UEFA Champions Take Off With Thrills, High Hope

Posted by African Examiner Sports News Wednesday, February 18th, 2015

By Adeseye Adebiyi – The much awaited 17 th UEFA Champions league round of 16 matches was kick started Tuesday night with Paris Saint German taking on Chelsea and Sharkter Doneskt slugging it out with the Bayern Munich.

The kick off matches produced a mind blowing show of athleticism and sportsmanship as both games recorded a draw each.

The game between PSG and Chelsea ended 1-1, despite the latter (Chelsea) lead in the first half via a header from Branislav Ivanovic before Edison Cavani ruled out Ivanovic opener.

PSG have maintained a long unbeaten run at home in European tournament. The French side appeared to be the victor from the beginning of the match but continuous saves by the blues goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois was unbearable for the French side.

Although PSG were without the service of key players like Lucas Moura, Serge Aurier and Yohan Cabaye due to injuries but still managed to hold the Premier league leaders down. This will mark the second successive time both clubs will be meeting at knockout stage.

Recall, 11 months ago, the PSG defeated Chelsea at home with goals from Ezequeil Lavezzi and Javier Pastore and an own goal from David Luiz whom PSG signed from Chelsea last summer. The second leg produced yet another two goals but this time from the English side with Andre Schurrle and Demba Ba on target, coming from the bench and allowing the blues to progress to the next round on away goal rules.

Similarly, the game between the Bayern Munich and Shakhtar Donetsk ended goalless with the German champions down to 10 men, as referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco sent Xabi Alonso out of field, after receiving a second yellow card.

Despite this setback, the Germans were down to men they still dominated, but the Ukrainian club seemed to be on a safe side because they didn’t concede any goal that could be used against them even when it got to using the away goal rules by UEFA governing body.

In a nutshell, the game was considered poor most especially from the German side.