Champions League Roundup - 21st Oct 2010
Gareth Bale was magical last night but Inter Milan just somehow survived at the Guesseppe Meazza, winning 4-3 on the night while Manchester United edged out Turkish minnows 1-0 and in the same group, Rangers held Valencia to a 1-1 draw.
The ten men of Tottenham almost pulled off what would have been the mother of all comebacks as they came back from 4-0 down to finish at 4-3, despite having played 80% of the match with 10 men.
Redknapp’s troops got off to a nightmare of a start as Inter broke the deadlock when the fans hadn’t even taken their seats in the 2nd minute.
The Cameroonian, Samuel Eto'o played a beautifully weighted pass to Javier Zanetti inside the box and the veteran defender curled beautifully past Huerlho Gomez and became the oldest player ever to score in the Champions League.
Just inside 10 minutes, it got even worse for Spurs as Huerlho Gomez was sent off for bringing Biabiny down in the box and in the process conceding a penalty that was coolly converted by Eto'o.
On 14 minutes, Inter made it when Dejan Stankovic scored for the Italians and it was 4-0 in no time as Eto'o scored his second on the night.
But, Spurs came out after the break with renewed vigor and Bale scored a sublime individual goal on 52 minutes, getting past Zanetti and Samuel, using his electric pace and unleashed a thunderbolt past Cesar.
The Welsh wonder further reduced the arrears in the 90th minute with a carbon copy of his first goal and second later completed his hat trick, but perhaps the comeback took a little too much time in coming as there was no time
for Spurs to complete a remarkable comeback.
In the other match of Group A, FC Twente and Werder Bremen had to settle for a 1-1 draw in the Netherlands.
Theo Janssen scored for Twente but the parity was restored only moments later when Marko Arnautovic equalized for the German.
Manchester United put the Rooney saga aside to edge out Turkish debutants, Bursaspor at Old Trafford courtsey of a mesmeric Nani strike and now lead the group with 7 points from 3 games.
In the same group, Ranger held the Spanish high fliers, Valencia to a 1-1 draw at the Ibrox with Maurice Edu scoring one goal for each side, first giving his side the lead and then turning from hero to a villain with an own goal.
Barcelona also moved to the top of their group with a convincing 2-0 win over FC Copenhagen. Lionel Messi starred on the night as he bagged both the goals.
The first came courtsey of a defense splitting pass by Andres Iniesta which was finished with aplomb by Messi while the second was a close range finish late in the game.
In the same group, Rubin Kazan and Panathanikos ended with a drab 0-0 draw with no side able to break the other’s defense and had to be content with one point only.
Over in group B, Lyon maintained their 100% start to the seaon with a 2-0 victory over Benfica at the Satde De Garland.
Jimmy Briand opened the scoring for the French side on 21 minutes, finishing a pinpointed cross from Michel Bastos.
Lissandro Lopez made sure of the three points on the night when he doubled the home side's advantage late in the game.
Last but not the least, Raul Gonzalez became the highest scorer in the Champions League and equalized Gerd Muller’s record of 68 goals in Europe.
Raul helped Schalke beat Hapoel Tel Aviv by 3 goals to one in Germany as he bagged a clinical brace for his side while Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored the third for his team.
Etey Schechter scored a consolation goal for the visitors late in the game but it could be no more than that as Schalke held on for the win.
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