also a third Dutch star linked with Madrid who may also be on his way. Ajax’s Wesley Sneijder is also rumoured to be on his way to Madrid. I rate him very highly and it is not hard to see why. He is one of the top stars at Ajax and they will be reluctant to let him go but with the amount of money Real Madrid have to spend they could lure him to the Spanish capital too.

A late goal by Robin van Persie gave Arsenal a 1-0 win over Ajax to claim the Amsterdam Cup. Van Persie was later carried off injured on a stretcher at the end of the match. The former Feyenoord player scored the winning goal against his former rivals, was on the receiving end  of some tough tackles before rifling home the winner and was taken off in some pain. However Arsenal’s fans fears were proved premature as the Dutch forward was able to join his team mates and was seen parading the trophy around in the post match celebrations. Arsenal completely dominated the match and deserved to win the game.

In a exhillerating  match Van Persie won the cup for Arsenal when he hit the net from six yards with just minutes left following an impressive run by left back Gael Clichy.

Arsenal finished top with nine points, three for each win and one for each goal scored and completed an excellent pre season and added the Amsterdam Cup to The Emirates Cup which they won at the weekend.