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| Tuesday, 20 October 2009 22:21 |
Champions League: Bad night for Portuguese in EuropeTuesday night round-up Jose Mourinho’s Inter sit bottom of Group F in the Champions League after they were held to a 2-2 draw at the San Siro by Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kiev.
Despite a confidence boosting 5-0 win at Genoa over the weekend, the Nerazurri had to twice come from behind in Italy as, without Ricardo Quaresma in the match day squad, the Italian champions drew for the third time in their opening three matches in the group. The host first went behind after five minutes when Mikhalik turned the ball home from inside the area following confusion in the Inter defence after a free-kick. Dejan Stankovic levelled ten minutes before the break, but a Lucio own goal meant the visitors went into half time ahead. Walter Samuel’s excellent header two minutes after the re-start appeared to set Mourinho’s side up to go on and win the game. However, despite chances to take all three points, including an excellent opportunity for ex-Benfica man David Suazo, Inter failed to make another breakthrough. On an evening of surprise results across the competition, Scottish champions Rangers fell to a heavy 4-1 defeat to Romanians Unirea Urziceni on Glasgow. Pedro Mendes, an injury doubt before the match, was replaced at the break with the score at 1-1, before the visitors scored three times in a 16-minute spell in the second period. Former Estrela da Amadora striker Antonio Semedo watched the match from the Unirea bench, while Portugal born Guinea-Bissau defender Bruno Fernandes played a starring role for the winners. It was also a disappointing evening for Ricardo Rocha’s Standard Liege, who let a 1-0 lead slip to eventually lose 2-1 to Olympiacos in Greece. The Belgians took the lead on 37 minutes when Igor De Camargo finished coolly from Milan Jovanovic’s through ball. However, Kostas Mitroglu headed the Greeks level before half time and substitute Ieroklis Stoltidis popped up three minutes into injury time to break Standard hearts. By Sean Gillen |
Inter are just dire, even when they win 5-0 they are boring to watch and says a lot about the quality of Serie A these days when they follow up that result with a home draw against Dynamo Kiev.