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| October 25, 2001 | Thursday | Shaba'an 7, 1422 |
Minnows bow to bigger fish in Champions League
PARIS, Oct 24: European football’s aristocrats cruised into the second round of the Champions League on Tuesday, on a night when the minnows had to bow to the bigger fish.
Former champions Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich, plus Bayer Leverkusen and Deportivo La Coruna earned their ticket to more glory and more money in Europe’s showcase event.
The second round jigsaw was half-filled after Tuesday’s games with the six new qualifiers joining Real Madrid and Sparta Prague in the 16-team next phase of the competition.
Manchester United, often lacking assertiveness in Europe, earned their ticket from Group G with a 3-0 victory over Greek outfit Olympiakos that flattered Alex Ferguson’s side slightly.
At 0-0 with just over 10 minutes to go, super sub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, then Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy fired in a late flurry of goals to thrust them into the next round.
It was a nervous night for United however, seeking to recover from successive home defeats against Deportivo last week and Bolton on Saturday.
A draw had started to look inevitable, especially after van Nistelrooy saw a second-half penalty saved.
Delighted United manager Ferguson said: “It was a long night of football. When it’s like that we have to be patient, and we persevered.
“We were unlucky when Ruud (Van Nistelrooy) had missed his penalty but it was a good solid performance against a side who had a go against us. We can relax now.”
Ferguson reserved particular praise for summer purchases, van Nistelrooy and Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, whose beautifully-weighted pass picked out Giggs for the second goal.
“He will be the best centre-forward in Europe if he isn’t now,” the United boss said of van Nistelrooy. “He worked so hard. He deserved that.”
Ferguson said of Veron: “His class opens up teams. He made a goal for Ryan, for Ruud... he opens up teams.
“But they all worked hard against a very good Olympiakos side. It was a good European tie,” he told ITV Sport.
Spanish league leaders Deportivo La Coruna guaranteed their inclusion in the second phase with a 1-1 draw against French first division side Lille.
Two first-half penalties for either team left Deportivo leading Group G, while Lille saw their chances of progression on their first Champions League foray fade.
Defending champions Bayern Munich, buoyed up by their 4-1 thrashing of Kaiserslautern to knock them off top spot in Germany at the weekend, beat Feyernoord 3-1 at home meaning they have now scored 13 goals in their five matches in Europe.
Munich ousted Sparta Prague, who drew 2-2 at Spartak Moscow earlier on Tuesday, from top spot in Group H on superior number of goals scored as they were equal on goal difference.
Bottom club Feyernoord needed to win to keep a slim chance of going through but now they can only dream of making the UEFA Cup as the third-placed team.
The match was hardly a classic but Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld will not be worrying about that knowing that they are already through to the next group stage.
In the 25th minute Feyernoord’s Johan Elmander of Sweden equalized Ulrich van Gobbel’s own goal for Bayern in the 12th minute.
Paraguay’s Roque Santa Cruz twice found the net for Bayern in the 30th minute and then injury time at the end of the match to earn them the victory.
Hitzfeld said afterwards: “I knew before the game a point would be enough to go through so I wasn’t too worried going into the second half knowing 2-2 would suffice.
“We only did what we needed to do during the match and nothing more. It wasn’t a great game but we got the result.”
Juventus of Italy booked their berth at the Stadio Delle Alpi in a 3-1 comeback win in Group E over Portugal’s FC Porto.
Goals from the outstanding Alessandro Del Piero, Paolo Montero and David Trezeguet saw Juve home after Porto had taken a lead through a freak goal from Brazilian Clayton.
Marcello Lippi’s side are thus still on course for their third triumph in this competition, the last coming in 1995-6 in Lippi’s first spell in charge.
“We are happy because we needed an achievement like this to help weld the new team together,” said Lippi whose team have not won for a month in the league.
“We were very good and I was pleased with (Pavel) Nedved and Del Piero who led by example.”
Rosenborg striker Harald Brattbakk dealt a devastating blow to his former club Celtic’s Champions League ambitions, scoring twice as the Scots crashed to a 2-0 defeat in the other Group E game.
Celtic now face Italy’s Juventus in a must-win tie at home next week, although if Porto win at home against Rosenborg the Scots will be out.
Spanish giants Barcelona secured their place with a breakaway injury time goal to defeat battling Lyon 3-2 in Group F.
Gerard Lopez scored the winner for Barca in the fifth minute of injury time after Lyon keeper Gregory Coupet had charged upfield to take part in a corner as the French side pressed for victory with the score at 2-2.
With Coupet out of position, Barcelona swept up the pitch with Gerard Lopez firing into an empty net to settle a dramatic match at Lyon’s Stade Gerland.
The win saw Barcelona assured of a top two finish in Group F, with German side Bayer Leverkusen also guaranteed of advancing after winning 2-1 against Turkish side Fenerbahce in the night’s other Group F fixture.
COLLATED RESULTS ON TUESDAY:
Group E
At Turin, Italy
Juventus (Ita) 3 Porto (Por) 1
At Trondheim, Norway
Rosenborg (Nor) 2 Celtic (Sco) 0
Group F
At Istanbul
Fenerbahce (Tur) 1 Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 2
At Lyon, France
Lyon (Fra) 2 Barcelona (Spa) 3
Group G
At La Coruna, Spain
Deportivo La Coruna (Spa) 1 Lille (Fra) 1
At Manchester, England
Manchester United (Eng) 3 Olympiakos (Gre) 0
Group H
At Munich, Germany
Bayern Munich (Ger) 3 Feyenoord (Ned) 1 (Elmander 25)
At Moscow
Spartak Moscow (Rus) 2 Sparta Prague (Cze) 2.—AFP
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