UEFA Champions League 2014-15 Recap: Lionel Messi Gets Closer to Raul's Career Goals Record
Forty goals were scored to start off Week 11 of UEFA Champions League action on Tuesday, a day which saw Lionel Messi move up the all-time scoring list as well as Luiz Adriano of Shakhtar Donetsk put five goals behind the net.
Dutch Eredivisie champions Ajax Amsterdam lost 3-1 to La Liga's Barcelona with Messi scoring his 69th career UEFA Champions League goal. Neymar put Barca ahead 1-0 early in the seventh minute of the game with an assist from Messi before Messi scored in the 24th minute after Andrés Iniesta found him open on a through-ball pass that helped Messi tie Cristiano Ronaldo on the all-time Champions League scorers list. Both players are now just two goals shy of surpassing Raul's record.
Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk pummeled Belarusian club BATE Borisov, with Luiz Adriano tying Messi's record of five goals in a single game. Adriano earned a hat trick during a 12-minute span just prior to the end of the first half -- the third-fastest time for such a feat in tournament history -- becoming the first player to score four goals in one half of a Champions League match.
German champs Bayern Munich punished Italian champions A.S. Roma 7-1 on the road in Stadio Olimpico in Rome, scoring five times before halftime. Arjen Robben led the way with two goals in a match that saw Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski, Franck Ribéry and Xherdan Shaqiri get a chance to get on the scoreboard as the German club cruised to victory.
AS Roma vs Bayern Munich
Current English Premier League (EPL) leaders Chelsea, playing without striker Diego Costa, also had an easy day, defeating NK Maribor at home, winning 6-0. Eden Hazard led the way with two goals in the game. John Terry, Didier Drogba and Loïc Rémy added to the tally while Maribor's Mitja Viler scored an own-goal to add insult to injury for the Slovanian club.
Chelsea vs NK Maribor
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Defending EPL champions Manchester City, on the other hand, blew a two-goal lead on the road against CSKA Moscow. The teams played in an empty Arena Khimki as the Russian team is currently serving sanctions for racist abuse among their fans in their September game against Roma.
Sergio Aguero, coming off a four-goal performance over the weekend against Tottenham, opened up the scoring for Man City after Edin Dzek gave the Argentinian striker the assist on a breakaway to put the English team up 1-0. Aguero assisted on the second goal for Manchester City after James Milner tipped in his shot past Moscow keeper Igor Akinfeev to go up 2-0.
But CSKA Moscow would come back after a breakdown in the Manchester City defense that allowed Ahmed Musa to find Seydou Doumbia open in the box to cut the lead down 2-1. Doumbia would help CSKA Moscow tie the game, flopping in the penalty area, allowing for Bebras Natcho to score off a penalty kick to salvage a 2-2 draw.
Paris Saint-Germain also struggled on the road on Tuesday in Cyprus against Apoel Nicosia, with defender David Luiz making an incredible header to prevent Tiago Gomes from scoring and breaking the 0-0 tie. Uruguyan striker Edinson Cavani bailed out PSG, beating the defenders with a pretty spin move to get the ball past Apoel keeper Urko Pardo with three minutes left in the game to win 1-0.
Bundesliga club Schalke 04 had to come back from a two-goal deficit despite playing with a man-advantage after Sporting Lisbon's Mauricio picked up his second yellow card in the 33rd minute. The team capitalized on Sporting Lisbon defender Jonathan Silva's blunder of an inadvertent handball in the penalty area that cost them a penalty kick to earn the 4-3 victory over the Portuguese Primeira Liga club. Schalke's Eric Choupo-Moting nailed the penalty shot in the 92nd minute to seal the victory for the German squad.
Schalke 04 vs Sporting Lisbon
FC Porto had better luck than their Portuguese counterparts against La Liga's Athletic Bilbao. Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma, who came off the bench in the 71st minute, broke the 1-1 tie after blasting a shot that Bilbao keeper Gorka Iraizoz completely mishandled and allowed to trickle past him, giving Porto the 2-1 win.
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