Reprieved Lewandowski’s goal sinks Gunners

ROBERT Lewandowski brought Arsenal down to earth with a late winner as Borussia Dortmund recorded a 2-1 victory last night in their Group F encounter at the Emirates Stadium.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Oct 2013, 10:05 BST
Arsene WengerArsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger

The Premier League leaders had done well to fight back from going behind to on 16 minutes when Henrikh Mkhitaryan drilled the ball in after Aaron Ramsey had given away possession on the edge of his own penalty area.

Olivier Giroud’s close-range strike sent the teams into the break on level terms, before substitute Santi Cazorla sent a 20-yard effort against the woodwork.

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However, all of the Gunners’ efforts were undone as Dortmund – last season’s beaten Champions League finalists – netted with just eight minutes left.

Dortmund hit Arsenal on the counter-attack through Lewandowski to ruin Arsene Wenger’s 64th birthday.

Lewandowski was somewhat fortunate to still be on the pitch as he was only shown a yellow card by Sweden referee Jonas Eiksson earleir when he clashed with Laurent Koscielny, and looked to have caught the defender with a stray elbow.

Fernando Torres scored twice as Chelsea seized control of Group E with a 3-0 victory over Schalke at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen.

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On his 100th Chelsea start, Torres netted his 38th and 39th goals for the Blues and Eden Hazard scored a breakaway third three minutes from time.

Four key players were missing from Manchester United’s training session ahead of tonight’s Champions League match against Real Sociedad. Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley were absent as well as central defenders Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

Cleverley, Vidic and Ferdinand all missed the champions’ 1-1 draw with Southampton in the Premier League at the weekend.

Adnan Januzaj took part in the training session after being added to the Champions League squad as a home-grown player.

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Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is perturbed by the state of pitch for his side’s Champions League game against CSKA Moscow.

Pellegrini claims it is “unbelievable” that UEFA are allowing the Group D match to go ahead at the Arena Khimki.

The Chilean even thinks the match should be called off if the weather takes a turn for the worse and it rains.

The pitch has been a cause of concern for a number of weeks with recent fixtures having to be moved away from the venue.

CSKA have not played there since August and took their last Champions League home game, against Viktoria Plzen, 400 miles away to St Petersburg.

Related topics:Champions League