Bad night for the Brits

PARIS – British clubs had a horror night in Wednesday’s Champions League clashes with two of their former winners of European club football’s premier competition Manchester United and Celtic losing while last season’s finalists Arsenal were held at home to a draw.

United went down 1-0 away at Danish outfit FC Copenhagen – former Aston Villa striker Marcus Allback scoring – while Celtic’s emotional return along with the surviving Lisbon Lions from their European Cup success to Lisbon ended in a damp squib losing 3-0 to Benfica. British misery was Portuguese delight as 2004 winners FC Porto stayed in the hunt to go through beating hapless Hamburg 3-1 in Germany, which exacerbated Arsenal’s woeful night as they belied their nickname of ‘The Gunners’ by firing blanks missing some of the easiest chances one could ever be given in the 0-0 draw with CSKA Moscow.CSKA head the group with seven points while Porto joined Arsenal on seven points.However while some teams missed their chances of wrapping up their places in the last 16 both Lyon and Group E rivals Real Madrid did with 1-0 wins over Dynamo Kiev and Steaua Bucharest respectively.Lyon, though, were more impressive than the rather faded Spanish giants – who saw Ruud van Nistelrooy, preferred to Ronaldo, miss a penalty and then have his blushes spared by an own goal from Banel Nicolita, described as one of ‘the stupidest goals ever’ AC Milan also took a huge step towards the last 16 with a 4-1 walloping of Anderlecht, thanks largely to a virtuoso performance by Brazilian Kaka, who scored a hat-trick and was also labelled perhaps in somewhat over the top fashion by coach Carlo Ancelotti as the ‘best player in the world’.Lille’s chances of making their second place in the same group secure went askew as they went down 1-0 away at AEK Athens, who secured their first win in 22 Champions League matches – helped ironically by the sending-off of Lille’s Greek defender Efstathios Tavlaridis after just 22 minutes.Nampa-AFPBritish misery was Portuguese delight as 2004 winners FC Porto stayed in the hunt to go through beating hapless Hamburg 3-1 in Germany, which exacerbated Arsenal’s woeful night as they belied their nickname of ‘The Gunners’ by firing blanks missing some of the easiest chances one could ever be given in the 0-0 draw with CSKA Moscow.CSKA head the group with seven points while Porto joined Arsenal on seven points.However while some teams missed their chances of wrapping up their places in the last 16 both Lyon and Group E rivals Real Madrid did with 1-0 wins over Dynamo Kiev and Steaua Bucharest respectively.Lyon, though, were more impressive than the rather faded Spanish giants – who saw Ruud van Nistelrooy, preferred to Ronaldo, miss a penalty and then have his blushes spared by an own goal from Banel Nicolita, described as one of ‘the stupidest goals ever’ AC Milan also took a huge step towards the last 16 with a 4-1 walloping of Anderlecht, thanks largely to a virtuoso performance by Brazilian Kaka, who scored a hat-trick and was also labelled perhaps in somewhat over the top fashion by coach Carlo Ancelotti as the ‘best player in the world’.Lille’s chances of making their second place in the same group secure went askew as they went down 1-0 away at AEK Athens, who secured their first win in 22 Champions League matches – helped ironically by the sending-off of Lille’s Greek defender Efstathios Tavlaridis after just 22 minutes.Nampa-AFP