|
No Goals for the Blues, Roma beats Madrid |
|
|
Wednesday, 20 February 2008 |
|
Real Madrid's travel to Roma was a big game. And a big game it was. Madrid the record holder for winning the competition 9 times took a 1 goal lead in the first 10 minutes through Raul Gonzalez. but then, after that, Roma came back and through David Pizarro equalized in teh 24th minute and subsequently Amantini Mancini scored the winner in the 58th minute. Madrid who has won their last 3 games with Roma in big goal margins find it harder than usual this time but should take heart that they do have an away goal which can actually rule on their favour when the tie is decided at the Barnebeu 3 weeks from now. Chelsea who traveled at bad conditions to Greece find it almost impossible to score. Of course that would have been the case if you are thinking of fielding Nicolas Anelka and Frank Lampard as substitutes. Avram Grant must have been thinking of playing defensively and cut them on the break and only resorted to using his firepowers if needed. To say the least, Chelsea, who have one of the most impressive defensive record in the Champions League (they have not conceded any goal in their last 4 Europe games) find themselves in some situation when Olympiakos nearly scored, the failed connection did the luck for them. The Blues, who have a Carling Cup Final this Sunday against London rivals would now need to up their game at Stamford Bridge come March. In the other games, Schalke registered a win over former champion FC Porto which Kevin Kuranyi scored the only goal in the first 5 minutes. this is Schalke's first time in the knockout stage of this competition.
|
