Real Madrid will
have to wait to seal their place in the Champions League knockout stage after a
thrilling six-goal draw against Legia Warsaw, which was played behind closed
doors.
The match was
played in an empty stadium after crowd trouble at Legia's last Champions League
home game - a 6-0 defeat by Borussia
Dortmund - resulted in a £69,000 fine and stadium ban.
Wales forward
Gareth Bale recorded the fastest-ever goal in Champions League history to put
Real Madrid ahead after 57 seconds, before assisting Karim Benzema to double
their lead.
But goals by Vadis
Odjidja-Ofoe and Miroslav Radovic drew Warsaw level, before the Polish side
took the lead through a superb Thibault Moulin strike.
The celebrations
were short-lived though, with Madrid, on Zinedine Zidane's 100th match in
charge, cancelling out Warsaw's lead only two minutes later through former
Inter midfielder Mateo Kovacic.
The 3-3 draw means
Warsaw - who are the first Polish side to make the Champions League group stage
for 20 years - will go out after before the knockout phase having claimed only
a single point in their first four games.
Dinamo Zagreb and Club Brugge will also exit at the group stage,
having recorded four consecutive defeats in the tournament.
The Croatian side
lost 4-0 to Sevilla, while the Belgian
team lost 1-0 to Porto.
Dortmund through, Juve edge closer
Borussia Dortmund were the only
team to secure their last-16 status on Wednesday. A 12th-minute Ramos goal was
enough to seal a 1-0 win overSporting Lisbon.
Meanwhile Monaco top the
standings in Group E after a 3-0 victory over CSKA Moscow.
Valere Germain opened the scoring for the Ligue 1 side, while
two goals from Radamel Falcao ended Russian hopes of a comeback.
An 84th-minute Lyon equaliser prevented Juventus from
cementing their position in the knockout phase and ended Gianluigi Buffon's
hopes of keeping a clean sheet in his 100th Champions League appearance for the
side.
The Bianconeri went ahead after 12 minutes as Gonzalo Higuain
slotted a penalty into the bottom left corner, but a header by Corentin Tolisso
denied the Portugese side three points and the game ended 1-1.
No comments:
Post a Comment