Spurs star, United soar but Barca stall
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Tottenham Hotspur stunned European champions Inter Milan 3-1 at home to go top of Group A on Tuesday, while Barcelona were held to a 1-1 draw at FC Copenhagen.
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Tottenham Hotspur's Rafael van der Vaart scores a goal against Inter Milan during their Champions League soccer match at White Hart Lane in London November 2, 2010. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo] |
Rafael Van der Vaart opened the scoring for the home side in the 18th minute. Winger Gareth Bale was once again the star of the show as he provided the assist for Peter Crouch to extend Tottenham's lead and then again for Roman Pavlyuchenko to seal the victory after Inter had struck back through Samuel Eto'o.
Inter coach Rafael Benitez reckoned that Tottenham's superior physical strength was the difference between the two sides.
"They were physically stronger and faster than us," he said."This was the difference every time we lost the ball.
"We also had to play better one-on-one football, marking our opponents, but we were not able to do that and this is what determined the loss."
Manchester United scored three second-half goals against Turkish champions Bursaspor to cruise to a 3-0 win and move to within a point of a place in the knockout phase.
Darren Fletcher broke the deadlock in the Group C clash two minutes after the break before Gabriel Obertan grabbed his first goal for the club and Bebe struck in a four-minute spell later in the game.
Group D leaders Barcelona will have to wait to book their spot in the next round after being held to a 1-1 draw by FC Copenhagen at the Parken Stadion.
Barca knew a victory in Denmark would guarantee themselves a place in the knock-out stages and the two-time reigning Spanish champions looked on course to achieve that after taking a 31st-minute lead through Lionel Messi.
However, second-placed FC Copenhagen went down the other end and drew level almost immediately through Claudemir to earn a share of the points - although they survived a big let-off in the final minute when Barca substitute Pedro Rodriguez hit the post.
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