AC Milan v Celtic

The final group stage match sees Celtic and Milan separated by a mere point. Unfortunately, the game is in Milan and Celtic have never won an away Champions League match. Nonetheless, Celtic come into the match prepared to play for a draw and thus qualify to the round of sixteen. The first half saw lots of attacking play from Milan but Celtic's defense has stood strong, allowing few shots on goal and closing down scoring chances. Kaka did get free for a shot around the edge of the box but his shot sailed high and wide; I doubt Kaka will miss that chance again. If Celtic are to score, they'll probably need to do it off a set-piece of some sort, as they aren't bringing forward enough players in support to attack Milan's impenetrable defense. Celtic need to continue to defend well and play possession football in order to pull out a draw. A win would take first place in the group while Celtic can still qualify if they lose. On the one hand, I want to see some goals, on the other, if Celtic score it will probably pull Milan out of its funk and bounce back to score a couple goals, making Celtic's status unsure.
Milan continued their strong attack, finally forcing Celtic to concede a Filipo Inzaghi goal in the 70th minute. Boruc had some great saves for Celtic and the late subsitution of Jan Venegoor of Hesselink looked like Celtic could pull even with the defending champions but Milan stood tough. Thankfully, the other result ended in a 2-1 victory for Benfica and Celtic supporters in Italy began to celebrate the club's second consecutive year advancing in the Champions League to the knockout round of sixteen.

Manchester United v Fulham

The return of Rooney prompted my attention for this match, a nice way to get the afternoon off to a pleasant start on Monday. The reunion of Tevez and Rooney took a back seat to Cristiano Ronaldo, recently the runner-up for France's Ballon D'Or, the award for European Footballer of the Year, which, somewhat predictably, went to AC Milan's Kaka. Ronaldo, perhaps feeling a bit snubbed, showed great attacking pace on the right. United looked strong as usual on the wings, attacking well and putting shots on goal early. Rooney looked good alongside Tevez and both players created some havoc in the Fulham backfield, leading to Ronaldo's first goal in the 10th minute. On a defended cross, Ronaldo somehow found the ball at his feet and crushed a volley across the face of goal, past a helpless keeper. The United attack continued, but as the half drew near, Fulham missed a great chance to equalize on a cross, sending the header wide. In the second half, United continued their attack, leading to a beautiful cross from the right, a beautiful cross from John O'Shea which led Ronaldo over his defender to crush his header into the lower right. United continued to press forward, as Ronaldo sought his first hat-trick for Man U. A wonderful ball froward from Giggs put Ronaldo one-on-one with the keeper but he was carded for diving, which the replay could not confirm or deny. It sure must have been tempting for the Portuguese winger to try to complete his hat-trick from the spot but I'm not sure of the call. Nevertheless, a good performance from Manchester as they pulled to second place in the standings.