The Champions league returned yesterday with the first two second round first leg matches. There was also the latest rescheduled Premiership match from the winter postponements. Tottenham's first ever Champions League knock-out round match was featured a ground they had already become familiar with. After losing 4-3 against Inter Milan earlier in the group stage, AC Milan now had their turn to host the Champions League debutants. But Spurs held their own in a match where Milan were clearly not at their best and even managed to nick a late winner; Aaron Lennon springing a counter attack before squaring to Crouch in the box and the striker tapped it in with ten minutes left. The big drama came after the final whistle however, Gennaro Gattuso has a volatile reputation which ended up seeing him receive a booking in the match, this mean he'll miss the second leg. But when the match had ended he squared up Spurs' assistant Joe Jordan and headbutted him! UEFA are looking into it and Gattuso has apologised for his actions.
The other Champions League tie saw Valencia host Shalke in the Mestalla. It was the hosts who took the lead with Roberto Soldado giving Valencia the lead after seventeen minutes. Shalke equalised and more crucially scored an away goal with Raul scoring after 63 minutes, this makes Raul the all-time leading European scorer. Shalke were also reduced to ten men in second half injury time when Lukas Schmitz received a second yellow card which means he will miss the second leg in Germany.
Back in England Birmingham hosted Newcastle in the rescheduled Premiership match. Life without Andy Carroll is going rather well and Peter Lovenkrands emphasised it with a goal after just two minutes. Leon Best sealed the victory for Newcastle five minutes into the second half to see the Magpies move up to ninth. Birmingham languish in fourteenth, just three points ahead of relegation.
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