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Real Madrid's Raul racks up 50th goal

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, though, with strikers like 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, who they controversially beat in the semi-final 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 another former European champion FC Porto suffered a worse fate.

They went 2-0 up at home against Champions League newboys ArtMedia Bratislava but incredibly the Slovakian side stormed back to win the match 3-2 and keep alive dreams of reaching the knockout 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 but 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," the former Brazil national coach said.

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," Ancelotti said.

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," Rangnick said.

Liverpool handler Rafael Benitez was not happy that the penalty was not given but took a lot of succor 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," Benitez said.

"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," he said.

However, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought that his central defense 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 percent satisfied, but it's a point. I'm not crazy with happiness about it, but a point away in the Champions League is a positive result," the Portuguese said.
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