It was another decent round for the Italian clubs in the Champions league as all teams picked up valuable points that given all a chance of going through to the last 16. Milan tonight put one foot into the last 16 with a strong 2-0 home win against Bate. They barely had to break out of second gear to gain the three points thanks to two excellent goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a Prince Boateng missile. That being said Milan played with an attitude that a goal would come eventually and although it most certainly did they almost paid the price while the encounter was balanced at 0 - 0 when Van Bommel made a sloppy pass straight to Bate forward Bressan who should have put the away side 1-0 up. However, it all ended well for Milan who now head to Belarus in the next round where they again must pick up three points before their titanic clash with Barcelona at San Siro on match day five.
Last night also saw good results for the Italian clubs. Inter picked up a comfortable 1-0 win away at Lille where Wesley Sneijder and Mauro Zarate combined some magic to supply Giampaolo Pazzini who fired home with thunderous effect to put the French Champions behind. Inter looked strong but once Sneijder and Zarate were withdrawn they lacked creativity and Lille took advantage of that, putting pressure on Inter's back line which has not exactly been up to task as of late. However they and talisman Eden Hazard could not find a way through and Inter emerged victorious and like AC Milan sit top of their Champions League group.
Napoli however arguably pulled of the result of the round taking a point of Bayern, and scoring a goal against them something which had not been done since August 7th. Bayern have been steamrolling opposition all season long and at this moment in time, along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, are arguably playing the best football in Europe so far this season. They took the lead through a defensive lapse by Napoli after just 90s seconds and the writing looked on the wall for Napoli. However, they steadied the ship and began to take the game to Bayern at the end of the first half. They were rewarded with a goal as well after Maggio's goal was deflected in by Badstauber. It could have been even better for Napoli as well had the referree spotted Schweinsteigers handball which denied Hamsik a goal scoring opportunity. He did however spot a soft handball, if you can even call it that, which came off Cannavaro's arm when blasted at him from close range. Justice was done when De Sanctis saved from the spot. Napoli held on but were at times comfortable in possession. With Man City beating Villareal they will now go to Munich looking to take something from that match, perhaps as a necessity.
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