Champions League Roundup - Nov 3rd, 2010
It was another night of exciting football in the Champions League where Tottenham Hotspurs avenged their 4-3 defeat a fortnight ago with a clinical display of football, defeating Inter Milan 3-1 on the night.
Manchester United also gained a crucial win over Bursaspor while Valencia defeated Rangers at the Mestalla and FC Twente also registered their first win in the competition.
Meanwhile, in Group D both the matches finished as a stalemate as Barcelona and Copenhagen are now favourites to go through from that group.
The plum tie of the night was played at White Hart Lane where Gareth Bale tormented the reigning champions with a commanding display of attacking wing play as he set up two of the three goals for his side last night.
Spurs got the lead early in the first half when after some slick work at the top of the box, Luka Modric slipped the ball to Rafael Van der Vaart who made no mistake from close range to put Spurs ahead.
Gareth Bale then put a pinpointed low cross for Peter Crouch to double the Spurs advantage on the hour mark. Although, Samuel Eto pulled one back for the visitors but Bale made sure that there was going to be no heart break this time as he
set up an identical third, this time for Roman Pavlyuchenko.
The win now puts Spurs level on points with Inter and the group got even more interesting as FC Twente defeated Werder Bremen 2-0 in Germany.
Torsten Frings was sent off for the hosts on the night on 75 minutes. The Dutch champions took full advantage with two late goals from Nacer Chadli and Luuk de Jong.
Manchester United all but made sure of their qualification into the next round with a clinical dispatching of Turkish minnows, Bursaspor in Turkey.
After a goal less first half, United went in front just after the break when Darren Fletcher finished a chipped pass from Carrick and Gabriel Obertan made it 2-0 in 73 minutes when he thunderbolted the ball past Dimitar Ivankov from the edge of the box.
The victory was made safe late in the game when Bebe made it three nil with a deflected flick.
In the same group, Valencia moved into pole position on 8 points with a 3-0 victory over Rangers. Soldado scored two for the hosts while Tino Costa added the third late in the game.
For the visitors, Steven Naismith rattled the frame of the goal twice but Rangers failed to score and now find themselves in real hot water as far as qualification to the next round is concerned.
Over in Group C, FC Copenhagen held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw in Denmark to stay in contention for qualification.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring on the night with a neat finish but a blunder by Valdes allowed the hosts an equalizer and teams remained tied at 1-1 until the final whistle.
In the same group, Panathanikos were eliminated after they failed to beat Rubin Kazan at home and could only muster a 0-0 draw.
Benfica, however, bolstered their chances of qualification as they survived a late comeback by Lyon to win 4-3 in Portugal.
Benfica raced on to a 3-0 lead at half time with goals from Alan Kardec, Fabio Coentrao and Javi Garcia.
But, the visitors fought back in the second half and goals from Bafatembi Gomes and Yoann Gourcuff reduced the arrears but Conterao made it 4-2 to render Dejan Lovern’s late goal useless.
In the other match of the group, FC Shcalke of Germany played a drab 0-0 draw with Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel.
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