Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Victors and losers

The group stages of the 2012-13 Champions League are coming to an end, and there were some interesting matches today.  In group C Malaga has been unbeaten and were sure to finish first before today's final match against Anderlecht. Things were different for the Belgians, who needed to win to at least get an Europa League spot. It did not help them that AC Milan lost 0-1 at home to Zenit St. Petersburg. Still, it was a splendid match in Malaga, where the Andalucians went twice ahead on two great goals by Duda, while Milan Jovanovic and Dieudonne Mbokani also scored two beautiful goals to equalize. In the end Anderlecht came really close to the victory but were prevented by goakeeper Idris Kamenei.
A great match and a pity to see Anderlecht out, but it will be equally interesting to follow a very interesting Malaga side in the next rounds. AC Milan follows them on second spot in spite of their defeat.
In group D Borussia Dortmund has been awesome and sealed their first spot by defeating a meager Manchester City side 1-0. The English champions are thus out of European football for the season, while Ajax squeezed into the Europa League with poor four points after being destroyed 4-1 by Real Madrid, where it was excellent to see the great Kaka score a beautiful goal for the Spaniards.
In group A Paris Saint Germain defeated FC Porto 2-1 in a group final to take first spot, while in group B Arsenal missed the first spot by losing 2-1 to Olympiakos (who makes it to the Europa League), but Schalke 04 takes first spot with a 1-1 result against French champions of Montpellier.
Tomorrow they will be playing the final matches of the last four groups.

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