Wednesday 2 November 2011

2011/2012 CL Round-Up: Matchday 4 Groups A-D

Group A: Bayern Munich manage to hold off a spirited Napoli fightback to remain at the top. Mario Gomez wowed the crowd with a first-half hat-trick, opening the scoring after seventeen minutes, following it up six minutes before making it 3-0 three minutes before half-time. Federico Fernandez pulled one back right on half-time but were dealt a blow when Juan Zuniga received his second yellow with nineteen minutes left. Holger Badstuber then levelled the playing field by receiving his second yellow card after 77 minutes, Napoli then made it 2-0 two minutes later through Fernandez again. Napoli remain on five points whereas Munich are on ten.
Villarreal remain pointless and are almost guaranteed fourth after defeat to Man City. Yaya Toure put City ahead on the half hour mark before Balotelli made it 2-0 from the spot on half-time. Yaya Toure then scored his second nineteen minutes from time to ensure City moved up to seven points and second in the table.

Group B: Trabzonspor and CSKA Moscow played out a goalless draw in Turkey to move both teams to five points. Inter now top the group on nine after beating Lille. Samuel gave Inter the lead after eighteen minutes before Diego Milito doubled the score after 65. Lille pulled a goal back through substitute Tulio de Melo seven minutes from time but it wasn't enough to move them off two points.

Group C: Basle prevented Benfica from qualifying by holding them to a 1-1 draw in Portugal. Rodrigo Machado put Benfica ahead after four minutes but Huggel equalised after 64 minutes. Benfica are now on eight points with Basle on five.
Man United join Benfica on eight points after squeezing past Otelul Galati at Old Trafford. United did take the lead after eight minutes through Valencia but the rest of the game was not easy viewing for United fans. But they got their rest bite when a Rooney shot took a wild deflection off Sarghi, three minutes from time to leave Galati without a point and almost certainly with fourth place.

Group D: Ajax moved three points ahead of Lyon in second place after thrashing pointless Zagreb. Van der Wiel got the ball rolling after twenty minutes before Miralem Sulejmani doubled the score five minutes later. Siem de Jong made it three after 65 minutes with Nicolas Lodeiro coming off the bench to finish the rout in injury time.
Real Madrid, like Barcelona, have progressed through the knock-out phase with a 2-0 win over Lyon. A double from Ronaldo, first after 24 minutes and a penalty after 69 minutes, sees both Spanish giants ease into the second round.

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