ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a largely uneventful and tactically fought Champions League game, Manchester United and Galatasaray played to a scoreless draw to the disappointment of thousands of fans.
The alertness and agility of United's Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel rescued his team and efforts by Ukrainian winger Andrei Kanchelskis and Welsh striker Mark Hughes were thwarted by the Galatasaray defense.
In contrast to last November's unruly incidents that marred the scoreless draw of the two teams here, the atmosphere was relatively calm with no English hooligans in sight. Only 261 English fans -- regular United ticket-holders -- allowed to the 32,000-seat Ali Sami Yen stadium watched the match quietly. Strict security measures helped maintain order.
A spectacular dive by Schmeichel in the 32nd minute stopped a probable goal after Galatasaray forward Hakan Sukur made a powerful shot from a distance. He also made a brave double save to foil Galatasaray substitute Arif Erdem in the 61st.
Six minutes from the end, Galatasaray's Lithuanian keeper, Gintaras Stauche, made a tremendous block to keep out a swerving 25-meter drive from Kanchelskis.
Although the game was not as acrimonious as last season's goal-less tie which ended in United's elimination, four Manchester players, Hughes, Lee Sharpe, Paul Ince and Kanchelskis were shown the yellow card for hard tackles.
"I can't complain. A draw was a fair result for both teams. The important thing is that we came away with a point," said United manager Alex Ferguson after the game. As to the yellow cards, he said "they were just isolated incidents. It was not a dirty game."
In other Champions League matches Wednesday:
Paris St. Germain 2, Spartak Moscow 1
In Moscow, Paris St. Germain came from a goal down at half time to overcome Moscow Spartak 2-1 in front of more than 40,000 at Luzhniki Stadium.
Moscow led at the half after Rashid Rakhimov scored at the 40th minute. But PSG came back strong in the second half with strong counter-attacks, Paul Le Guen equalizing in the 50th minute and Brazilian forward Valdo scoring nine minutes later.
The game was a second bad result for Spartak, which lost its first match to longtime rival Kiev Dynamo. Paris went into Wednesday's game leading the group after defeating Bayern Munich and now has maximum points from two games.
Spartak played the last half hour of the game with only 10 men after Ramis Mamedov got a red card.
AEK Athens 1, Ajax Amsterdam 2
In Athens, Ajax Amsterdam scored its second consecutive win with goals from Jari Litmanen and Patrick Kluivert giving it a 2-1 victory over AEK.
Ajax, which made a impressive start to the competition with a 2-0 win over holders Milan, proved its class in Athens after a nervous first half hour when the Greeks took the lead in the 30th minute with a 15-meter left-footed blast by Tony Savevski.
It only took three minutes for the Dutch to recover when Finnish striker Litmanen, who played with a painkilling injection for a ankle injury, trapped a perfect cross from Frank de Boer and fired it home in the 33rd from the edge of the box.
IFK Goteborg 2, FC Barcelona 1
In Goteborg, Sweden, midfielder Jesper Blomqvist scored with less than a minute left to give IFK Goteborg a 2-1 victory over last season's finalist FC Barcelona.
Blomqvist, 20, who was a member of Sweden's squad that finished third in the World Cup last July, headed a perfect pass from defender Pontus Kamark from just inside the penalty box past goalkeeper Carlos Busquets.
In the 10th minute, Hristo Stoichkov, one of Europe's top strikers, intercepted a long back-pass from striker Stefan Pettersson and beat Goteborg goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli.
Barcelona, which lost last year's final to AC Milan, dominated the first half before a rain-drenched crowd of 32,215 at Ullevi Stadium.
Benfica Portugal 3, Anderlecht Belgium 1
In Lisbon, Argentinian ace Claudio Caniggia burned the defense twice for uncontested goals Wednesday as Benfica topped Belgium's Anderlecht 3-1 in Champions' Cup play.
The Belgians had only goalkeeper Filip de Wilde's brilliant defense to thank that the margin wasn't at least three goals greater. Relentlessly under fire, De Wilde stopped a Caniggia penalty with his knee, blocked two dead-on shots with his hands and another with the tip of his cleat.
Anderlecht's only score was an own goal by Benfica defender Paulo Madeira, who misread a curving cross-net pass in the 88th minute and accidentally tipped it in.
Bayern Munich 1, Dinamo Kiev 0
In Bonn, Bayern Munich beat 10-man Dinamo Kiev 1-0. The only goal came in the ninth minute after sustained Bayern pressure.
Swiss midfielder Alain Sutter, standing just inside the Kiev half, chipped a pass to Mehmet Scholl who looped the ball over advancing goalkeeper Oleksander Shovkovsky from 25 meters.
Hajduk Split 1, Steaua Bucharest 0
In Bucharest, Aljosa Asanovic scored with a powerful, low shot two minutes from the end as Croatia's Hajduk Split edged Steaua Bucharest 1-0 as the visitors surprised Steaua, the 1986 titlist recently in decline, with fast attacks.
