Class sign

The stability of the results does not please Kyiv fans

2. Real Madrid

3. "Steaua"

Having won all three opening rounds of the Champions League, Lyon and Manchester United almost secured their place in the playoffs of the tournament. But Dynamo Kiev, having lost the third match in a row, can already say goodbye to the league.

Group "E". Now the Kiev team’s tournament goal is to take third place in the group, which gives them the right to continue fighting in the UEFA Cup. But this goal also seems unattainable for Dynamo, who concede an average of four goals per game. In the last match, the Dynamo goal was defended by Taras Lutsenko - the main goalkeeper of the Kiev team Shovkovsky was disqualified, and the second goalkeeper Rybko was injured. So you shouldn’t be surprised that by the break Dynamo was losing with a score of 0:2 - as always, Juninho scored from a free kick, and then Kjellström scored the second goal. At the beginning of the second half, Malouda removed all questions about the outcome of the match, if anyone had any. In turn, the hosts also had a couple of opportunities to at least avoid a major defeat, but in the final stages of the attacks Dynamo were let down by their performance skills.

Nevertheless, the head coach of the Kiev team, Anatoly Demyanenko, did not blame his players, complaining about the luck that accompanied his opponents. “Tell me, what did they create during the entire match today? Two standards! And so, in principle, they did not create anything,” Demyanenko said very controversially, while refusing to resign. -- The decision on resignation is made by management. I do my job to the best of my ability, honestly and conscientiously. The main thing is to move forward. But failures happen, this is sport. Moreover, our opponents are decent. Yes, maybe I made a mistake somewhere. But he who does nothing makes no mistakes.”

Now the people of Kiev can only fight with Steaua for third place in the group. But it won’t be easy either, even despite the fact that the Romanian champion lost heavily to Real. The coach of the “royal” club, Fabio Capello, recently after the defeat from Getafe, almost wrote a letter of resignation. But the club’s management persuaded the Italian to wait, and in the match with the Romanians the players also stood up for their coach. True, the big and easy victory over Steaua is just a respite. The most important match of the season for Real is ahead - against Barcelona. Real Madrid's match with Steaua was David Beckham's hundredth in the Champions League. There are two more such long-livers in the “royal” club - Roberto Carlos and Raul.

Group "F". In this Champions League, the performance is quite at the level. Major victories were also recorded in Group F, where Manchester United easily dealt with Copenhagen, and Celtic unexpectedly defeated Benfica. True, the large score should not be misleading - there was an equal fight on the field, and the Celts were quite lucky at the end of the match, when they managed not to miss from Simao and catch the opponent on counterattacks. But still, the Scottish team, showing quite continental football, deservedly won. And now, five points ahead of its main competitor, it has an excellent chance to make it to the Champions League playoffs for the first time in its history.

There is no doubt that the first team in this group will be Manchester United. Especially after the big victory over Copenhagen. But the Danes are also determined to have their say in this tournament. “I think we can still compete for a place in the UEFA Cup with Benfica,” Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken was not at all embarrassed by the defeat to Manchester United. “It was only our third match in the Champions League, but I see that we are on the right track.”

Group "G". Porto, CSKA's main rival for qualifying from the group, does not seem to be going to give up. The Portuguese did not score in the first two matches, but they broke through in the third. Four goals flew into the Hamburg goal, and the Portuguese could have scored at least twice more. Porto head coach Gesealdo Ferreira decided to introduce discipline in his team: Bosingwa was suspended from training for arguing with the coach. Apparently, such harsh pedagogical measures brought success: Porto was unstoppable. Although, of course, the victory over Hamburg, weakened by injuries, is not a very bright indicator. If the Portuguese want to make it to the playoffs, they will need to beat CSKA and Arsenal.

There were no defeats in group “N” . But Milan's modest 1-0 victory over Anderlecht is worth a lot. The Belgians played in the majority for almost the entire half (Bonera received a second yellow card for throwing the ball away) and were determined to win their first home victory in the last three Champions Leagues. But Kaká's superb strike into the top corner of the Anderlecht goal midway through the second half undid all the hosts' efforts. They, of course, still had enough time and strength to win back, but they couldn’t, although once the ball hit the crossbar of Milan’s goal.

“Lille” managed to break the resistance of AEK at the end of the match and settled in second in the standings after the “Rossonieri”.

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Match results. Group "E". "Dynamo" K - "Lyon" - 0:3 (Juninho 31, Kjellstrom 38, Malouda 50) , "Steaua" - "Real" - 1:4 (Badya 64 - Ramos 9, Raul 34, Robinho 56, van Nistelrooy 76) . Group "F". Celtic - Benfica - 3:0 (Miller 56, 66, Pearson 90) , Manchester United - Copenhagen - 3:0 (Scholes 39, O'Shea 46, Richardson 83) . Group "G". CSKA - Arsenal - 1:0 (Carvalho 24) , Porto - Hamburg - 4:1 (Lisandro 14, 81, Gonzalez 45 from pen., Helder Postiga 69 - Trochowski 89) . Group "N". "Lille" - AEK - 3:1 (Robay 64, Zhigaks 82, Makoun 90 - Ivic 68) , "Anderlecht" - "Milan" - 0:1 (Kaka 58) .

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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 "N" I V N P M O

Andrey VDOVIN