|
|
Champions League: results and reports Marseilles 1 Chelsea 0
Chelsea's hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Champions' League suffered an early blow in Marseille tonight when a stunning goal from Robert Pires gave the home side a 1-0 lead at half-time. A stunning shot on 16 minutes from the former Marseille captain stunned Gianluca Vialli's side into action, but they rarely threatened to get back on level terms in the Group D encounter. Vialli opted to start with Gianfranco Zola and Tore Andre Flo in attack in the absence of the cup-tied George Weah. Captain Didier Deschamps was returning to the side he captained to the trophy in 1993 alongside then team-mate Marcel Desailly. First Flo found the side-netting with an angled shot and then Zola went inches wide with an athletic scissors-kick. Then Pires caught Ed De Goey napping on his near post and put the home side ahead in spectacular fashion. The former Marseille captain ran clear down the right and unleashed a hopeful right-footed shot from a narrow angle. Pires was astonished as anyone as the ball scraped the near post and went in off the far post to send the crowd into raptures. Chelsea were stunned and tried to hit back straight away. Flo's shot went narrowly wide and Zola and Gustavo Poyet both had efforts from distance. But Chelsea's attack were lacking potency against a side which beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in the opening phase of the tournament. The closest they came to a leveller came four minutes from the break when Poyet chested the ball down for Zola on the edge of the box but the Sardinian blasted his shot a foot over the bar. Former Everton striker Ibrahima Bakayoko went close for the home side in the dying minutes and the French were good value for their narrow lead at half-time. Lazio 1 Feyenoord 2 Feyenoord, who started the day in third place, moved two points clear at the top of Group D after two late goals from substitute Jon Dahl Tomasson gave them a 2-1 win at Lazio. That result, together with Marseille's upset victory over Chelsea threw the group wide open with Feyenoord now topping the table with six points from three matches, followed by Lazio , Chelsea and Marseille . Real 2 Bayern 4 Bayern Munich, who celebrated the centenary of their founding at the weekend, began their second century in grand style on Tuesday with a superb 4-2 away win over Real Madrid in Group C of the Champions League. Goals from Mehmet Scholl , Stefan Effenberg , Thorsten Fink and Paolo Sergio (67) gave last season's runners-up victory and all but assured them a place in the last eight of this season's competition. Elsewhere, Dynamo Kiev beat Rosenborg Trondheim 2-1 in Group C while in group D Feyenoord beat Lazio 2-1 in Rome and Olympique Marseille beat Chelsea 1-0 in the south of France. Real Madrid, buoyed by their 3-0 win over Barcelona in the Spanish League on Saturday, had never previously lost at home to a German team but were always chasing the game after going 2-0 down after 23 minutes. They made a fight of it with Fernando Morientes and Raul Gonzalez replying to make it briefly 3-2, but at the end of the night were deposed from the top of the group by Bayern. The German league leaders top the standings with seven points from three matches, followed by Real , Dynamo Kiev and Rosenborg Trondheim.
|
Click here for latest transfer news
|
|
