English Premiership giants Arsenal and Manchester United enjoyed a successful night in their first group matches of the Champions League this season on Wednesday.
Arsenal, last season’s beaten finalists, got a much needed morale-boosting victory ahead of Sunday’s clash with United, beating German outfit Hamburg 2-1 away while United prevailed in a 3-2 thriller over Scottish champions Celtic.
However, it was not such good news for two of their former luminaries.
Arsenal’s former winger Jose Luis Reyes and United’s former leading marksman Ruud van Nistelrooy both drew blanks in Real Madrid’s 2-0 reverse away at French champions Lyon — almost a mirror result of the 3-0 walloping they took at the same stage last term.
Fellow European giants AC Milan made no such mistake as they saw off AEK Athens 3-0 and may have uncovered another French midfield gem in Yoann Gourcuff, the 20-year-old scoring in a dynamic performance.
How the two Portuguese sides could have done with some of that brio as 2004 champions FC Porto stumbled to a 0-0 home draw with CSKA Moscow and rivals Benfica didn’t fare much better as they were held 0-0 at home by unheralded Dutch side FC Copenhagen.
For Arsenal it was a case of huge relief as they took a two-goal lead, taking advantage of Hamburg having first-choice goalkeeper Sascha Kirschstein sent off in the 12th minute — something that happened to the Gunners in the final when Jens Lehmann was dismissed early on against Barcelona.
Goals by Gilberto Silva — from the ensuing penalty after the ‘keeper was sent off — and Tomas Rosicky’s first for the club since his move from Borussia Dortmund were enough to see them to the three points.
”I think it is an important result, although the performance is more difficult to rate as they had their goalkeeper sent off so early,” explained Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.
”It was good to get players back in and raise their fitness. It was important to win so we can go into the Manchester United game [this weekend] knowing how to win as we have not managed to do it in the league.”
His Hamburg counterpart Thomas Doll didn’t believe justice had been done.
”It is hard when you have been waiting so long to be back in the Champions League and the referee sends your goalkeeper off after ten minutes,” moaned Doll.
”As far as I am concerned it was not a penalty. I am sure we would not have lost otherwise.”
For Celtic manager Gordon Strachan it was a case of what might have been on a return to an old hunting ground where he played under United handler Sir Alex Ferguson for several years.
The Scottish champions went down to a 3-2 defeat after taking an early lead through Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Louis Saha put United ahead with a first-half double but Celtic got back on level terms before the break with a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick, only to concede defeat to an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer strike within two minutes of the restart.
”It is disappointing,” said Strachan, who played with distinction for United for several years.
”If our passing had been better it could have been different.
”Their chances came from us giving them the ball under pressure and that is disappointing.”
However, Ferguson, who has never really enjoyed the warmest of relations with Strachan despite the fiery former midfielder having played under him at Aberdeen, Scotland during Ferguson’s temporary stay in charge at the 1986 World Cup finals following the death of Jock Stein, and United, saw things rather differently.
”In the sum total of the game we could have scored ten to be honest,” he said with his usual bluntness.
Lyon could very well have racked up double figures against an outclassed Real Madrid, who saw former England captain David Beckham substituted and fellow former Premiership standouts Van Nistelrooy — like Strachan and Beckham no friend of Ferguson’s — and Reyes chasing shadows across the pitch.
While Lyon manager Gerard Houllier admitted it had been good to watch, his counterpart on the Real bench, Fabio Capello, also praised the French side.
”Lyon were technically and physically stronger than us,” said Capello, who has radically revamped the squad since taking over in the summer.
”We have to work hard but I’ve got confidence in my players. We aren’t very satisfied but you have to stay positive and look ahead.
”We’re going to try to reconstruct. Lyon are far more advanced than us. The mood in the dressing room afterwards was very low.” — AFP
