subject: UEFA Champions League – Groups A through D have completed leg 4 with some surprises [print this page] UEFA Champions League Groups A through D have completed leg 4 with some surprises
Barcelona is still far from their best version in European competition, the defending champions Inter suffered a 3-1 defeated in their visit to England, and Lyon suffered and unexpected lost in Portugal.
Two weeks ago Tottenham Hotspur was very close to come from behind and tie, in a game against the defending champions Inter de Milan, after being down 4-0, thanks to a superb performance from English sensation Gareth Bale, who scored the hat-trick that allowed them to lose with a more honorable result. Luckily for Tottenham, they were going to have their revenge two weeks later, when Inter had to return the visit on leg 4.
On Tuesday November 2 Tottenham came out focused to make the best out of their home field advantage, and they didn't miss the chance, thanks to the goals in the first half from Rafael Van der Vaart, and in the second half from Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko, which made the goal from Samuel Eto'o on minute 80 useless for the intentions of the Italians. The 3-1 victory puts the English team in the first place of Group A with 7 points, the same as Inter, but with a goal difference of 4+, while the Italians have 3+.
Benfica from Portugal also made the best from their game against Olympique Lyonnais, defeating the French by 4-3. The first match was lost 2-0 by the Portuguese, leaving them in a really tight situation, but thanks to their victory this Tuesday, and the tie between Schalke 04 from Germany and Hapoel Tel Aviv from Israel, their aspirations and possibilities to advance to the knockout round remain intact. Now they have 6 points, only one less than the Germans, who are first with 7.
The defeat represents a setback for Olympique, that despite leading group B with 9 points, have let escape the chance to consolidate their leadership with 12 points. On leg 5 they will play Schalke 04 in a game that will decide who is the leader of group B.
On Group C Manchester United from England didn't find much resistance in Bursaspor from Turkey, and comfortably defeated them 3-0, result that allows them to continue as the solo leaders of the group with 10 points. Something to highlight about this result is that neither striker Wayne Rooney nor defender Rio Ferndind traveled to Turkey due to an injury and for precaution respectively.
The other match from Group C was between Rangers from Scotland and Valencia from Spain, which ended up with a 0-3 victory for the Spanish, and creates a two point difference (5 for the Scottish and 7 for the Spanish) between them.
And last but not least Barcelona from Spain was able to rescue one point from their visit to Denmark, where they tied 1-1 with Copenhagen. This result accentuates the problems that the Spanish team has to go through in their visits to non traditional European Clubs. For example With Rubin Kazan on their visit to Russia they got the same result. The post denied the victory in three occasions, the last of them to Pedro, who came in the second half to win the game without success.
Neither Rubin Kazan nor the Greek from Panathinaikos took advantage of this result, tying 0-0 and leaving things in the exact position as it was on leg 3, but with one more point. Barcelona comes in firsts with 8 points, Copenhagen is second with 7, Rubin Kazan third with 3 and Panathinaikos has 2.
