Champions League Matchday 4 Roundup with Video Highlights

By: Laurie | November 6th, 2008

Note: When we do our searches for the ever-elusive game highlights, we have to take what we can get. (And we do it with much gratitude to the people who manage to evade the Video Police and host them.) But the ones we find are not always perfect.

There’s a good chance that some of these video are viewable only in Firefox, and that when you open this page the Liverpool highlights will start playing all by themselves, as if your computer has been infested by gremlins. And one of the videos starts with a several second shot of women in lingerie. (?!?!) So be forewarned. And don’t open the page in a quiet office, or in front of your boss.

Cluj 1-2 Bordeaux

Cluj started strong in CL with the victory over Roma. Since then, it’s been all downhill. Bordeaux haven’t been having a great campaign either, but on this day they were strong enough to take the three points.

*****

(Other goals here.)
Roma 3-1 Chelsea
Shock result of the group. Roma’s having the year from hell and are a mere point above the relegation zone. Chelsea is tops of the EPL. But Roma didn’t just win, they won decisively. And now they’re hoping that this victory means they’re back on track.

*****

Group A Standings:

Chelsea 7 pts.
Roma 6
Bordeaux 6
CFR Cluj 3

Assuming Roma’s bad patch is behind them, I’m predicting Chelsea and Roma to go through. Bordeaux has taken all six of their points from Cluj, but I’m not seeing them taking much over one or two more from their remaining games unless the original new Zidane, Yoann Gourcuff, is in the form of his life. And maybe not even then.

Anorthosis 3-3 Inter
(Other goals here.)

Anorthosis continues to be a surprise package in this tournament. They not only got the point against favorites Inter (whose motto yesterday was Defense is SO overrated), they were in the lead from the 50th to the 80th minute and could easily have taken the three points if not for that late Julio Cruz goal.

*****

Werder Bremen 0-3 Panathinaikos
What the hell has happened to Werder Bremen this year? Three points in their first three games, and now this. When I saw the result, I thought I’d mentally reversed the numbers. But no — Werder Bremen got thumped and continue on as the group’s underachievers. Well done, Panathinaikos.

*****

Group B standings:
Inter 8
Anorthosis 5
Panathinaikos 4
Werder Bremen 3

Barring an amazing turn of events, Inter will go through, and I’m guessing they’ll finish on top. The real battle will be for second, and for that UEFA Cup slot.

Sporting 1-0 Shakhtar

The description of the match from the Sporting coach:

“Today the match was not always well played, but it was competitive, played with intensity, and we were very strong defensively, although we were not always strong going forward.”

Sounds scintillating. Sorry I missed it.

*****

WARNING: This next video starts with several seconds of women in lingerie. I have no idea why. Just deal with it and don’t watch with your boss around. Unless he/she enjoys that kind of thing.

Barcelona 1-1 Basel
One of the shock results of this matchday. Did Barcelona get overconfident after their 5-0 win against Basel in the last match? Or did Basel get better? Whatever. The result is Basel’s first point in the competition.

*****

Group C standings:
Barcelona 10
Sporting CP 9
Shakhtar Donetsk 3
Basel 1

This was never going to be the Group O’Death, was it? Barcelona goes through, and Sporting is probably right behind. But Basel’s draw against Barca at least makes the UEFA cup run somewhat competitive.

Liverpool 1-1 Atletico Madrid

As we mentioned Tuesday, this match was decided in the last minute by a very questionable penalty — one of several iffy refereeing decisions. On the plus side, we had the Entertaining Moment of the Match: When the injured Fernando Torres asked for a handball call by throwing his arm up. From the stands.

*****

Marseille 3-0 PSV Eindhoven

Marseille got their first points with a decisive win. At last. Some nice work by Hatem ben Arfa probably got him back into coach Eric Gerets’ good graces after his little snit awhile back.

*****

Group D standings:

Atlético Madrid 8
Liverpool 8
Marseille 3
PSV Eindhoven 3

Another group where we seem to have two battling for top of the group, and two battling for the UEFA Cup spot.

(The rest of the highlights here.)
Aab 2-2 Villareal

Is this another case of big winners in the last match getting overconfident? Villareal won the previous match with Aalborg 6-3, but they couldn’t hold the lead Tuesday. The Spanish team went ahead twice, but Aalborg managed to rally both times.

*****

(More highlights here.)
Celtic 1-1 Manchester United

More overconfidence? ManU won the first match with the Scots 3-0, but they didn’t get it so easy this time. Celtic gave them a shock right off the bat by taking the lead on this sweet McDonald goal in the 13th — Celtic’s first CL goal of the campaign. And that’s how it stayed until Ryan Giggls managed an equlalizer in the 84th.

*****

Group E standings:

Manchester United 8
Villareal 8
Celtic 2
Aalborg BK 2

Another case of the two different battles going on: The battle for 1st vs. 2nd, and the battle for a UEFA Cup berth vs. going home to lick wounds and hope for better luck next year.

Fiorentina 1-1 Bayern Munich

Another case where one team scores early and almost holds on long enough. Mutu gave Fiorentina the lead in the 11th, and that’s where it stayed until Tim Borowski got the equalizer in the 78th.

*****

Lyon 2-0 Steaua Bucharest
(Juninho free kick goal here.)

I watched the first half of the game, and it was so boring that parts of my body went to sleep. Lyon had 61% ball possession, and Steaua played everybody at the back to shut down the attacks. Unfortunately for Steaua, this only works till the opposing team scores. I was unhappy that my stream shut down after a Juninho goal in the 44th — I never did learn if the game got interesting. But Reveillere somehow managed to double the lead without me watching.

*****

Group F standings
Lyon 8
Bayern Munich 8
Fiorentina 3
Steaua 1

This group is more competitive than you might guess from the numbers. Lyon has its two wins from playing two games against Steaua, and they still need to play Fiorentina and Bayern. Expect a three-way horse race for the top two spots.

Arsenal 0-0 Fenerbahce

No Walcott? No Adebayor? No goals.

*****

Dynamo Kyiv 1-2 Porto

The Ukrainians took the lead midway through the first half, but they couldn’t hold on. Porto equalized in the 69th, then scored the game winner in the second minute of extra time.

*****

Group G standings

Arsenal 8
Dynamo Kyiv 6
Porto 5
Fenerbahçe 2

Arsenal will probably go through, assuming they get over the injury problems that caused today’s 0-0 draw. Beyond that, anything can happen — even bottom team Fenerbahçe have lost only two games.

(More highlights here.)
BATE 0-2 Zenit St. Petersburg

Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a goal! I’m serious! It took him ten games to do it, but he made it count. And Zenit not only then held onto the lead after going down a man, they doubled it.

*****

Real Madrid 0-2 Juventus

Will somebody please follow Alessandro del Piero around to discover where he’s getting his fountain of youth elixirs? Seriously, the guy turns 34 next week, and he’s now scored 3 Champions League goals against Real Madrid — a team a lot of observers expected to be top of the group by now.

*****

Group H standings:

Juventus 10
Real Madrid 6
Zenit St. Petersburg 4
BATE 2

Juventus goes through with the win. RM will probably follow them in the number 2 spot. But is anybody else surprised that Juventus has beaten Madrid not once but twice? Going through from this group might not be the walk in the park that Madrid may have expected, and they still have to play Zenit again, a team that aren’t exactly pushovers. Who would have thought a couple of months back that there would be any chance at all that Los Merengues might not move on?