My Naija News - Kuyt Saves Reds' Blushes in Champions League

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Kuyt Saves Reds' Blushes in Champions League

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt scored an extra time winner for Liverpool in the 1-0 win over Standard Leige of Belgium to qualify the club for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.

It was a dismal display from the Reds who were saved by the goalkeeping heroics of Pepe Reina and it took until two minutes to penalties; with the UEFA Cup garing in their faces, that Liverpool finally got its reprieve.

The Anfield side was joined by Arsenal that recovered from the shock 1-0 loss at Fulham to romp 4-0 past Steve McLaren's FC Twente and qualify 6-0 on aggregate with Samir Nasri's first half strike complemented with those of captain William Gallas, Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner in the second half.

Atletico Madrid also replicated the Gunners with a 4-0 demolition of 10-man Schalke 04 to qualify 4-1 on aggregate. Sergio Aguero's first half goal was followed by second half goals from Diego Forlan, Luis Garcia and Maxi Lopez from the penalty spot.

In other games, Taye Taiwo's Olympique Marseille came through 3-1 on aggregate after a Mamadou Niang brace sealed a 2-1 win for the French sides while Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv eased to comfortable victories over Dynamo Zagreb and Spartak Moscow respectively.

Other clubs through to the group stage are Steaua Bucharest of Romania, Italian side Fiorentina, Greeks Panathinaikos and Turkish side Fenerbahce. The losing teams will end up in the UEFA Cup.

The draws for the group stage will hold later today from 5p.m Nigerian time with al of England's representatives in the pot for top seeds along with nine time winners Real Madrid, Italian league champions Inter Milan, 2006 winners Barcelona and seven time French league champions Olympique Lyon.

In the second pot are German duo Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen, PSV Eindhoven, Portuguese sides Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto which is participating after winning an appeal aganinst its expulsion, Italian duo Juventus and AS Roma as well as Villarreal from Spain.

In pot three are Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg, Steaua Bucharest, Panathinaikos, Bordeaux, Celtic, Swiss side FC Basel and Fenerbahce while Shakhtar Donetsk, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Dynamo Kiev, CFR Cluj, Aalborg, Anorthosis Famagusta and Bate Borisov make up pot four.

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