Beckham gets better as Porto go down

Beckham's display last night was again excellent and he has found some new zest in the past couple of games. His crosses just rained in on Olympiakos that they had little to aid any aerial challenge, hence the curl that came round for Raul to head in. Though The Greek side had a nice, somewhat I believe fortunate, spin on Kafes' shot (seemed as if he was aiming to curl round Casillas' right), Beckham came once again to bail out Real with yet another delivery that was finished second time round by Saldado. Beckham clearly should feature for England on the right side. Real should have wrapped up the game some three goals before. New recruit Sergio Ramos was again dismissed in injury time, this time for violent conduct in reaction to a challenge.

Porto's shock defeat to Artmedia was another match that went against expectation, the home side being 2-0 up as well. Quaresma curled superbly with the outside of his right boot for Lucho Gonzalez, Diego finished a nice run for a second and then it all came tumbling down as Artmedia played and Porto stopped. Petras got one back before half time with neat foot control, and then in the second half a counter-attack from a Porto corner found Kozak on the left and he too showed neat foot work to go round Baia and score. Porto were asleep at the back when defending a Kozak free-kick, allowing Borbely to steal ahead of Ricardo Costa to touch the winner.

I felt that Inter were rightly denied a goal from the spot, Waterreus touched the ball and it took little for Julio Cruz, in for the rested Adriano, to go down, similar to Reyes against Ajax. Inter made little of their home advantage and the free-kick was very unlucky for Rangers.

Fenerbahce enjoyed a good game against PSV, who seemed a shadow of the side last season in the semi-finals. Then, they held up AC Milan to the end. Last night they were comprehensively picked apart. Vennegoor of Hesselink handballed ridiculously, Alex stepped up well for the penalty, Gomes didnt even move literally until the ball was kicked. In the second half Vennegoor of Hesselink committed football suicide by pulling on Selcuk, and was duly sent off. One Fenerbahce player reminded the ref it was a second booking, and another applauded the sending off, unprofessional in my opinion. The ref is administering the law, not judge, jury, and executioner on a wanted felon. Anelka then explioted space on the left and fed Alex for his second, such a simple head down that surprised me Gomes didnt stop. Appiah wrapping up PSV's dismal night with a third.


RedsMan.