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Cristiano Ronaldo looked in good touch and inspired Real Madrid to a win against hosts FC Zürich. The final score read Zürich 2 – 5 Real Madrid.
Ronaldo scored from a free-kick which was well within the reach of the Swiss team’s keeper, Raúl added a second with a close range shot followed by Gonzalo Higuaín netting the third. Real Madrid scored 3 goals in the first-half and the game seemed to have ended. However, Zürich made a thrilling come-back with two goals within minutes, Xavier Margairaz converted a penalty while  Silvan Aegerter scored with a header. The game looked competitive once again until Ronaldo’s 89′ goal and Guti added another in the added time.

Xabi Alonso also looked in good form with some  accurate passes to both Ronaldo and Kaka, sadly though he had to be substituted after going over on his ankle in the 55′ and was replaced by  Fernando Gago.

Madrid played some flowing offensive football with all the new signing’s namely Alonso, Ronaldo and Kaka demonstrating good movement. Coach Pellegrini has some cause for concern with a few lapses in defense and an injury to Xabi Alonso.

Zürich showed great character and seemed unperturbed by the Spanish giants. The final score doesn’t portray the effort and courage the Swiss outfit displayed against a far better side.

In other matches, English teams – Manchester United and Chelsea began their campaigns with a victory each. Bayern Munich also gained 3 points, Wolfsburg and AC Milan persisted in their respective matches, while Juventus were held by Bordeaux and Athelico Madrid failed to overcome APOEL Nicosia.

Man Untd won a tough encounter with the Turkish club Besiktas, thanks to Paul Scholes’ well-placed header. Chelsea had to not only negotiate Porto but also the weather conditions at Stamford Bridge, but managed to win the game 1 – 0 with Anelka striking. Porto’s Fernando was sent-off during the match.

Upcoming Champions League Matches on September 16, 2009:

(All times are CET)

Dynamo Kyiv    20:45    Rubin
Internazionale    20:45    Barcelona
Liverpool    20:45    Debrecen
Lyon    20:45    Fiorentina
Olympiacos    20:45    AZ
Sevilla    20:45    Unirea Urziceni
Standard    20:45    Arsenal
Stuttgart    20:45    Rangers

Manchester City’s Emannuel Adebayor played sensationally in his first encounter against his former club, Arsenal. City finished with a 4 – 2 win over the Gunners. Arsenal have failed to triumph over both Manchester teams, losing to Manchester United two weeks back.

Both teams had to cope with injuries to key players; Robinho and Carlos Tevez were both ruled out due to ankle and knee injuries, respectively. For Arsenal, Andrei Arshavin had to sit out because of a groin injury he suffered during Russia’s World Cup 2010 qualifier against Wales. Arshavin was sad to miss out this week’s Premier League match but was proud to play for his country.

Micah Richards’  header hit the post and then went in by hitting keeper Manuel Almunia’s head, counting as an own goal. Most of the match was dominated by Arsenal but they failed to make any headway. Dutchman Robin Van Persie scored the equalizer for Arsenal in the 62nd minute. A few minutes later Craig Bellamy once again gave City the lead. Adebayor scored the third goal and sprinted the whole length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans. A chair was shown in his direction as was a yellow card. Shaun Wright-Phillips added to the tally scoring the fourth goal, however, Arsenal did not give up and managed to score a second through Tomas Rosicky(87′). They came close to pulling another goal back with a sweet strike from Van Persie which sadly came back off the goal post.

Other results for the day

Blackburn Rovers    3-1    Wolverhampton Wanderers
Liverpool    4-0    Burnley
Manchester City    4-2    Arsenal
Portsmouth    2-3    Bolton Wanderers
Stoke City    1-2    Chelsea
Sunderland    4-1    Hull City
Wigan Athletic    1-0    West Ham United
Tottenham Hotspur    1-3    Manchester United

Brazil thrash Argentina 3-1 to book a place in the World Cup 2010, South Africa.

Argentina Coach, Diego Maradona took complete blame for the defeat. Brazil joined South Africa, Japan, Australia, Korea Republic, Netherlands, Korea DPR and Ghana as  qualified teams for the Cup.

Portugal ended up with a 1 – 1 draw against Denmark.

With Portugal and Argentina both struggling to cement their place in the World Cup, the organizers are wary and hoping that these teams qualify since they house  star powers such as FIFA player of the year – Cristiano Ronaldo  and FIFA player of the year runner up – Lionnel Messi,  respectively.

Defending champions Italy played Georgia and must have surely included Georgia skipper Kakha Kalaze in their end-of-match celebrations as he scored both the Italian goals (own goals)!

Spain won convincingly against Belgium, the scoreline read 5-0.

