Tuesday 22 November 2011

2011/2012 CL Round-Up - Matchday 5 Groups A-D

Group A: Manchester City are in real trouble after losing 2-1 away to Napoli. Edinson Cavani put the hosts ahead on seventeen minutes after some poor defending. Mario Balotelli equalised after 33 minutes, tapping in from short range. But Napoli won the game four minutes into the second half when an unmarked Cavani fired a second goal home. City must now beat Bayern Munich in the final game and hope Napoli fail to win to qualify, Napoli just need to equal City's result to relegate City into the Europa League.
Bayern Munich have won the group with another win over pointless Villarreal. Franck Ribery got the ball rolling after just three minutes for the hosts. Mario Gomez made it two after 23 minutes before Jonathan De Guzman pulled one back five minutes into the second half. Ribery then netted for a second time on 69 minutes to guarantee the win and top spot in group A.

Group B: Lille go level on points with CSKA Moscow after beating them 2-0 in Russia. Vasili Berezutski lobbed his own keeper four minutes into the second half to give Lille the lead before Moussa Sow doubled the score on 64 minutes. Both teams have five points going into the final match.
Inter Milan have won the group despite a 1-1 draw against Trabzonspor. Ricardo Alvarez gave Inter the lead after eighteen minutes before Halil Altintop equalised five minutes later. The point sees Trabzonspor move to six points knowing that a win away to Lille will secure qualification. They'll also progress with a draw as long as CSKA fail to beat Inter in the San Siro.

Group C: Benfica secure their place in the next round with a 2-2 at Old Trafford. Benfica took the lead after three minutes when Phil Jones put through his own net. Manchester United equalised with a Dimitar Berbatov header on the half hour mark. United then took the lead just before the hour mark through Darren Fletcher but it was cancelled a minute later after poor defending left Pablo Aimar with a tap in. Benfica qualify based on a better head to head record. United only need a draw in Basle to secure their place.
      Basle need to beat United in the final game to gain a shock qualification place after beating Otelul Galati. Fabian Frei gave Basle the lead ten minutes before Alexander Frei made it two four minutes later. Marco Streller then looked to have the game beyond all doubt eight minutes before half-time. But Galati fought back Gabriel Giurgiu made it 3-1 with fifteen minutes left before Liviu Antal made it 3-2 six minutes later. Basle were able to hold on to set up a last match day show down with United in Switzerland.

Group D: Lyon and Ajax played out a 0-0 draw in France. Ajax remain three points ahead of Lyon and the French side must beat Dinamo Zagreb and hope Ajax lose to Real Madrid, with a seven goal swing, to give Lyon a chance of progressing.
Madrid continued their 100% group phase with a thrashing over Zagreb. Madrid were 3-0 within nine minutes, Karim Benzema after two, Jose Callejon after six and Gonzalo Higuain getting the goals. Mesut Ozil then made it four after twenty minutes. But Zagreb managed to get a 2-2 draw in the second half, Callejon made it 5-0 just four minutes after restart before Benzema also added a second after 66 minutes. Fatos Beciraj made it 6-1 eight minutes from time before substitute Ivan Tomecak added a second in stoppage time.

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