Wednesday 13 February 2013

Celtic Suffer as PSG Grab Away Goals

The Champions League returned for the first legs of the second round. The first two ties saw Celtic suffer at home to Juventus despite playing very well whilst late drama in Valencia saw the Spaniards pull a goal back against PSG who have claimed two away goals.

The problems for Celtic began after just three minutes when a seemingly jet-lagged Efe Ambrose was shrugged off the ball by Alessandro Matri. Mikael Lustig looked like he had cleared the ball from off the line before Claudio Marchisio scored the rebound. But the ball had already crossed the line before Lustig cleared it and Matri as awarded his first goal of the competition.

Celtic's hopes of levelling the match were dashed when Juventus doubled their lead on 77-minutes. Andrea Pirlo played the ball into the Marchisio who cut inside and finished well past Fraser Forster, his second goal of the competition.

Ambrose's poor night continued as he was guilty of conceding possession as Marchisio nicked the ball off of him. Marchisio then played the ball to Mirko Vucinic who gladly took his second goal of the tournament. With three away goals in the bag, it's extremely hard to see a way back for Celtic when they travel to Italy for the second leg.

PSG also thought that they would have away goals without conceding to take back to France with them. The Frenchmen took the lead after just ten minutes when Javier Pastore fed Ezequiel Lavezzi. Lavezzi then swerved a challenge before smashing a powerful through the hands of the keeper for his fourth goal of the tournament.

It was 2-0 two minutes before half-time when January signing, Lucas, made a fantastic run down the wing. He cut inside and played the ball across for Pastore to slot home between the keeper's legs, his second of the tournament.

PSG looked home and hosed with two away goals but Valencia managed to get themselves back into the tie when Tino Costa's free-kick was headed home by Adil Rami in injury time. The tie may have been opened further as Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be missing the second leg after receiving a red card a minute later for an over the top challenge. It's advantage PSG but Valencia aren't out of it.

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