Austria Vienna hosted Spanish Football Club Atletico de Madrid in their Group H match with the Spaniards winning convincingly 0 - 3 & remaining top of the Group with 9 points. The surprise was the start in the initial XI line-up of Atletico of Diego Costa who made a "miracle" recovery from his ankle injury.
The inclusion of the Spanish-Brazilian was fundamental as he scored two of the three goals for Atletico de Madrid, the first in the 20th min & his second in the 53rd min. Before the Diego Costa goals team-mate Raul Garcia opened up the scoreline in the 8th min to set the Spaniard on course.
The only "bad news" was the muscle injury to Atletico de Madrid left back defender Luis Felipe who left the second half to team-mate Insua who put in a good second half.
Excellent game for Atletico that practically gives the Club a foot into the next stage of Champions League.
AC Milan hosted FC Barcelona for their Group I match which finished in a 1 - 1 draw. A game that could have gone either way with two very distinctive styles of Football shown by the respective teams. AC Milan started surprisingly with Kaka which gave a clue that their strategy was to defend, pressure & look for the counter-attack. While FC Barcelona stayed loyal to their habitual ball domination & passing style hoping to find the Messi - Neymar combination upfront.
The outcome was a fairly even game, with both sides neutralizing each other most of the time except for mistakes that turned out to be crucial & decisive in the result. The first mistake was a tremendous misunderstanding between Barça defenders Mascherano & Pique that allowed Robinho & Kaka to work the first Milan goal in the 9th min thanks to a knock in by Robinho from a Kaka pass. The second mistake was a lost ball by Milan midfielder Monteolivo which saw Barça combine & find Messi who scored in the 23rd min.
From here Milan had some very clear chances to score again, one from Robinho that can´t be explained how he missed, & Barça had their opportunities while one from Adriano comes to mind that can´t be explain either how it was not converted. In the end both side settled for the draw.
Milan will be very happy ( great match from Kaka by the way ) as they optimized their resources to the maximum, while Barcelona will not be so happy as once again the "defensive wall / counter-attack" strategy of the opponent showed "weaknesses" that are becoming habitual.
Tomorrow UEFA Champions League continues with Real Sociedad & Real Madrid in action in their respective Groups.
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