The alertness and agility of United's Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel rescued his team and efforts by Ukrainian winger Andrei Kanchelskis and Welsh striker Mark Hughes were thwarted by the Galatasaray defense.
In contrast to last November's unruly incidents that marred the scoreless draw of the two teams here, the atmosphere was relatively calm with no English hooligans in sight. Only 261 English fans -- regular United ticket-holders -- allowed to the 32,000-seat Ali Sami Yen stadium watched the match quietly. Strict security measures helped maintain order.
A spectacular dive by Schmeichel in the 32nd minute stopped a probable goal after Galatasaray forward Hakan Sukur made a powerful shot from a distance. He also made a brave double save to foil Galatasaray substitute Arif Erdem in the 61st.
Six minutes from the end, Galatasaray's Lithuanian keeper, Gintaras Stauche, made a tremendous block to keep out a swerving 25-meter drive from Kanchelskis.
Although the game was not as acrimonious as last season's goal-less tie which ended in United's elimination, four Manchester players, Hughes, Lee Sharpe, Paul Ince and Kanchelskis were shown the yellow card for hard tackles.
"I can't complain. A draw was a fair result for both teams. The important thing is that we came away with a point," said United manager Alex Ferguson after the game. As to the yellow cards, he said "they were just isolated incidents. It was not a dirty game."
In other Champions League matches Wednesday:
Paris St. Germain 2, Spartak Moscow 1
In Moscow, Paris St. Germain came from a goal down at half time to overcome Moscow Spartak 2-1 in front of more than 40,000 at Luzhniki Stadium.
Moscow led at the half after Rashid Rakhimov scored at the 40th minute. But PSG came back strong in the second half with strong counter-attacks, Paul Le Guen equalizing in the 50th minute and Brazilian forward Valdo scoring nine minutes later.
The game was a second bad result for Spartak, which lost its first match to longtime rival Kiev Dynamo. Paris went into Wednesday's game leading the group after defeating Bayern Munich and now has maximum points from two games.
Spartak played the last half hour of the game with only 10 men after Ramis Mamedov got a red card.
AEK Athens 1, Ajax Amsterdam 2
In Athens, Ajax Amsterdam scored its second consecutive win with goals from Jari Litmanen and Patrick Kluivert giving it a 2-1 victory over AEK.
Ajax, which made a impressive start to the competition with a 2-0 win over holders Milan, proved its class in Athens after a nervous first half hour when the Greeks took the lead in the 30th minute with a 15-meter left-footed blast by Tony Savevski.
It only took three minutes for the Dutch to recover when Finnish striker Litmanen, who played with a painkilling injection for a ankle injury, trapped a perfect cross from Frank de Boer and fired it home in the 33rd from the edge of the box.
IFK Goteborg 2, FC Barcelona 1
In Goteborg, Sweden, midfielder Jesper Blomqvist scored with less than a minute left to give IFK Goteborg a 2-1 victory over last season's finalist FC Barcelona.
Blomqvist, 20, who was a member of Sweden's squad that finished third in the World Cup last July, headed a perfect pass from defender Pontus Kamark from just inside the penalty box past goalkeeper Carlos Busquets.
In the 10th minute, Hristo Stoichkov, one of Europe's top strikers, intercepted a long back-pass from striker Stefan Pettersson and beat Goteborg goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli.
Barcelona, which lost last year's final to AC Milan, dominated the first half before a rain-drenched crowd of 32,215 at Ullevi Stadium.
Benfica Portugal 3, Anderlecht Belgium 1
In Lisbon, Argentinian ace Claudio Caniggia burned the defense twice for uncontested goals Wednesday as Benfica topped Belgium's Anderlecht 3-1 in Champions' Cup play.
The Belgians had only goalkeeper Filip de Wilde's brilliant defense to thank that the margin wasn't at least three goals greater. Relentlessly under fire, De Wilde stopped a Caniggia penalty with his knee, blocked two dead-on shots with his hands and another with the tip of his cleat.
Anderlecht's only score was an own goal by Benfica defender Paulo Madeira, who misread a curving cross-net pass in the 88th minute and accidentally tipped it in.
Bayern Munich 1, Dinamo Kiev 0
In Bonn, Bayern Munich beat 10-man Dinamo Kiev 1-0. The only goal came in the ninth minute after sustained Bayern pressure.
Swiss midfielder Alain Sutter, standing just inside the Kiev half, chipped a pass to Mehmet Scholl who looped the ball over advancing goalkeeper Oleksander Shovkovsky from 25 meters.
Hajduk Split 1, Steaua Bucharest 0
In Bucharest, Aljosa Asanovic scored with a powerful, low shot two minutes from the end as Croatia's Hajduk Split edged Steaua Bucharest 1-0 as the visitors surprised Steaua, the 1986 titlist recently in decline, with fast attacks.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.
Remind me later.
×
Remind me next month
Thank you! Your reminder is set.
We will send you one reminder email a month from now. For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our Privacy Policy.