Champions League : Man City & Arsenal suffer Euro defeats to leave qualification headache
It was a disappointing time for the Premier League clubs competing in the Champions League this week as only Manchester United managed to register a point across the two nights.
Defeats for Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal have had their respective managers in reflective mood, while United were 2-0 down at one stage before fighting back to win 3-2.
This was not the first time Sir Alex Ferguson’s men have had to recover from a slow start, but credit must be given to them for fighting back. Javier Hernandez scored twice too and this is a massive positive for the Red Devils.
Elsewhere on the Tuesday evening, defending Champions Chelsea went down 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk. It was a tough challenge for them of course, but the below par performance would have disappointed Roberto Di Matteo.
Tuesday then saw an epic performance from Scottish Premier League Champions Celtic almost rewarded with a point at Barcelona. Neil Lennon’s men originally took the lead, but were pegged back before the break.
Then, just as it seemed as though they were set for a famous point, Jordi Alba stepped up in injury-time to hand the Spanish club three points. It was so near, yet so far for Celtic.
Other results of note saw Juventus held in Nordsjaelland, while Bayern Munich scored early on to secure a valuable win in France against Lille.
There was then a thoroughly entertaining evening on Wednesday, with Ajax putting in a fantastic performance to defeat Manchester City 3-1. Roberto Mancini’s men now need a minor miracle to qualify from the group stages.
It was a similarly disappointing evening for Arsenal as they were turned over at home to Schalke 04. Following on from the weekend’s defeat to Norwich, it was another poor performance from the Gunners as the away side’s extra quality shone through.
Elsewhere on Wednesday evening, in-form Malaga managed a fantastic win over AC Milan, while Borussia Dortmund picked up an impressive 2-1 win at home to Real Madrid, highlighting once again how strong the Bundesliga is at the moment.
There were then good wins for PSG and FC Porto to round off an action packed week in the Champions League.
