Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati has rightly called for cheating bastard Eduardo da Silva to receive a European ban after accusing him of diving to win the penalty that enabled Arsenal’s safe passage into the Champions League group phase last night. There were also other games, but they were all crap.
Arsenal 3 – 1 Celtic 1 (Agg. 5-1)
Eduardo put the Gooners in front on the half hour from the penalty spot after the Croatian took an horrendous dive in the Celtic box. Arsenal extended their lead early in the second half as Emmanuel Eboue swept in the second of the night from another free-flowing Arsenal attack. With the Gunners cruising Wenger brought on Andrei Arshavin, and within two minutes the Russian had opened his account for the season with a tidy shot past Boruc. Celtic finally got on the scoreboard in injury time, Massimo Donati scoring the goal of the night with a back-post volley that flew across England hopeful Almunia.
APOEL Nicosia 3 – 1 FC Copenhagen (Agg. 3-2)
Trailing from the first leg, APOEL Nicosia had turned the tie on its head by 18 minutes thanks to a goal from Kamil Koswoski and a Chrysis Michael penalty. Big Dame Ndoye brought the tie all square again on 22 minutes, but the Cypriots restored their 2-goal cushion before the break as Chrysis Michael scored a brilliant diving header for the hosts.
Fiorentina 1* – 1 Sporting Lisbon (Agg. 3-3)
I got to watch this one on the telly and it wasn’t bad, to be fair. Joao Moutinho handed Sporting the advantage in Fiorentina with a super free-kick that curled into the top corner. The Viola levelled ten minutes into the second half as Stevan Jovetic collected a cross at the back post, steadied himself, and fired low inside the near post.
Olympiakos 1 – 0 FC Sheriff (Agg. 3-0)
The Greeks killed off the tie eight minutes from time when Kostas Mitroglou tapped in from close range after the hosts got behind the Sheriff defence. Do you care?
Stuttgart 0 – 0 FC Timisoara (Agg. 2-0)
Bloody awful. Markus Babbel’s side had effectively done all of the hard work in Romania in the first leg and spent 90 minutes arsing around against a lame Timisoara side.
