Returning striker Didier Drogba hit the winner as Chelsea won 2-1 over Romanian team CFR Cluj on Tuesday to see last season’s Champions League finalists safely through to the knockout stages.
Chelsea’s victory, together with Roma beating Bordeaux 2-0 in Rome, was enough to ensure Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side did not suffer the embarrassment of exiting at the group stage for the first time ever in seven Champions League campaigns. However, it meant they finished second in Group A, which in theory hands them a more difficult clash in the last 16.
It left the combative Scolari a little underwhelmed, as he compared the spirit shown by his opponents as an example of what he wanted from his team.
PHOTO: EPA
“We had more of the ball, but there was not a big difference between the teams. We didn’t play very well, we played OK, but they have the spirit I want in my team,” said the 2002 World Cup winning coach, who had claimed that exiting the Champions League wouldn’t be a disaster.
“They fight for the ball and even if they made mistakes, everyone understood this and fought to help them. They played as a team,” added Scolari, who it was claimed by assistant Ray Wilkins had been looking tired and stressed last week amid reports of internal discord with several senior players.
AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti could rejoice in seeing his side’s fortunes turn around over a matter of weeks when he was under immense pressure after the win over Bordeaux.
“This is a really prestigious result [to finish top of the group],” Spalletti said. “I would give my boys 12 out of 10.”
Chelsea will, however, avoid former manager Jose Mourinho’s side Inter in the last 16, as his team finished only second in Group B after being surprisingly beaten 2-1 by German side Werder Bremen.
“I am disappointed, but you had one side playing life or death football and the other who were just playing for a result,” Mourinho said. “I left a few names out of the team which was an indication of what we were trying to do here and so you have to except the result. We’d like someone like Bayern Munich, Barcelona or Manchester United in the next round, we won’t be an easy game for them.”
Panathinaikos finished top after beating Anorthosis Famagusta 1-0.
Mourinho’s disappointment will have been Panathinaikos coach Henk ten Cate’s joy as another man with a former Chelsea connection — he was assistant manager under Avram Grant until being sacked in May this year — celebrated his 54th birthday in style.
“No one can doubt us now,” purred ten Cate, who was assistant coach at Barcelona when they won the Champions League and domestic title in 2006. “These moments, with what is going on around us [the riots in Athens], this win is a call for joy. The team remained calm and had the opportunity to improve its image. This is the best [birthday] present for me.”
Chelsea’s Premiership rivals Liverpool, though, did finish top of Group D after defeating PSV Eindhoven 3-1, with young French striker David N’Gog scoring their final goal.
It was, however, under-pressure Robbie Keane — a £20 million (US$30 million) signing from Tottenham Hotspur — who drew large amounts of praise from stand-in captain Jamie Carragher.
“It wasn’t an easy match,” the defender said. “They obviously had a little more to play for, but we wanted to finish top of the group. We conceded in the first half, but our second-half attacking performance from the lads and Keano was superb.”
Atletico Madrid finished second after eking out a 0-0 draw with Marseille, where the atmosphere had lightened considerably earlier in the day when it was announced that a Marseille fan handed a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for assaulting a Madrid police officer was to be released on bail yesterday.
Atletico’s Spanish rivals Barcelona still finished top of Group C despite losing with a largely second string side 3-2 at home to Ukrainian outfit Shakthar Donetsk.
Sporting Lisbon, too, already knew they would finish runners-up and rounded off their group campaign with a 1-0 win away at Basel.
The qualification of Chelsea, Roma and Panathinaikos completed the 16-team line-up in next year’s first knockout round, with the draw on Dec. 19.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later