First Belarusian Front

BATE takes points from Juventus

1. Manchester United (England)

2. Villarreal (Spain)

3. Aalborg (Denmark)

4. Celtic (Scotland)

The champion of Belarus, playing in the same group with the Russian Zenit and playing with the same opponents, scored his first points in the Champions League faster. BATE almost defeated Juventus. Leading by two goals during the match, the Belarusian team was unable to maintain its advantage, but the 2:2 draw became the main sensation of the Champions League game day.

Group "N". It is unlikely that the “old lady”, going to Minsk, where a club from the small town of Borisov plays its home league matches, counted on such a disrespectful reception. The Juventus players, who had prepared for a passing match at a training pace, were quite surprised when the hosts surrounded them with corners and created one chance after another. As a result, already at the 17th minute. Krivets, running one-on-one with Juve goalkeeper Manninger, opened the scoring. And after 5 minutes. Stasevich, having closed the serve from the flank, completely brought the Turin team to the brink of disaster. “It was a real nightmare,” visiting midfielder Mauro Camoranesi shared afterward. — In the first half hour of the game, we simply didn’t know where to run and what to do. Sharp counterattacks baffled us.”

Even Iaquinta's double, who started in place of the injured David Trezeguet, did not bring Claudio Ranieri's team out of this deadlock. In both cases, the striker was assisted by young midfielder Sebastian Giovinco. If Juventus had any positives in the Minsk game, it was the debut of this young player. Moreover, entering the field in the match against BATE was a surprise for him. “When I was still a child, I dreamed of playing with Del Piero. I still can’t believe that I did this, and in the Champions League,” said Giovinco after the game, the only Juventus player to whom the match with BATE brought at least some positive emotions.

In the second half, the spectators did not expect any goals, although BATE could well have won the game. Nevertheless, head coach Viktor Goncharenko was pleased with the draw: “We all have the right to be proud of this team and this achievement. Perhaps we could have won, but we were leading by two goals, but experience decided everything here.”

Group "E". Experience proved to be a determining factor in almost all of Tuesday's matches. The Danish Aalborg, after a very successful start, failed its second match in the tournament against Manchester United, unable to cope with Dimitar Berbatov. The Manchester United forward ended up scoring a double, and the hosts never got a single more or less decent chance to score a goal.

In another match of the group, Villarreal dealt with Celtic almost as confidently, albeit with fewer goals. Everything was decided by Senna's only goal from a free kick. But throughout the match the hosts acted with a good margin of safety and, despite the modest score, they gave no reason to doubt the consistency of their victory.

The teams of group “F” were engulfed by a draw disease. Moreover, with Lyon and Fiorentina it is becoming increasingly acute. The Italians, following their missed victory over the champion of France in the first round, were unable to cope with the second team of Romania. No matter how hard Mutu and Gilardino tried, no matter how hard the Violets tried to move forward, all their initiatives were defeated by the Steaua defense, which in turn did not even think about meaningful attacks - 0:0.

Bayern, with its problems in defense, can only dream of zeros in the “conceded goals” column. Moreover, the defenders of Klinsmann’s team are ready to score against themselves. In the match with Lyon, for example, Demichelis “distinguished himself” by cutting the ball into his own goal after Juninho’s always dangerous free-kick. It’s also good for Bayern that its players know how to shoot not only their goalkeeper, as Ze Roberto proved, correcting the situation in the middle of the second half - 1:1.

But who came out on top in attack on Tuesday was Arsenal, which defeated Porto in Group G. At the end of last week, the Gunners managed to lose in the Premier League to Hull City, but, as it turned out, they were only saving their energy for the Champions League. The “skirmishers” were Van Persie and Adebayor - each of them scored a double. The "Dragons", who even in the match, which was lost with a crushing score, looked quite good in front, were demoralized in defense in the first half, when they conceded two goals. After the break, Arsenal added two more in beautiful attacks, although they should have scored at least four times.

In turn, Dynamo Kiev, from which the same Arsenal barely escaped in the last round, got a second draw. It’s rare that a goalkeeper manages to stay clean during a trip to Istanbul. Kiev goalkeeper Stanislav Bogush, who ousted the experienced Shovkovsky from the lineup, coped with this task. And if his partners had been just as attentive in the final stages of attacks, Fenerbahçe could have even been left without their legitimate draw.

But the players of both teams, who were focused on the fight, had few sharp moments. “Yesterday I dreamed about this fight, and it turned out to be difficult and difficult. This dream came true,” Dynamo coach Yuri Semin said after the game. If he had told about everything in advance, the Turkish fans would not have had to watch an hour and a half of a rather boring match.

Champions League. 2nd round. Group "E". "Aalborg" - "Manchester United" - 0:3 (Rooney 22, Berbatov 55, 79) , "Villarreal" - "Celtic" - 1:0 (Senna 67) . Group "F". "Fiorentina" - "Steaua" - 0:0, "Bayern" - "Lyon" - 1:1 (Ze Roberto 52 - Demichelis 25 - own goal) . Group "G". Arsenal - Porto - 4:0 (van Persie 31, 48, Adebayor 40, 71 - from the penalty spot ), Fenerbahce - Dynamo K - 0:0. Group "N". "Zenit" - "Real" - 1:2 (Danny 25 - Hubochan 4 - own goal, van Nistelrooy 31) , BATE - "Juventus" - 2:2 (Krivets 17, Stasevich 23 - Iaquinta 29, 45) .

Group "E" I V N P M O

Group "F" I V N P M O

Group "G" I V N P M O

Group "H" I V N P M O

Andrey VDOVIN