The Champions League kicked off yesterday evening with AC Milan’s draw at the Nou Camp the stand-out scoreline of the first eight fixtures.
As we kick off our inaugural UEFA Fantasy Champions League campaign of coverage here at Fantasy Football Scout (unfortunately the points scoring seems to have hit some kinks early doors, here’s hoping for a quick resolution on that front) we can look back at how some late, late goals proved costly at home and away. Starting with the reigning champions…
Milan Pull The Italian Job On Pep
Pep Guardiola’s men kicked off their reign as European Champions in just about the worst possible way. A mere 24 seconds into their home tie with AC Milan Alexandre Pato (all but guaranteed a starting place when ex-Barca player Zlatan Ibrahimovic was ruled ruled out through injury) was handed the keys to the Nou Camp castle by carving open the Barca backline to leave himself a simple finish.
Alessandro Nesta turned back the years and delivered a superb defensive performance reminiscent of his heyday and but for his display, Barcelona could have ran away with this game. It was a little over half an hour into the game when Leo Messi jinked through the Milan defence for Pedro to prod home. Andres Iniesta fell foul of injury fairly soon after with Cesc Fabregas coming in to take his place – the club have since confirmed the player is expected to be out for four weeks- this means he will definitely miss Barca’s next game away to BATE in a fortnight’s time.
Early in the second half David Villa scored a free-kick somewhat reminiscent of David Beckham against Greece to give Barca the lead and hand them control of the game. Playing from the very first minute to the last, it was Thiago Silva rising highest to spoil the party in Barcelona at the death and leave the game all square at two goals apiece.
Gunners All Square in Dortmund
Arsenal’s safely navigated a tricky away trip to Dortmund, with the game finishing 1-1. Yossi Benayoun, intriguingly, was the furthest forward of the central midfielders, as Mikel Arteta sat deep alongside Alex Song. Gervinho and Theo Walcott grabbed the wing roles and it was the latter who set up Robin Van Persie to fire the Gunners ahead in the first half.
Mario Gotze and Shinji Kagawa impressed for Dortmund but some poor home finishing kept Arsenal in the game at times. The hosts’ pressing game paid dividend in the end, as Ivan Perisic fired home a ridiculous long-range volley with just minutes remaining, though- despite losing the goal so near to the final whistle- the Gunners will be far happier of the two.
Blues Win Without the Old Guard
No John Terry. No Frank Lampard either. Andre Villas-Boas had promised to make changes ahead of the weekend trip to Old Trafford but was last night a sign of things to come? With Didier Drogba also out through concussion, Fernando Torres was flanked by Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge up front for the Blues and picked up both assists in the 2-0 win over Leverkusen. David Luiz came in at Terry’s expense and scored, Florent Malouda took the Lampard role, while suspension to Ramires allowed John Obi Mikel back in the side, as Raul Meireles played right of the midfield three. Juan Mata‘s late clincher means he’s now scored two in three games for Chelsea.
Porto Off To A Flyer
The Europa League champions got off to a better start as they won a scintillating tie with Shakhtar Donetsk by two goals to one. Hulk put in an indomitable performance but things started poorly for the Porto striker when he struck the post with a penalty earned by James Rodriguez (a point gained for this regardless, but is yet to be sorted).
A free-kick three times the distance away from goal was, however, no problem for the Brazilian striker as he walloped FC Porto back into the game. James Rodriguez again proved instrumental in Porto’s second goal as his play down the left wing granted new striker Kleber with the easiest of tap-ins.
Shakhtar In Shambles
The Ukrainian Premier League champions had just about the worst start to their campaign imaginable. Luiz Adriano was able to capitalise on some dreadful goalkeeping by Helton to give Shakhtar the lead in Portugal but the visitors subsequent 2-1 loss was compounded by both centre-backs, Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Yaroslav Rakitskiy receiving their marching orders. Chygrynskiy will be banned for one match after two yellow, while a straight red for Rakitskiy is likely to mean a three-match absence.
Zenit Do No Better
The Russian side didn’t fare much better than their Ukrainian counterparts. Zenit were also defeated, and had one player (Bruno Alves) sent off. Danny at least managed an assist when a quick counter-attack saw him supply Konstantin Zyryanov to shoot them in front but they failed to hold onto the lead, going down 2-1.
Cyprus Lights Up
APOEL FC were the side to profit from Zenit’s misfortune as the Cypriots took just one game to better their last attempt at the Champions League. Gustavo Manduca was involved both times in the victory with a goal as well as an assist for Ailton – a 4.0 striker seen in a few squad filling outfits.
Clean Sheets In the Mid-to-Low Range Market
Two of the “unglamorous” ties to most viewers brought results that may have reflected those instincts. From the perspective of a Fantasy manager there was reason to be more than interested as three of the days four clean sheets came from a goalless draw between FC Genk and Valencia and a stuttering 1-0 victory by Marseilles away at Olympiakos.
Our Watchlist had contrasting fortunes as Roberto Soldado failed to pick up any points whereas Souleymane Diawara got the clean sheet we hoped for. Lucho Gonzalez rewarded the fact he was one of the most selected midfielders with the only goal of the two games.
Honours Even In The Easter Bloc
Viktoria Plzeň kicked off their first ever Champions League fixture with a 1-1 draw at home to BATE Borisov of Bulgaria. Anyone scraping the budget barrel in the Fantasy market won’t have picked up any cheap defenders to profit. Marek Bakos opened the scoring for Plzeň just after the break with Rennan Bressan equalising 20 minutes later.
