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Fiorentina lacked spark and immagination as they failed to break down Romanian outfit Steaua Bucharest in a drab Champions League 0-0 draw here on Tuesday.

The Italians will feel like it was two points lost against a side - coached by former Romanian international Mario Lacatus who spent a season at 'La Viola' as a player - that presented a formidable wall in front of their goal and played with discipline and determination.

Fiorentina have two points from two Group F games - having drawn with French champions Lyon in their opener - with the 1986 European champions a point behind them and propping up the group.

A draw was a fair result in a match where neither side created anything more than half chances.

Fiorentina's Romanian forward Adrian Mutu, a former player with Steaua's bitter city rivals Dinamo Bucharest, was jeered heartily by the visiting fans but almost punished them after nine minutes, latching onto a long ball over the top from Mario Santana but blazing his volley over the bar.

Two minutes later and Steaua's Colombian goalkeeper Robinson Zapata rushed out to block a shot from Alberto Gilardino, who also had a strike blocked by Dorin Goian moments later.

Goian then freed Antonio Semedo with a long ball over top but the Portuguese forward slotted his shot wide on 16 minutes.

Both sides were lacking quality in the final third and after a Martin Jorgensen slip let in Semedo again, he crossed poorly and Banel Nicolita's shot from the edge of the box was blocked.

Semedo was enjoying much success down the Steaua left and he beat Jorgensen again before hitting his shot into the side netting.

Jorgensen had had such a torrid time that Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli replaced him at the break with Luciano Zauri.

But two minutes later Steaua came close as Colombian forward Dayro Moreno burst through only to have his shot blocked by two defenders.

Halfway through the second period Mutu clipped the outside of the post with a brilliant curling free-kick, which he himself had won with a terrible dive.

Mutu came close again 10 minutes later as he peeled off to the back post and headed a cross from substitute Zdravko Kuzmanovic into the side netting.

But the visitors were gifted a chance on 78 minutes as a terrible back header from La Viola captain Dario Dainelli released Nicolita who crossed for Semedo but goalkeeper Sebastien Frey brilliantly kept out his shot with his legs.

The last chance, in injury time, went to Steaua's Greek substitute Pantelis Kapetanos who was through on the right but he took a heavy touch allowing Italy defender Alessandro Gamberini to charge across and block.

Messi strikes late, Keane strikes first, Gerrard strikes one hundredth and Chelsea don’t strike at all

After Manchester United, Real Madrid and Arsenal sent their message to Europe on Tuesday night it was the turn of Liverpool, Inter, Barcelona and Chelsea to make their mark last night.
Of those four big guns, only Liverpool really lived up to their billing. Their 3-1 win over PSV was as impressive as it was comprehensive. Inter only managed a draw at home to Werder Bremen, Barcelona scraped a win at Shakhtar Donetsk and perhaps most surprisingly of all, Chelsea were held to a goalless draw away to Cluj.
Three special goals
The three goals scored by Liverpool all had something special attached to them. The first was scored by the much maligned (often by me!) Dirk Kuyt. He is the one player that outsiders look at in the Liverpool team and wonder why on earth Rafa Benitez insists on selecting him week after week. Yes, he works hard, but so would I for twenty five grand a week!
The fact is, of course, that Kuyt has a fine record of scoring important goals, particularly in Europe. Once again, he struck to ease the mood at Anfield and set the tone for a relatively easy evening. Fair play to Kuyt, he always produces the goods when it matters.
The second goal saw Robbie Keane finally open his account for Liverpool. It was only a matter of time, and now he has that particular ‘monkey off his back’ I’m sure he will score many more. We might now begin to see the partnership with Fernando Torres that the Liverpool fans so want to see.
The third goal saw Steve Gerrard hit his one hundredth for Liverpool. There is little more that can be said about Gerrard. I just wish he could perform as brilliantly for his country as he does game after game for his club.
Uninspiring
After Inter’s comfortable win at Panathinaikos in the first round of matches they would have been hoping to take three points from Werder Bremen, who had a disappointing 0-0 draw with Anorthosis Famagusta, and open up a big lead on their main challengers in the group.
In the end, Mourinho’s men stumbled to an uninspiring 1-1 draw after leading 1-0 through a Maicon goal in the first half. Although only two points off the top of Serie A, Mourinho doesn’t yet seemed to have worked his magic as Inter look a little short of the best teams in Europe.
Unlikely victory
Barcelona managed a creditable 2-1 win away at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukraine but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The visitors conceded a goal on the stroke of half-time to go in at the break 1-0 down. It stayed that way until just three minutes from the end when the Argentine maestro Lionel Messi looked to have rescued a point for Barcelona. Then, four minutes into stoppage time, Messi added another to give Barcelona an unlikely victory and a position of some comfort in their group.
Struggle
Chelsea really struggled against their Transylvanian opponents who proved that their victory in Roma was no fluke. Although Chelsea had chances to win the game, their hosts had at least as many.
In the final stages of the game it was Chelsea who were hanging on a little and I would imagine that Scolari will be reasonably relieved to have come away with a point.
One piece of really bad news for Chelsea was that their excellent striker Didier Drogba was stretchered off the field in obvious pain after landing awkwardly. If that injury proves to be one that keeps him out for while, that would be a serious blow for them. The fact is that Drogba is in a totally different league to Nicolas Anelka and the Chelsea with Drogba are a completely different proposition to the Chelsea with Anelka.
Outside bet
So there we are. The second round of matches has been and gone. In the other games last night Anorthosis Famagusta beat Panathinaikos 3-1, my outside bet for the tournament Atletico Madrid beat Marseille 2-1, Roma recovered from their first round defeat with a 3-1 win at Bordeaux and Sporting beat Basle 2-0.
After these games, the teams you would expect to be doing well are pretty much doing well. Chelsea, Inter, Barcelona, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Villarreal, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Juventus are all in strong positions in their groups. Somewhat more surprisingly is the fact that Cluj and Anorthosis Famagusta are also looking good for qualification.
Of course, the team I originally tipped as an outside bet, Zenit St Petersburg, have no points at all after two games. That’s more like my normal prediction performance!

