Bad night for the Brits as Lyon and Real progress

PARIS: British clubs had a horror night in Champions League clashes with two of their former winners of European club football's premier competition Manchester United
and Celtic losing while last season's finalists Arsenal were held at home to a draw.

United went down 1-0 away at Danish outfit FC Copenhagen - former Aston Villa striker Marcus Allback scoring - while Celtic's emotional return along with the surviving Lisbon Lions from their European Cup success to Lisbon ended in a damp squib losing 3-0 to Benfica on Wednesday.

British misery was Portuguese delight as 2004 winners FC Porto stayed in the hunt to go through beating hapless Hamburg 3-1 in Germany, which exacerbated Arsenal's woeful night as they belied their nickname of 'The Gunners' by firing blanks missing some of the easiest chances one could ever be given in the 0-0 draw with CSKA Moscow.

CSKA head the group with seven points while Porto joined Arsenal on seven points.

However, while some teams missed their chances of wrapping up their places in the last 16 both Lyon and Group E rivals Real Madrid did with 1-0 wins over Dynamo Kiev and Steaua Bucharest respectively.

Lyon, though, were more impressive than the rather faded Spanish giants - who saw Ruud van Nistelrooy, preferred to Ronaldo, miss a penalty and then have his blushes spared by an own goal from Banel Nicolita, described as one of 'the stupidest goals ever'.

AC Milan also took a huge step towards the last 16 with a 4-1 walloping of Anderlecht, thanks largely to a virtuoso performance by Brazilian Kaka, who scored a hat-trick and was also labelled perhaps in somewhat over the top fashion by coach Carlo Ancelotti as the 'best player in the world'.

Lille's chances of making their second place in the same group secure went askew as they went down 1-0 away at AEK Athens, who secured their first win in 22 Champions League matches - helped ironically by the sending-off of Lille's Greek defender Efstathios Tavlaridis after just 22 minutes.

In Denmark, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was left defending his decision to field a relatively understrength team which saw the end of their seven match
unbeaten run but they should nevertheless still cruise into the next round.

"We had a team that was easily capable of winning the match without question and we controlled it most of the night," said the feisty knight of the realm, who will
celebrate his 20th anniversary in charge on November 6.

"I don't think we should concern ourselves with the team we played. We should concern ourselves with losing a bad goal from a corner."

Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken voiced his pride in the way his players had battled to the end to secure a win that keeps their hopes of reaching the last 16 of the competition alive.

"Some of them could barely walk in the last ten minutes but still we managed to keep it tight after we scored," he said.

From Ferguson's former Manchester United playmaker and now Celtic manager Gordon Strachan there were no excuses about the humbling by Benfica, refusing to accept that the presence of 12 of the Lisbon Lions had affected his team's performance.

"I would be a weak man trying to blame some legendary figures (for the performance)," said Strachan.

His skipper Neil Lennon was blunter. "We never got out of the traps."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had his usual rose tinted glasses on despite an astonishing set of misses from Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Tomas Rosicky - the latter could be labelled the stupidest miss of the year as he tapped the ball into the goalkeeper's arms with the goal gaping wide from three yards.

"I feel that was the best Champions League game I have seen in my time at the club," said the studious Frenchman.

"We put them out of position six or seven times in the first half and normally the score in this game is 7-0.

"There were lots of positives. We dominated them by miles and there was at least a division between the teams."

While Wenger has tasted at least the glory of a Champions League final it was as if AEK Athens had won one after their landmark victory over Lille.

"It's only a beginning, but it was a very important win for us, and hugely satisfying for our fans," said their coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.