Champions League Group Stages Start

Last year’s runners-up and 5 times Champions Liverpool got their campaign, for the very long road to Moscow, off to a slightly shaky start last night away to Jose Mourinho’s former team, Porto. Mourinho lifted the Champions League crown in his last game in charge of Porto before he moved to Chelsea.

Liverpool were reduced to 10 men but held on for a 1 - 1 draw. The red card was shown to the winger Jermaine Pennant for his second bookable offence early in the second half. Ironically, Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, had apparently been thinking of substituting Pennant just before he transgressed for the second time. What might of happened if he had already made up his mind and replaced him? We’ll never know!

Not unsurprisingly as the home team, Porto piled on some early pressure and were duly rewarded when their winger, Tarik Sektioul, was brought down by the Liverpool keeper, Pepe Reina. Reina has proved himself a master of the penalty save on numerous occasions however, he could redeem his own foul when Argentine Lucho Gonzalez duly converted the penalty after only 8 minutes.

However, Porto’s lead didn’t last too long as Dirt Kuyt equalised with a header after just 17 minutes.

Dirt Kuyt equalises for Liverpool in similar fashion [close range header] to his goal a couple of minutes from the end of last season’s Final in Athens.

A long free kick was taken by defender Steve Finnan which was duly nodded on and across the goal by fellow defender Sami Hyypia, leaving the Dutch striker to head in from close range.

However, Porto stayed on the attack but were unable to capitalise even after Pennant’s sending off which happened on 57 minutes. The pressure lead to Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma seeing his shot from just outside the box cleared off the line by Hyypia just a couple of minutes later, it was the closest Porto game to a winner. But nothing was good enough to break down a very stubborn Liverpool defence who once Pennant had gone, were always going to try to hold on the the point they had.

The Porto boss, Jesuaido Ferreira said after the game, “We were always more persistent [than Liverpool] and had many dangerous moves, we should have won. Pennant’s sending off did not help Porto at all as Liverpool used it to increase their blockage in midfield. There were a lot of missed chances that prevented us winning.” Here’s a little fact for you that you may find surprising, Liverpool haven’t won in Portugal for 23 years!

Meanwhile the team that beat Liverpool in last season’s Final AC Milan, kicked off their defence with a 2 - 1 victory over another Portuguese side last night, Benfica.

And this opening night of the 2007/08 Champions League which culminates in the Final in Moscow at the end of May, proved to be a milestone for two of Europe’s most prolific strikers. At the San Siro it was Milan’s Athens winner Filippo Inzaghi that took his tally in European club football to 60 with his side’s winning goal after Andrea Pirlo had opened the scoring. Meanwhile, Inzaghi’s former team-mate, Andriy Shevchenko also hit the 60 goal mark when he scored Chelsea’s equaliser in their disappointing 1 - 1 draw at home to Rosenborg.

This all leaves the two strikers only 2 behind the great German striker Gerd Mueller in the all-time goal scoring standing. Mueller who help Germany to the World Cup in 1974 scored a total of 62 European club goals in an illustrious career.

But things are hotting up at the top of this goal scoring chart as Real Madrid’s Raul kept the pressure on as he scored Madrid’s first with a header in their 2 - 1 win over Germany Werder Bremen. He is one behind Shevchenko and Inzaghi in the list.

The Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 16 minutes from the end to mark Real’s 300th game in Europe’s elite competition with a victory. Real are, of course, the most successful club in the European Cup / Champions League with 9 victories. Although 5 of those victories came in the first five season the competition was staged by in the late 50s early 60s.

Full Results from last night are as follows:

Marseilles 2 - 0 Besiktas
FC Porto 1 - 1 Liverpool
Chelsea 1 - 1 Rosenborg
Schalke 04 0 - 1 Valencia
Real Madrid 2 - 1 Werder Bremen
Olympiacos 1 - 1 Lazio
AC Milan 2 - 1 Benfica
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 - 0 Celtic

The Soccer Blogger