Belgium Vs Spain FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualifier

England recorded a 2-1 win over Slovenia but not without controversy. Rooney allegedly dived to gain a penalty, which was later converted by Lampard.

Ghana 2-0 Sudan also qualified with Chelsea’s Michael Essien scoring the second goal.

2007 defending champions India beat Syria 5-4 on penalties to record their second consecutive Nehru Cup title at the Ambedkar Stadium on 31st August 2009. This cup title pushed India to the 149^th spot in the FIFA Rankings, although the win in the final was not counted in the rankings since it ended in a tie-break.

Man of the Match, keeper Subroto Paul was the hero for the day saving three penalties.

The Match

It was a keenly contested encounter with both teams playing well in the league stage to reach the final. The Ambedkar stadium was filled to its capacity mostly with Delhi University students. The fans cheered every attacking run made by India. The Indian team showed good ball possession and instances of very accurate passing. India came close to scoring when they were awarded a free kick early in the second half. However, the free kick taken by Steven Dias was stopped by the Syrian goal-keeper. Both finalists tried hard to score goals, most of the build-up play looked effective but neither team managed to score in normal time. Coach Bob Houghton’s decision to rest key players in the last league match against Syria proved to be an important one, it had a positive effect on the players as they appeared refreshed and they needed to be when the match continued into extra time.

Extra Time

India earned a free kick in the 114th minute due to a foul being committed on captain Baichung Bhutia. Renedy took the free kick and converted it as the ball swung from right to left to beat the Syrian goalkeeper. However, India’s hopes for a win were dashed when Syria scored an equalizer through Weal Ayan in the dying minutes, last 30 seconds! The match then went down to penalties.

The penalty shootout

Climax Lawrence scored the first goal for India. Renedy took the second penalty but missed and hit the goal post. India’s keeper brought about much needed hope when he stopped the second Syrian penalty by diving to his left. Sunil Chhetri gave India the lead by converting the third penalty. Once again Subroto Paul stopped the opponents’ penalty which helped India to maintain the lead. One more penalty conversion would’ve sealed the title for India, but Mehrajuddin Wadoo missed. The shootout continued with Syria leveling and Sukumar Singh scoring to give India the lead. Steven Dias and Anwar also converted their penalty kicks.

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent his congratulatory wishes to the  team. He was quoted – “Congratulations on your remarkable win last evening. It was a magnificent performance and the whole country is proud of you. The victory, I am sure will inspire sportsmen and women across the country.”

India earned a much deserved $40,000 for their successful triumph, while Syria gained $20,000 as runners up. With this victory India completed a hat-trick of title wins (Nehru Cup 2009, AFC Challenge Cup 2008 and Nehru Cup 2007) in just over two years under Bob Houghton. The AFC Challenge win also booked a place for the Indian Football Team in the 2011 Asian Cup.

Bolton (2) V/s Liverpool (3) held at the Reebok Stadium.

Bolton started off the match looking good and leading the score sheet twice with goals from Kevin Davies (33’) and Tamir Cohen (46’). Liverpool took time to warm-up but looked free flowing in the second-half.

The first goal of the match came from a Bolton corner which was smartly delivered by Taylor right into the penalty area and was converted by the Wanderers’ skipper. Tamir Cohen marked his successful return to the starting line-up with a goal against Aston Villa and the Israeli didn’t disappoint in this match either. Cohen gave Reina no chance with a powerful left-footed shot.

The first Kops equalizer was scored by Glen Johnson just before the first half came to an end, while the second was scored by Fernando Torres (50’). The 2^nd Reds equalizer came right after Davis was sent-off after receiving a second yellow card for a challenge on Lucas. Fabrice Muamba tried his best to man-mark Steven Gerrard, but a thrilling comeback by Liverpool was once again scripted by the inspirational captain. His powerful strike in the 82^nd minute was enough to see Liverpool home. Dirk Kuyt showed another impressive performance, he assisted the 2^nd goal by bringing down the ball right into Torres’ path and looked sharp throughout the match till he was substituted for Dossena in the 88^th minute.

Team Line-ups:

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Samuel, Knight, Cahill, Ricketts, Davis, Muamba, Taylor, Cohen (Steinsson 77), Kevin Davies, Elmander (Basham 58) (Subs not used: Al Habsi, O’Brien, Riga, Chung-Yong, Robinson)

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Gerrard, Torres, Riera (Benayoun 63), Kyrgiakos, Kuyt, Mascherano (Voronin 73), Lucas, Insua, Carragher (Subs not used: Plessis, Kelly, Skrtel, Dossena, Gulacsi)

Roundup of other matches:

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Birmingham City

Stoke City 1-0 Sunderland

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Hull City

Blackburn Rovers 0-0 West Ham United

Chelsea 3-0 Burnley

Manchester United 2 – 1 Arsenal