UEFA Champions League 2011, Matchday 2: FC Porto Humbled As Group Stages Take Strange Twist

It only took 20 minutes for Barcelona to crush any remote hope that BATE Borisov had in this mismatch. After drawing against AC Milan at home, Barcelona took it out on the team from Belarus by scoring 5 goals, taking possession of the ball in the first minute and only returning it back to the referee at half-time and at the end of the game.

Against an ultra-rienforced BATE defence, Barcelona had no trouble generating offence even with their opponents entrenched 20 meters from their own goal. BATE Borisov had quantity but no quality to match as seen by Aliaksandr Valadzko’s own goal (0-1 at the 19th minute), which came under intense pressure by Lionel Messi. Pedro followed through with a header to make it 0-2 in the 22nd minute.

In lieu of a report on this match, I thought that a list of shots might be a better reflection on Shakhtar Donetsk vs. APOEL Nicosia. Here goes:

Clearly, a 1-1 draw was the fair result.

Leverkusen continued to press, but Genk were giving as good as they got Leno was called into action several times in the second half. The hosts refused to wilt under the pressure though, defending well and making the most out of their counterattacks, and were rewarded for their strong play when Ballack lashed in on the half-volley to kill off the game. Leverkusen earned three vital points following their Matchday 1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, and while Genk now find themselves at the bottom of the group, they’ve given a great account of themselves two matches in a row.

Porto haven’t been particularly impressive of late, but they slipped to new lows in Russia as they were absolutely rolled over by Zenit St. Petersburg. Granted, a lot of that was to do with losing right back Jorge Fucile to a second yellow card in the first half - the Europa League champions were utterly useless with ten men - but their defence was unconvincing throughout and they threw away an early lead despite having a full complement of players, so they probably can’t use the red card as an excuse.

They were, however, very dangerous on the attack. Hulk didn’t have his best game, but was still excellent, creating the opening goal by drifting wide of the defence and sending in a low cross for James Rodriguez to tap in at the far post. That would be the high point of the evening for the Portuguese. Within ten minutes Zenit, hitherto unthreatening, had broken down the right side and sent in a cross that Helton spilled straight into the path of Roman Shirkov for an easy equaliser.

Dinamo Zagreb gave Real Madrid some problems in the first round of matches, but no such challenge faced Lyon against the Croatians in their UEFA Champions League Group D match. The hosts didn’t finish well, but they did more than enough to grab two first half goals and then went onto cruise control, despite Zagreb trying to shake things up with a pair of halftime substitutions.

The opening goal was an absolute peach, with Bafetimbi Gomis chipping a scrambling Ivan Kelava from all of eighteen yards, and several wasted opportunities later Bakary Kone found himself unmarked in front of goal to craft the world’s most delicious pastry guide a shot home to make it 2-0. The second half basically featured Dinamo trying and failing to string together meaningful attacks while Lyon spent their time on the counterattack. And why not? The game had already been won thanks to that attacking flurry in the opening period. The 2-0 result puts Lyon in second place in Group D, although unlike rivals Ajax, they’re yet to face Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid.

So it turns out Benfica are a better than that Otelul Galati. Who knew? 69% possession away from home and 16 shots to their opponents’ 7 are good indicators of dominance, and it’s a little weird that the Portuguese only managed a 1-0 win, but this group probably won’t come down to goal differential and Benfica will be happy to have emerged with all three points against their Romanian opponents.

If Lille want to qualify from a group that features Inter Milan and CSKA Moscow, they’re going to have to get out of the habit of blowing leads late in the game. Two weeks ago, they were cruising against CSKA only to see the Russians claw their way back from a two-goal deficit and here the French champions managed to concede a late penalty in Turkey to drop two points against Trabzonspor.

That’s not to say that Lille deserved to win - the game was pretty dull and chances were hard to come by, but they definitely came close to escaping with all three points after an angled effort from Moussa Sow found the back of Tolga Zengin’s net on the half hour mark. 1-0 would stand until the 75th minute, when a handball by Thieu Debuchy meant a penalty for the hosts, with Gustavo Coleman tucking the spot-kick away to earn a draw - and put the SuperLig outfit into top spot in Group B.

It wasn’t to be, because Inter finally decided to put together an attack and responded immediately. Mauro Zarate, on for Giampaolo Pazzini when the forward suffered some sort of foot problem early in the half, proved an able replacement for his predecessor, smashing home from the edge of the area within a minute of Love’s equaliser with CSKA’s defence at sea. That would prove to be the decisive goal, and Inter would escape with a vital three points.

It was hardly a convincing win for Claudio Ranieri and company, but it was a win nonetheless, and a very important one at that. Inter have now got two victories on the trot without looking very impressive, but this could mark the beginning of the end of their descent into chaos.