Arsenal short of ammo, Bayern shocked

PARIS: Arsenal’s hopes of joining the Champions League last-16 are in the balance following a shock defeat at Sporting Braga.

Two late goals from Matheus saw Arsenal slump to a 2-0 defeat that means Arsene Wenger’s side must beat Partizan Belgrade in their final group match to be sure of reaching the next stage. Arsenal had a strong penalty appeal turned down after Carlos Vela went down in the penalty area under a challenge by Alberto Rodriguez and within minutes Mateus had scampered through to put the hosts ahead.

“What is the fifth official doing if he can’t see that,” said Wenger of the penalty incident. “It’s an absolutely useless system. Other than that, it was a difficult game against a team that used all the tricks to slow the game down.”

Coach hits out at Bayern’s loss to Roma

Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal hit out at his team for throwing away a victory against Roma as a 2-0 half-time lead turned into a 3-2 defeat.

Van Gaal complained that his team has been brittle this season and must stamp out such fragility. After a poor start to their league campaign Bayern are 14 points behind Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund. And although this result was enough to ensure they topped Group E, their second half collapse angered Van Gaal.

“We played a great first half, we dominated but then it was incredible how we brought Roma back into the match in the second half,” he said.

“We’ve thrown away a game again, like we did against [Borussia] Moenchengladbach and [Bayer] Leverkusen and we have to find a way to stop doing that.”

Ronaldo’s Real party

A double from Cristiano Ronaldo formed the centrepiece of a master-class by Real Madrid as they eased to a 4-0 away win over Dutch side Ajax in their Group G clash.

The Portuguese star scored twice in the second-half after first-half goals by Karim Benzema and a stunning effort by Alvaro Arbeloa had put them in cruise control mode. The only blot on their evening were two late sendings off of World Cup winning duo Xabi Alonso and Sergi Ramos.

Milan, Chelsea triumph

AC Milan reached the Champions League last-16 but the seven-time champions were made to work hard before emerging from their trip to Auxerre with a 2-0 victory that secured second place in Group G behind Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, a youthful Chelsea side came from a goal down to win 2-1 at home to Slovakians MSK Zilina and preserve their 100 per cent record in this season’s competition.   Shakhtar Donetsk won 3-0 at Partizan and are now virtually assured of a place in the next phase.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2010.