| Another day of the Champions League brought only draws The clubs of groups “A” and “B” demonstrated amazing peacefulness on the next match day of the Champions League. All four matches of the fifth round ended in a draw, and the players of eight teams together managed to score only four goals. At the same time, for Manchester United and Bayern, the settlement agreement turned into a pass to the next stage of the tournament.
It should be noted that both Bayern and Manchester United were not too keen to complicate life for themselves and their opponents, delivering only a few accurate shots on goal throughout the match. But in those episodes when the players managed to create more or less dangerous moments, the goalkeepers played superbly. “Oliver Kahn helped us out quite often in the second half of the game,” Bayern coach Otmar Hitzfeld paid his traditional compliment to his goalkeeper. “But still, a draw is a fair result of this meeting.” Mancunian coach Alex Ferguson also agreed with him: “Both teams needed a draw, and they got it.”
Unlike the leaders of Group A, the draw between Nantes and Boavista turned out to be absolutely useless from the point of view of the tournament position. Both the French and Portuguese clubs are not ready to compete with the giants.
But in Group C, none of the teams have yet lost their chance to play in the quarterfinals. Although Barcelona and Roma missed excellent opportunities to exit the group early. Liverpool were the first to prevent this from happening, leading a desperate fight for second place, and the Italians stumbled over Galatasaray, drawing 1:1.
In general, the Turks, all five of whose matches ended in draws, are the most peaceful team at this stage. But only on the field. Outside of it, it is better not to meet with Galatasaray representatives, as Brazilian forward Francisco Lima experienced personally. Colliding with representatives of the visiting delegation on the way to the locker room, the Brazilian, after a short skirmish, went on the offensive and managed to land several good boxing blows on several opponents at once until he was pulled aside. The enraged Turks had to be pacified by Galatasaray coach Mircea Lucescu.
Group "A" I V N P M O | 1. Manchester United | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 10-3 | 9 | | 2. Bayern | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3-1 | 9 | | 3. Boavista | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2-5 | 5 | | 4. Nantes | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3-9 | 2 |
Manchester United - Bayern - 0:0, Nantes - Boavista - 1:1.
Group "B" I V N P M O | 1. Roma | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6-3 | 7 | | 2. Barcelona | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6-7 | 6 | | 3. "Galatasaray" | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5-5 | 5 | | 4. Liverpool | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2-4 | 4 |
“Barcelona” – “Liverpool” – 0:0, “Roma” – “Galatasaray” – 1:1. Andrey VDOVIN
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