After four match days of exhilarating fun, dazzling football in Europe elite Competition, the Champions League, there are plethora of things to talk about. While Olympiacos created history, English clubs showed their demise, with Chelsea being the only one to find the back of the net, that too once. With some referring decisions coming under the scanner, there were a quite lot of observations, but here are Sportzwiki’s three major talking points from the Champions League first leg Round of 16.
United were once Goliath but they are now David: The Red Devils face a huge hurdle in the second leg at Old Trafford as David Moyes’ side need to come back from a two goal deficit. Manchester United were second best in every department at Greece as Olympiakos took advantage to take a healthy lead with themselves on their trip to Manchester. It will be interesting to see what kind of a response the Red Devils provide, but make no mistake, Moyes will surely throw the kitchen sink in the second leg. Robin Van Persie’s lambasting his own team mates won’t help the cause as United need to believe they can come back and take inspiration, from the saying, “United have the comeback DNA in their genes.”
The German teams show dominance: While Bayern Munich withered an early storm from Arsenal to score two away goals at the Emirates against Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund , last year’s finalists scored four times against Russian side Zenit St Petersburg. The sad demise of English teams are now becoming a regularity, but it must be said Bundesliga teams are perhaps a lot stronger than the affluent consortias of the Premier League. All three of Arsenal, Manchester City and United failed to score, with the latter just recording only one shot on goal, it just proves the proverbial saying, ”Empty vessels make more noise.”
Real Madrid’s scoring fiesta continues as Galatasaray hold Chelsea: Even though the Los Blancos had won only once in their last 25 travels to German sides, Carlo Ancelotti’s men put any such stat to the grave. All of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema scored braces to record an emphatic 6-1 score line over Schalke. Real can make the lead even more wide in the return leg at the Bernebeu hurling Schalke the ignominy of disdain. Elsewhere on the night, Galatasaray held Chelsea after going down through an early Fernando Torres’ side and will now travel to Stamford Bridge, knowing the tie is not beyond them with one away goal at Stamford Bridge can throw the tie by the head.
