Perhaps, of all the millions of blog entries posted from Denver to Diyarbakir to Dubai to Pyonyang, this is the very first one to feature both Ciao, the mascot of the 1990 World Cup in Italy and Nasreddin Hoca, the famed Turkish folk figure, who is known for riding a donkey backwards.
We are using Ciao because yesterday proved to be a very good one for the Italian soccer team Napoli (more on that later), and we are utilizing the Hoca because this is our 2,000th entry. We were trying to think of a person who could represent longevity and it came down to the Hoca and Noah, of Noah's Ark fame. Ironically, Noah's Ark landed on Mount Ararat which is in modern Turkey.
Getting back to futbol, Napoli beat the Spanish team Villareal 2-0 yesterday with goals from Gokhan Inler (65th min.) a Swiss national of Turkish heritage, and Marek Hamsik, the Slovakian superstar, who is co-captain of Napoli and captain of the Slovakian national team (we almost mistook him for a Czech!).
With the victory, Napoli was able to advance to the round of 16 along with Bayern Munich who won Group A in spite of losing to Manchester City 2-0.
But, the strangest game of the day occured in Zagreb, Croatia, where the home team Dinamo Zagreb shockingly got savagely beaten by a Hungry Lyon as the French poured it on in a 7-1 victory. Though Lyon was expected to win, only the most partisan Lyon fans could have expected such an outcome. The game was a particularly glorious one for Bafetimbi Gomis, as the French player of Senegalese heritage scored an amazing four goals (45th min; 48th min; 52nd min; and 70th min.). With the lopsided win, Lyon was thus able to pass Ajax Amsterdam and get the second slot in Group D behind Real Madrid.
Despite resting many superstar starters, Real Madrid went to the Netherlands and came out with a 3-0 win over Ajax Amsterdam. The star of the day for Real Madrid, a team that won its league with a perfect 18 points (each team gets three points for a win, and one point for a tie), was the Spanish player Jose Callejon, who scored in the 14th minute and in the 92nd minute (extra time) of play.
Jose Callejon's twin brother plays for Hercules, another Spanish League team. His club teammate Hamid Altintop, a German-born Turkish national, also has a twin brother Halil Altintop, who plays soccer. Alas, for Halil Altintop, Wednesday was not much of a celebratory day as his team Trabzonspor (Turkey) tied Lille (France) by a score of 0-0 in Group B, which knocked both teams out.
Here is a complete list of scores from Wednesday's UEFA action; the other games not mentioned in this entry are covered in our sister blog "The Daily Vampire:"
*-Denotes team which advanced
y- Denotes team that won its group
z-Denotes that winner won an upset
Group A
*Napoli 2 Villareal 0
Manchester City 2 *y Bayern Munich 0
Group B
*z CSKA Moscow 2 *y Inter Milan 1
Trabzonspor 0 Lille 0, tie
Group C
*y Benefica (Portugal) 1 Otelul Galati (Romania) 0
*z FC Basel (Swit.) 2 Manchester United 1
Group D
*y Real Madrid 3 Ajax Amsterdam 0
* Lyon 7 Dinamo Zagreb 1
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