Eastern promise: the best of matchday four
Friday, November 7, 2014
Article summary
Six sides are through but share the limelight with PFC CSKA Moskva, Son Heung-Min, RSC Anderlecht and, once again, Luiz Adriano as we review another fine matchweek.
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Six teams went through in the UEFA Champions League this week, but the headlines were shared with PFC CSKA Moskva, Son Heung-Min, RSC Anderlecht and, once again, Luiz Adriano after another two nights of goals, records and general drama. UEFA.com reviews the highlights including goal commentaries from the feature games on our matchnight radio show.
State of play
Through: Borussia Dortmund, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern München*, FC Paris Saint-Germain, FC Porto, Real Madrid CF (holders)
*Group winners
Cannot reach last 16: AFC Ajax, APOEL FC, Athletic Club
Team: PFC CSKA Moskva
Going into their back-to-back meetings with Manchester City FC, CSKA were on a run of six UEFA Champions League losses that started last year with home-and-away defeats by Manuel Pellegrini's side. The Russian club halted the slide a fortnight ago when they came back from 2-0 down to draw, and then on Wednesday they won 2-1 at nine-man City to move two points ahead of the English champions and level with AS Roma in second place in Group E.
A pair of first-half Seydou Doumbia goals proved the key, though the injury-hit Ivorian said after: "I was a bit surprised to be in the squad today."
Player: Son Heung-Min (Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
In a section as competitive as Group C, few expected Leverkusen to be four points clear at this stage. But, having lost their opener at AS Monaco FC, Roger Schmidt's team picked up two home wins and followed up on Tuesday with a 2-1 triumph at FC Zenit, where the only previous away UEFA Champions League victors had been Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and Real Madrid CF.
The success in Russia was inspired by Son, the first South Korean to score two goals in a UEFA Champions League match, his curling shot after a clever free-kick move followed by a cool run and finish. "It was certainly something special to score my first double in the Champions League," Son said. "I think that's just extraordinary."
Match: Juventus 3-2 Olympiacos FC
Andrea Pirlo marking his 100th competition appearance with a trademark free-kick would have been highlight enough, but that turned out to be just the antipasto. Olympiacos swiftly equalised and in the 61st minute went in front, leaving Juve staring at a six-point deficit behind the top two in Group A.
However, a Fernando Llorente header then bounced in off the post and luckless visiting goalkeeper Roberto, and 46 seconds later Paul Pogba clinched victory for the hosts. Crucially, though, Roberto made a penalty save from Arturo Vidal in added time to keep Olympaicos above Juve on head-to-head aggregate.
Quote: "We didn't feel dejected but responded well and conjured a sort of sporting miracle"
Gianluigi Buffon on Juve's more than "sort-of" recovery.
Moment: RSC Anderlecht's equaliser at Arsenal FC
When Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put Arsenal 3-0 up in the 58th minute, Anderlecht's mathematical exit from the competition seemed a done deal. But two Anthony Vanden Borre goals gave them hope and, in the last minute, with Arsenal still attacking, Anderlecht broke and substitute Aleksandar Mitrović dived to head in Andy Najar's cross and open his UEFA Champions League account for the Belgian club.
"It's hard to explain; you are losing 3-0 to Arsenal in their stadium and it is not easy," Vanden Borre said. Oxlade-Chamberlain mused: "At 3-0, a team of our quality should be able to see that out and dominate the remaining 20–30 minutes. We failed to do that and we were punished."
Number: 71
It was a race that crystallised the Cristiano Ronaldo-Lionel Messi rivalry: who would be first to equal Raúl González's record of 71 UEFA Champions League goals? Momentum was with Ronaldo, who only needed one against Liverpool FC on Tuesday to make it. Nevertheless, he drew a blank for the first time in any competitive game this season (other than the Spanish Super Cup) and Messi got the two he required the following night against AFC Ajax – including only his fourth header in the competition – as a 2-0 win sent FC Barcelona through.
"I always want to score and in the end it's the sum total of them all that I will remember," Messi told UEFA.com. Ronaldo's consolation is that if qualifying goals are included, he is also on 71, plus the Portugal forward shares the UEFA EURO scorer's record, one his Argentinian counterpart is extremely unlikely to challenge ...
Fantasy star: Luiz Adriano (FC Shakhtar Donetsk)
Admittedly, compared with his five-goal joint record haul in Shakhtar's 7-0 win at FC BATE Borisov a fortnight ago, a standard hat-trick in the 5-0 return victory was fairly modest for the Brazilian striker. But while Adriano's career tally of 20 goals in the competition is hardly troubling Messi, his ninth this term – unprecedented after four matchdays and already equalling Ronaldo's group stage record from last season – leaves him four clear of Karim Benzema as top scorer so far.
Indeed, if you did not include him in your Fantasy Football team (unlike our tipster Andrew), you clearly missed out. Throwing an assist into the bargain on Wednesday, Adriano was the top-scoring player for the second matchday running, and if you had him as your captain all campaign, he alone would have brought you 94 points – more than a quarter of the current leading total.
Schoolboy: Breel Embolo (FC Basel 1893)
On Tuesday night, Embolo became the sixth youngest marksman in the UEFA Champions League when he fired Basel in front in their 4-0 success at home to PFC Ludogorets Razgrad, aged 17 years and 263 days. On Wednesday morning, he was at school at 8am as usual. "I've been told that I will be there on time, an agreement we have to keep," said Embolo, who last season took part in Basel's UEFA Youth League and UEFA Europa League campaigns.
Photo:Jasmin Handanovič (NK Maribor)
Goal: YOUR CHOICE!
Pirlo, Koke, Son, Agim Ibraimi or Jefferson: it's your pick in our Goal of the Week poll.