Time to rid the game of these ignorant people

t is with a heavy heart that I write this piece as I truly hoped that the bad old days in England were a thing of the past.

There has been much trouble around Europe with racist chanting and actions in Spain, Poland and other countries, but we in England have looked smugly on thinking that we had eradicated this type of ignorant and abhorrent behaviour from the game in our country.

Small minority

Sadly it seems a small minority of Tottenham fans on Sunday have shown that we still have this type of behaviour in our football grounds. I wasn’t at the game, but as players and managers have spoken out about it and the police are conducting an investigation, I can only assume that it must have happened.

Now I fully appreciate that Tottenham fans are subjected to weekly racist abuse from fans of other clubs due to the Jewish connections at the club. This is equally bad and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Sol Campbell, the Portsmouth captain, is probably the least liked footballer at Tottenham. Ever since he made the move from their club to their bitter rivals Arsenal back in 2001, he has been the target of the worst that the Tottenham fans can offer.

I understand them being disappointed at the time, even angry, but it was seven years ago now. I fully understand why such a move would have deeply hurt Tottenham fans but I’m sure everyone could have moved on.

Racist and homophobic

On Sunday during Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth it is alleged that a group of Tottenham fans, by no means all of them, chanted apparently racist and definitely homophobic abuse at Campbell throughout the game. There have been many rumours over the years around Campbell’s sexuality and the Tottenham fans decided to abuse him for that.

The local Police are going to investigate the racial and homophobic abuse directed at Campbell after initially saying that the scale of the incident made it impossible. There was no way the police could have acted at the time as the numbers involved would have made that impossible.

Ban them for life

Hopefully the police will identify the culprits, charge them and ban them from football grounds for life. Decent people, of which 99% of football fans are, and 99% of Tottenham fans are, do not want these idiots anywhere near the game.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was disgusted by what happened;

“That’s got no place in football what went on Sunday. It’s got no place in life, it’s a disgrace. People chant filth, it’s nothing to do with football. Some of the stuff that goes on is completely out of order. We’re talking about awful abuse, some of this stuff is racist - it’s everything. It’s wrong and has no place in football. How do you do that in front of your kids? What kind of a nutter must you be? What kind of human being must you be when you take your little kids to football and shout filth? It can’t be right. Of course he is upset about it and we are all disappointed about what’s happened to him but he’ll be fine. He’ll move on and get on with his football. He’s been terrific for us.”

I echo Redknapp’s sentiments entirely as I’m sure nearly everybody with at least half a brain would. Campbell’s team-mate Peter Crouch also spoke out about the abuse. He pointed out that all players expect to receive some abuse, that is part and parcel of the game, but this type of thing is totally unacceptable;

“There is probably not a player in the Premier League who has not had some stick but there is a difference between banter and abuse. What happened to Sol really crossed the line. But he showed against Tottenham on Sunday he can react with a fantastic performance. It has had no effect on his game and it won’t affect it in the future.”

Part of the fun of going to football is the passion and emotion that it brings out in the fan. We have all shouted abuse at players in the past and I probably will again, but that abuse is almost always about their footballing ability. It is expected and acceptable. Going beyond that type of banter and abusing someone for their sexuality or colour of their skin is beyond reprehensible.

Decent football people

There is a desire amongst ordinary decent football people to disassociate the game from this type of behaviour. The problem is that often the people displaying this type of ignorance are the loudest, nastiest and most frightening looking people. Decent people would like to stand up to them but are often intimidated into doing nothing.

In these circumstances, the majority have to put their trust in the police and the Courts and hope that the law can deal with the idiots in the way we all want and keep them away from the grounds.