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Van Persie: "Three points most important"
Wednesday 26 November 2008
Arsenal qualified for the next
round of the Champions League on Tuesday although they
had a lot of trouble beating Dynamo Kiev: 1-0.
Arsene Wenger's team had the better
of the play but were unable to really threaten the Ukrainian
defense and had to be cautious for the Kiev counter
throughout the 90 minutes.
Substitute Nicholas Bendtner scored
the only goal of the game three minutes from the end
- on pink boots!
Dutchman Robin van Persie
knew his team hadn't played a great game.
"But the most important thing
is that we got the three points, especially given what's
been going on here in recent weeks," the forward
said.
Arsenal are not doing well in their
domestic league as the team are only fifth, ten points
behind leaders Chelsea.
An outburst of captain William
Gallas about fellow players cost Gallas the captaincy
and indirectly caused his team to go down 3-0 at Manchester
City.
Van Persie, not in great shape
yesterday, thought his team did some good business against
Kiev and knew why it took them so long to decide the
game: "That was due to ourselves and to Kiev. Our
build up from the back was too slow and they kept nine
players behind the ball at all time."
Manchester United, where Edwin
van der Sar was rested and didn't travel with the
team, also qualified via a 0-0 draw at Villareal.
The Dutch enclave in Madrid had
to travel to Borisov in Belarus to take on local Bate.
Wesley Sneijder and Royston
Drenthe were in the starting lineup and Rafael
van der Vaart came off the bench in the 79th minute.
Under arctic conditions (-18°C!)
especially Drenthe played a fine game, causing most
of the danger for Madrid from the left against the rock
hard Belarusians.
Drenthe also laid on Madrid's goal
scored by Raul in the 7th minute.
Dutch defender Glenn Loovens
was less fortunate with Celtic.
The former Feyenoord youngster
played the full 90 minutes as his team lost 2-1 to Aalborg
and saw their European adventure come to an end.
Celtic did take the lead through
Robson in the second half and were hoping a win would
see them into the UEFA Cup.
However the equalizer by Caca and
an own goal from Gary Caldwell put the Scots in fourth
place of Group E without a chance to overtake numbers
3 Aalborg in the last remaining group game.
Mark van Bommel and Bayern
Munich booked a relatively easy victory over Steaua
Bucharest: 3-0.
It was the first time ever that
Bayern beat a Rumanian opponent at home in a European
tournament.
All goals came in the second half
and were scored by Klose (2) and Toni.
The Germans progress into the next
round from group F, together with Ol. Lyon.
Dutch coach Dick Advocaat
can forget about the next round of the Champions League
as his UEFA Cup winning side Zenit St Petersburg were
held to a goalless draw at home by Juventus.
Juventus had already qualified
for the next round but were by no means willing to just
give the game away.
The Italians had the best chances
in the first half, but the Russians were dangerous throughout
the entertaining game and came very close twice through
Dany in the last 30 minutes.
With Madrid winning in Borisov
Zenit are now out of the Champions League and will progress
to the third round of the UEFA Cup.
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