Champion's League: Round 1

Thus, the first series of CL matches has gone by. And what an interesting series it was. One could make a number of inferences regarding each team from today's games. Of course, the question on everyone's mind is, who's staying and who's not? Let's review today's matches and see if we can at least speculate on this subject.

As I watched the Manchester United vs. Besiktas game, I couldn't help but wonder why MU wasn't destroying the Turkish team. No offense to the valiant Turks, but they are not often seen in the Champion's League. Nonetheless, they gave MU a run for their money; Scholes's goal and the attack that led up to it was one of the few rare instances of a good MU assault. Is the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo turning into a pain in Sir Alex's side? Or was MU purposely keeping their effort levels to a bare minimum? We'll have to wait for more games to judge accurately.

Real Madrid vs. FC Zurich was an interesting game. The Swiss got destroyed in the first half, but their persistence earned them 2 consecutive goals in the second half. Madrid, although taken aback, pushed back with more force and finished Zurich off 5-2. What a match.

Both Juventus vs. Bordeaux and Atletico vs. Apoel Nicosia ended in a draw. The Italian and French clubs played rather equally, both teams scoring toward the middle of the 2nd half. The second pair was evenly matched as well; hence the boring nil-nil result.

Like Scholes, Anelka saved the day for Chelsea, who barely defeated FC Porto 1-0. As with Manchester, I wondered why Chelsea isn't scoring more goals. At this point, it's really difficult to tell what these British soccer magnates are up to.

For AC Milan, Filippo Inzaghi became the hero of the day. Not only did he open the score of the match, he scored again after Marseille had tied up the game. Milan has been in a bad place since the resignation of Maldini; it's great that Inzaghi is still there, making up the majority of AC Milan's backbone.

The remaining two games are easy to sum up. Bayern Munich destroyed Maccabi Haifa 3-0. Their fellow German club Wolfsburg followed suit with CSKA Moscow, save that CSKA managed to score once; the final score was 3-1. Brutal games for the losing teams. Frankly, I doubt either of them will make it into the next group stage. Perhaps the Europa Cup.

-ST