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Group H
AC Milan 1-1 Barcelona
Philippe Mexes led a fine showing by the Milan defence and midfeld as they held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw
Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan side put up a resolute defensive performance to hold Barcelona to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro.
Lionel Messi marked his return to the Barca starting XI with a goal, but that was to get his side back level after Robinho had given Milan the lead with a goal in the 9th minute.
Milan opted to leave out Mario Balotelli and played Robinho and Kaka in the advanced positions with Kaka dropping back to defend when not in possession. They started brightly and took a deserved lead, taking advantage of a mix-up between Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano. Robinho made the most of it by stealing the ball and exchanged a neat one-two with Kaka, before dispatching the ball goalwards.
On 23 minutes, the scores were level when Andres Iniesta fed Messi on the right who cut back into the box and warded off pressure from four Milan defenders to slot home. A few minutes later, Philippe Mexes had a glorious chance to put Milan back in the lead, but he put his header wide with Victor Valdes all over the place.
On the stroke of half-time, Neymar sent in a rasping volley from the left-hand side that went inches past the far post.
The chances continued in the second half with both teams having chances to score more goals. With a gaping goal in front of him, Robinho was guilty of a glaring miss as he inexplicably dummied over Sulley Muntari’s cross from the left, with no one behind him. Barca had their chance too, in the 70th minute, when Messi picked out Adriano who took a touch, but smashed the ball wide.
In the end, Milan earned a hard-fought point from the game, which keeps them in second place in the group behind Barcelona.
Celtic 2-1 Ajax
Beram Kayal scored Celtic’s second on the night
Scottish giants Celtic notched up their first win of the competition with a 2-1 home win over Ajax.
Neil Lennon’s Celtic were short-handed in the absence of captain Scott Brown (suspension) and Kris Commons (injury), but put up a hard-working performance to grind out a win against a technically skilled opponent.
James Forrest’s 43rd minute penalty sent Celtic Park wild before Beram Kayal’s deflected shot flew into the net with the keeper wrong-footed on 53 minutes. Ajax defender Stefano Denswil was at the heart of both goals – his challenge on Anthony Stokes resulted in the penalty, while the second came from a deflection off of him.
With the four minutes to go, the hosts were reduced to 10 men when substitute Nir Biton was sent off for a rash two-footed challenge on Thulani Serero. Ajax grabbed a goal back with the man advantage thanks to Lasse Schone, but that would prove to be the last action on the night with barely any time remaining even for a restart.
