Raul became the first player to rack up 50 goals in the Champions League as the Real Madrid star helped his side to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Greek side Olympiakos in their match on Wednesday.
The Spanish star surpassed Alfredo di Stefano’s mark of 49 in European competition, but with strikers such as Andriy Shevchenko and Ruud van Nistelrooy close behind, the mark may well be broken again this season.
Shevchenko was on hand to add to his tally as he put AC Milan into the lead for the second time against Schalke 04, but just as they had done against Liverpool in the Champions League final when they surrendered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3, they ended up drawing 2-2.
Liverpool themselves were held 0-0 at home to Chelsea, whom they controversially beat in the semifinal last term, but the hosts could feel hard done by as they merited a penalty when William Gallas clearly handled in the area.
While Milan could only reflect on letting another victory slip from their grasp, at least they got a point, whereas former European champions FC Porto suffered a worse fate.
They went 2-0 up at home against Champions League new boys ArtMedia Bratislava, but incredibly the Slovakian side stormed back to win the match 3-2 and keep alive dreams of reaching the knock-out stages.
Both Inter Milan and Lyon maintained their perfect start to the campaign as they recorded 1-0 wins over Rangers and Rosenborg respectively.
Raul’s early goal looked like settling Real, but the plucky Greek side stormed back with a stunning leveller in the second half. The home team secured the three points through a winner from second-half substitute Robert Soldado, who usually plays for Real’s reserve team, coming four minutes from time.
However, it was not Raul who drew praise from Wanderley Luxemburgo but England captain David Beckham, who had an outstanding game.
”Beckham is a great player, he was in the midst of everything,” said the former Brazil national coach.
Ancelotti remained phlegmatic about his side letting slip the lead twice and, in fact, seemed keener to pour scorn on one of Schalke’s defenders, Christian Poulsen, who was the player that Francesco Totti spat at in Euro 2004.
”I am pleased with my team, although losing the lead twice is not something you want to happen too often.
”He’s [Poulsen] a coward because he was playing his own game when the referee wasn’t looking.”
Both Ancelotti and his Schalke counterpart Ralf Rangnick were satisfied with a point apiece.
”When you go behind after 22 seconds and then concede again when we were on top of our game, you have to be content with a point,” said Rangnick.
Liverpool handler Rafael Benitez was not happy that the penalty was not given, but took a lot of succour out of the draw with Chelsea and even claimed that come Sunday, when the two sides meet in the Premiership, his side will inflict the reigning champions’ first defeat of the season.
”The positive things from Wednesday are that we have one more Champions League point and we were better than Chelsea,” said Benitez. ”We face them again on Sunday and we know that the difference between the two sides is not so big.
”We have a better squad than last season and we could have beaten them.”
However, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought that his central defence of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho had easily coped with the Liverpool attack, who have scored just four times in the Premiership this season.
”I’m not 100% satisfied, but it’s a point,” said the Portuguese. ”I’m not crazy with happiness about it, but a point away in the Champions League is a positive result.”
The same sentiment was expressed by Ancelotti, but the Italian in his heart of hearts must hope that his side do not keep repeating their generous gifts to their rivals or else the Champions League will slip away again. — Sapa-AFP