5 Things We Learned From Matchday 5: Tuesday Edition.

By: chris | November 26th, 2008

Don’t touch the ref.

For most of the bright readers ’round these parts, this isn’t exactly a revelation. Actually, if one was to take a poll at a local zoo, you probably wouldn’t find too many wide eyes until stumbling upon the lemur cage. Not the case for Oleksandr Aliev, who pushed the ref away and then had to be restrained in disbelief after being sent off for his second yellow card. Refs are like strippers: you can look, you can yell, you can make slightly bizarre requests, but you can never touch. And just as there is no sex in the champagne room, the same goes for the officials’ locker room.

Luca Toni’s hurt face trumps your hurt face.

I bet his mother never thought twice when he claimed to be sick.

Cesc’s captain’s band might have magical powers.

Bendtner’s pink booties finished it, but the service was sex on a platter from Captain Cesc, and just in time. That’s what the captain does, right? Does that little bit extra to lead the team to results?

As ever, karma watches the Champions League.

Helen Keller could’ve spotted the handball which turned into Lisandro Lopez’s second.

So karma took over and pulled one back for Fener.

She’s a fair and just lass, is she not?

No. At least not when it comes to Celtic.

Celtic again failed to win an away tie in the Champions League, now 18 and counting, since its inception. Everything was going swimmingly after Barry Robson scored in the 53rd, but karma stepped out for a puff (or maybe she can only be in one stadium at a time). Caca (seemingly) deflected a ball off the defender and in to even matters before Gary Caldwell unknowingly sent it into his own net as Celtic, and Scotland as whole as well, go out of Europe until 2009. If you happen to be a neighbor of Gary’s, fret not, as those curdling night screams you hear are only the lad reliving the moment over and over and over…

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Category: Champions League, World Football

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Yevy

Don't sell Aliyev short Chris - he got a straight red on top of his original yellow.

As for the restart before the Arsenal goal - it was the first time I have seen a "drop ball" literally handed to a player. The ref pretty much stuck the ball into Cesc's gut.
Matt

The sad part about the own goal for Celtic was that Caldwell has been arguably the best player in Celtic's Champions League campaign this year...
tmc

No need to be a jerk - I haven't seen a clip of this in a language I understand yet and I couldn't see the game yesterday. So, thanks for the explanation.
Drabik

OMG, just like the idiot ITV commentator. It was a DROP BALL, of course the ball is going to be moving!!! It wasnt a free kick, it was a drop ball!
tmc

That was an amazing pass by Cesc for Bendtner's goal - but was the ball still rolling when he it it? I don't have a problem with the timing of the free kick - if the ref allowed him to play it Dynamo can't have any complaints - but I haven't seen anyone discuss that particular point.
ursus arctos

Aliev had featured less than ten minutes earlier in a hilarious sequence where he lost the ball to an Arsenal challenge, went down like a guy having a bad night at Umberto's Clam House, and then rolled a few times in "agony" without attracting any attention, only to spring to his feet ("like a bunny" according to the Sky Italia commentator) and sprint into the Arsenal half when Dinamo won the ball back and began an attack.