Celtic failed to make a winning return to the Champions League after a four-year hiatus as they were held to a goalless draw by Group G rivals SL Benfica at Parkhead on Wednesday.
Despite a frantic start, the home side failed to test Benfica goalkeeper Artur Moraes and it was the Portuguese who came closest with Fraser Forster doing well to deny Moreno Rodrigo’s shot.
The ’keeper had to be sharp to deny Ezequiel Garay at the start of the second half, while Celtic had a penalty appeal turned down after James Forrest fell in the box as neither side could make the breakthrough.
Favorites Barcelona top Group G after coming from behind to claim a 3-2 win over Spartak Moscow at the Camp Nou.
“I think a draw was probably a fair result. We didn’t work their goalkeeper as much as I would have liked,” Celtic manager Neil Lennon said. “Having said that I was very pleased with the team performance tonight. We played with real zest and no fear against a class side, so it’s a decent start for us.”
Benfica coach Jorge Jesus felt his side should have won.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy game. Celtic are a hard team, but we deserved a victory,” Jesus said.
In a frenzied start Celtic had a chance immediately when Kris Commons sent a chipped effort over the bar. The game was barely 90 seconds old when Miku set Commons up for another effort, but his shot was blocked and the danger cleared. Celtic were pinning Benfica back in their own half, but despite their dominance of possession they failed to test the Portuguese ’keeper.
However, Benfica, who topped a group containing Manchester United on their way to last season’s quarter-finals, fired a warning shot in the 32nd minute when Rodrigo chased a long ball behind the Celtic defense, but Forster rushed from his line to block the Spaniard’s shot.
Moments later Benfica launched a quick counterattack from a Celtic corner, but Kelvin Wilson made an important tackle to stop Nicolas Gaitan just over the halfway-line.
Benfica came close to opening the scoring in the 62nd minute when Garay stooped low to get his head on Gaitan’s corner, but Forster dived low to turn it round his near post.
The Portuguese side sensed an opportunity and Cardozo was soon off the bench to replace captain Pablo Aimar in a bid to get the winner.
In an attempt to reclaim the initiative Celtic replaced the ineffectual Emilio Izaguirre with Hooper in the hope Moraes would finally be tested.
The game became more stretched with Benfica’s Eduardo Salvio sending a long-range shot harmlessly over the bar, before substitute Bruno Cesar curled his effort just over the upright.
Commons tried his luck with an audacious chip from the half way line, but Moraes was equal to it before referee Nicola Rizzoli waved away their penalty claims when Forrest went down in the box under the challenge of Lorenzo Melgarejo.
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