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All guns blazing Arsenal stuns Juventus in Champions League; Real rollsPosted: Wednesday December 05, 2001 5:05 AMUpdated: Wednesday December 05, 2001 1:15 PM
LONDON (Reuters) -- Arsenal and Real Madrid signed off for the winter break in the Champions League on Tuesday with impressive wins over Juventus and Panathinaikos respectively. Swede Freddie Ljungberg scored twice as Arsenal stormed to a 3-1 victory over group D favourites Juventus at Highbury. Spanish international striker Raul was also on target twice as Real triumphed 3-0 at the Bernabeu to make it two wins out of two in group C. There were also victories for Bayer Leverkusen and Sparta Prague in the final round of games in the two groups until the competition resumes in February. Arsenal have lost their last six Champions League matches away from home but showed once again that they are a different proposition at their north London home. Arsene Wenger's side tore into Juve from the start and a poacher's strike by Ljungberg and Thierry Henry's superb free kick -- his 19th goal of the season -- put them in control at the interval.
A bizarre own goal by Arsenal's 21-year-old goalkeeper Stuart Taylor -- who watched in horror as Sol Campbell's goal line clearance of David Trezeguet's shot rebounded off him into the net -- put the Italians back in the game. But Arsenal saved the best for last as substitute Dennis Bergkamp twisted this way, then that, before deftly flicking the ball through for Ljungberg to lob in his second. BERGKAMP CLASS "It was a very important game for us," said Ljungberg. "We showed we can play some good football against good teams. "Hopefully we can do that away. We need to do that." Wenger said: "We saw a bit of everything tonight, brilliance, resilience and character. "The third goal was a touch of class from Dennis." All four teams in group D have three points after Deportivo Coruna, so impressive in their 2-0 defeat of Arsenal in their first match, crashed 3-0 in Leverkusen. The Germans had suffered their first league defeat of the season at the weekend and were thumped 4-0 by Juve last Thursday in their fog-delayed first group D game. Ze Roberto's free kick started a spell of three goals in 15 second-half minutes -- German internationals Oliver Neuville and Michael Ballack got the others -- as Leverkusen rediscovered their winning touch. "We never took all the talk about a crisis seriously," said coach Klaus Toppmoeller. Real have a firm grip on group C after a routine victory over Panathinaikos. Two sharp finishes by Raul in the second half embellished Ivan Helguera's deflected first-half effort in a dominant display by Vicente del Bosque's team, the 1998 and 2000 Champions League winners. SUPERIOR REAL Del Bosque was loathe to read too much into the result, however. "All in all we were far superior," he said. "But you don't know if that's down to your own qualities or perhaps the opposition being timid." Libor Sionko's diving header after 74 minutes gave Sparta Prague a valuable 1-0 victory over Porto who missed a host of chances in front of their own fans in Portugal. Sparta are second in group C on three points, with Porto and Panathinaikos both on one point. In Tuesday's UEFA Cup third round action Roda JC Kerkrade overturned a 1-0 first leg deficit to eliminate the 1996 finalists Girondins Bordeaux of France 2-1 on aggregate. Both Roda goals came after Bordeaux had Laurent Batlles sent off in the 55th minute as the Dutch side reached the last 16 for the first time. Borussia Dortmund beat FC Copenhagen 1-0 in Germany to progress 2-0 overall and Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv, conquerors of English premier league club Chelsea in the second round, won 1-0 at Lokomotiv Moscow to seal a 3-1 aggregate win.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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