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| September 30, 2005 | Friday | Sha'aban 25, 1426 |
Spain’s Raul becomes European Cup’s leading scorer
LONDON, Sept 28: Striker Raul became the first player to score 50 goals in European Cup competition history when he led Real Madrid to a 2-1 win over Olympiakos Piraeus in their Champions League Group F match on Wednesday.
Artmedia Bratislava scored their first ever goals in the competition proper and staged an astonishing comeback to send 2004 European champions Porto crashing to a 3-2 home defeat after the Portuguese had been 2-0 ahead after 39 minutes.
Real Betis also earned their first ever Champions League win with a 1-0 triumph at Anderlecht in Brussels, handing the Belgians their ninth successive Champions League defeat.
Holders Liverpool, however, failed to score in a dull 0-0 draw with English champions Chelsea that was a pale imitation of their passionate semi-final clashes in last season’s competition, which the Merseysiders’ won 1-0 on aggregate.
On the night when Raul re-wrote the scoring record books, Clarence Seedorf added a footnote to the scorer’s list with the third fastest goal in Champions League history.
Seedorf, playing in his 100th European club match, scored after 21 seconds of AC Milan’s Group E match at Schalke 04, but the Italians had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
In the same group Fenerbahce struck form to beat PSV Eindhoven 3-0 on a disappointing night for the Dutch who had Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink sent off. Brazilian Alex de Sousa scored twice for the Turkish side.
Inter Milan beat Rangers 1-0 in a deserted San Siro stadium in their Group H match where the fans were banned as part of UEFA’s punishment against the Italians for crowd trouble in the competition last season.
Lyon, who beat Real Madrid 3-0 two weeks ago, maintained their perfect start in Group F with a 1-0 win at Rosenborg Trondheim after Brazilian defender Cris scored the only goal in injury time at the end of the first half.
Real seemed headed for an easy win after skipper Raul headed home a beautifully flighted cross from David Beckham in the ninth minute to beat the record of 49 goals established by their former striker Alfredo Di Stefano in 1964.
Raul had equalled the record last November but instead of his historic goal inspiring Real to dominate Wednesday’s match against the Greeks, the away side levelled through midfielder Pentilis Kafes’s three minutes after the break.
Substitute Soldado came to Real’s rescue when he got on the end of a another great Beckham cross after 86 minutes to head home at the second attempt and give the nine-time European champions a deserved victory.
Real centre-back Sergio Ramos was sent off in injury time for retaliating against a foul by Ioannis Okkas.
While Raul was making history, Artmedia Bratislava proved fairytales can still come true in football as they demolished Porto after trailing 2-0 to the vastly more experienced side.
Porto went ahead in the Group H match after 32 minutes when Argentine midfielder Luis Gonzalez headed in a cross by winger Ricardo Quaresma.
Brazilian playmaker Diego made it 2-0 seven minutes later with a shot inside the box that seemed to set the former champions up for an easy win over the Slovakians who fought past three qualifying rounds to make the group stage.
But Artmedia pulled a goal back through Peter Petras in first-half injury time and stunned the 40,000 at the Dragao stadium when his fellow midfielder Jan Kozak equalised from a 54th-minute counter attack and defender Balasz Borbely grabbed the winner with 16 minutes to go.
Betis, also making their debuts this season, also won their first match with victory over Anderlecht in Group G thanks to a 69th minute goal from Ricardo Oliveira against the run of play.
The only goalless draw of the night was at Anfield where the European and English champions played out a tedious stalemate in Group G, although Liverpool became the first side to avoid being beaten by Chelsea in any competition so far this season.
Midfielder David Pizarro’s 49th minute free kick gave Inter victory over Scottish champions Rangers after Julio Cruz struck a penalty against the post and Santiago Solari missed a sitter.
Inter were playing the second game of a four-match ban on supporters imposed after crowd trouble at their Champions League quarterfinal with AC Milan last season.
Results
Group E
Schalke 04 2 AC Milan 2
Fenerbahce 3 PSV Eindhoven 0
Group F
Rosenborg 0 Lyon 1
Real Madrid 2 Olympiakos 1
Group G
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 0
Anderlecht 0 Real Betis 1
Group H
Inter Milan 1 Rangers 0
FC Porto 2 Artmedia Bratislava 3
—AFP
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