Champions League Round-Up: Man Utd Beat Celtic and Arsenal Hit 5 in Turkey
With Tottenham struggling at the bottom of the English Premier League table, Dimitar Berbatov showed them what they are missing at Old Trafford tonight, scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Celtic. Meanwhile Arsenal hit 5 past Fenerbahce.
Champions League week 3 certainly produced plenty of goals this evening. 36 in the 8 matches played to be precise.
There were three British teams in action, with Man Utd hosting Celtic, and Arsenal travelling to Turkey to face Fenerbahce.
Old Trafford: Manchester United 3 v 0 Celtic
Dimitar Berbatov has certainly upset a few Spurs’ fans this season - and that was before the club found themselves rooted to the bottom of the table - and tonight the Bulgarian showed why the club is missing him so much. Celtic, meanwhile, will be wishing he stayed at White Hart Lane.
The former Tottenham star hit the target twice against the below par, and under strength Celtic side - although BOTH strikes looked to be offside.
John O’ Shea flicked the ball into the box for his first, with Berbatov clearly in an offside position. The officials obviously missed it, and allowed Berbatov to flick the ball home from close range.
Just six minutes into the second half and Berbatov doubled the Premier League champions lead. The ever impressive Christiano Ronaldo’s 20-yard shot could only be palmed away by the Celtic keeper, allowing the £30million signing to score from the rebound. Replays suggest that Berbatov was in an offside position when Ronaldo made contact with the ball.
Wayne Rooney finished Gordon Strachan’s men off with just 14 minutes remaining. A brilliant shot on the turn from 20-yards screamed bast Boruc in goal. 3-0 United.
Whereas Celtic may have some grievances with regards to the two ‘offside’ goals, the truth is they were completely outclassed here tonight, and United are deserved winners.
The win leaves United sitting pretty at the top of Group E, level on points with Vilarreal. Celtic have it all to do with only 1 point from 3 matches.
Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium: Fenerbahce 2 v 5 Arsenal
Arsenal produced a thrilling opening to this one, scoring 3 in the opening 21 minutes (4 if you count Silvestre’s own goal!).
Emanuel Adebayor opened the scoring after just 10 minutes after receiving a beautiful through-ball from Cesc Fabregas before racing clear and placing the ball superbly past the oncoming Volkan.
The often intimidating home crowd were immediately silenced, and Arsenal took full advantage of this, scoring again just one minute later. Fabregas was again the provider, but this time it was in-form Theo Walcott who finished the move, taking the ball around Volkan before finishing.
The Turks then pulled one back on 19 minutes, when a free-kick resulted in Guiza volleying across goal for Silvestre to finish coolly, unfortunately in the wrong net of course.
With Fenernahce looking for an equaliser, Diaby hit them hard on the counter and restored the two goal lead. The Turks though were looking dangerous, and were by no means out of this one. Three or four close calls before the half-time whistle - including a disallowed goal from Guiza - ensured Wenger, and the Arsenal team, had to take the threat seriously.
Song Billong added an Arsenal fourth four minutes into the second half, before the impressive Guiza pulled one back with just 12 minutes left on the clock.
Arsenal were just too good for Fenerbahce tonight, and the nail in the coffin came in the 94th minute when Ramsay hit a powerful effort past Volkan from the edge of the penalty area.
Despite a decent fight from the Turkish side, they were beaten with class in Istanbul this evening.
Note: Congratulations to Fenerbahce fans for their sporting behaviour tonight. Despite seeing their team suffer a huge blow to their Champions League hopes, they applauded Arsenal off the pitch in admiration of their superb attacking football. If only all fans could act this way.
Elsewhere
Bayern Munich beat Fiorentina 3-0 with goals from Klose, Schweinsteiger, Ze Roberto. Dinamo Kiev defeated Porto away 1-0. Juventus beat Real Madrid 2-1 in Turin with goals from Del Piero and Amauri. Van Nistelrooy scored for the visitors.
Steaua Bucharest were beaten 5-3 at home to Lyon, and in another thriller, Villarreal beat AaB Aalborg 6-3.
Finally, last years UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg came from behind to draw 1-1 with BATE Borisov.
