Archive for August 26th, 2009

Champions’ league nearing the end of play offs

August 26th, 2009

Tuesday night saw some old and new faces enter the Champions League qualifying stage. In Hungary, in the city of Debrecen, local club Debreceni VSC was about to enter the history books. Beating Bulgarian club Levski Sofia 2-0 on the night and a 4-1 aggregate over two legs, Debreceni VSC made a place for themselves in the group stages. In doing so, they became the first Hungarian club in fourteen years to qualify for the Champions’ League group stage. The last Hungarian team to do so was Ferencvrosi in the 1995/96 season. The first goal was scored by Jozsef Varga in the 13th minute, and the second was scored by Gergely Rudolf in the 35th minute to give them a strong lead early in the game.

The final match of the night was between Belgian club R.S.C. Anderlecht and French giants Olympique Lyonnais also known as Lyon. The first leg ended in a thumping 5-1 win for Lyon and as such, the second leg was expected to be no different. Argentine striker Lisandro Lopez scored three goals on the night, thus spoiling the home team’s dream of qualifying for the group stages.

In a matter of fifteen minutes Lisandro Lopez scored his hat-trick.  All the goals came in the first half. There was nothing much to admire in the second half except for the penalty awarded to R.S.C. Anderlecht in the 51st minute. The spot kick was successfully converted by Matias Suarez, another young Argentinian. Over the two legs the Lyon defeated R.S.C. Anderlecht by an astonishing 8-2.

Champions League Play offs Second Leg

August 26th, 2009

Spanish club Atletico de Madrid defeated Greek club Panathinaikos by 2-0 and now lead with a 5-2 aggregate. It didn’t take long for the first goal to come. In the 3rd minute Panathinaikos defender Loukas Vyntra put the ball through his own net. Their chances of winning were shattered when Djibril Cisse was shown a red card. The Greeks continued creating chances, and even came close to scoring on one or two occasions. However, any trail that could lead to a historical comeback was cleared in the 82nd minute when Sergio Aguero scored for Atletico.

Another match between Israeli club, Maccabi Haifa and Austrian club SV Salzburg was won by Maccabi Haifa in some style. The final score for the night being 3-0 for the Israeli side with goals from Vladimer Dvalishvili, Eyal Golsa and Mohammed Gadir in the 32nd minute, 57th minute and 90th minute respectively. Over the two legs Maccabi Haifa won 5-1.

The match between FC Zürich from Switzerland and FK Ventspils from Latvia went to the wire. Both teams started well by scoring a goal each in under 10 minutes. The first goal was scored in the 6th minute by Johan Vonlanthen. The feat didn’t last long and FK Ventspils replied soon as Igor Tigirlas scored within two minutes. The match was slow but pulsating as the home team was losing on the away goals rule as the first leg ended in a 0-0 draw. In the 90th minute Almen Abdi scored a winner and made sure that his team qualified for the group stage of the most prestigious European competition.

Spanish league updates

August 26th, 2009

Barcelona added another piece of silverware to their collection last night when they won the Spanish Supercup by beating Athlitico Bilbao 3-0. Two goals from Messi and another from Bojan in the second half made sure that the cup was going nowhere from Camp Nou. The Barca team looks good and this will make it interesting to follow the Spanish League this season since many stars from around the world have joined Spain.

The list includes the likes of Ronaldo, Alonso, Benzema, Abrahmovich and now it is rumored that Vidic wants to play for a Spanish team which according to his manager will be Barcelona. It will surely be not possible this season as Manchester United have already lost two of its stars this season and losing another would throw the title hopes out of the window for boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Chygrynskiy, an Ukranian striker is set to join Barcelona from Shakhtar Donetsk. Barcelona has reportedly offered €30 million for the 22 year old striker. Alvaro Negrado has successfully joined Sevilla from Real Madrid for a reported €15 million for five years. There is a buy back option for Real Madrid according to which the club can avail the services of Negrado only if they pay €17 million to Sevilla within the first two years.

With Real Madrid’s super expensive transfers, the world is again witnessing the rise of the Galácticos. This weekend is certainly going to be a full stadium event with Real Madrid playing against Deportivo la Coruna.