White's Draw in Partizan



The draw in Belgrade, together with Porto's win, have secured Madrid's qualification for the last sixteen. The game seemed a repeat of what we saw in Zaragoza one week back. The Whites did not display much of a precise shooting at goal. But still, the tenth point earned at this first stage has enabled Real to meet its first objective of the season. On the other hand, it is going to be very hard for Partizan to qualify for the next round, as it has won only two points. Roberto Carlos had only enjoyed eleven minutes of play when he got injured from a free kick. Real's 600th Champions League goal was not scored today on Figo's 31st birthday. The game was played in very cold weather and on a pretty rough field.

The effort made by both sides during the first half had worn them out to face the second one. But it was Partizan that seemed more tired. The Spaniards seemed more at ease handling the ball around the field resulting in some dangerous approaches to Pantic's goal. The local keeper was inspired tonight and Zidane and Ronaldo missed a couple of shots that could have opened the score. There were good news coming from Porto as McCarthy's goal allowed Madrid into the last sixteen, leaving Matthäus' squad of of the next round. The Balkan team did not show much attacking move. To mend this, the local coach drew on his top-class player Drulovic (65'), who enjoyed one of the clearest opportunities to score.

The final stretch of the play went on under both teams' awareness of the white superiority, despite Real's lack of good aiming at the home goal. It was rather surprising that Partizan did not stalk Casillas' goal more often, as they knew they were out of the tournament. This draw puts Madrid into the last-sixteen thanks to Porto's win against Olympique. Today Figo got the qualification as a gift for his 31st birthday.

THE MATCH:
0 - PARTIZAN: Pantic; Djordjevic, West, Bajic, Savic, Malbasa (Rzasa 18´); Duljaj, Nadj (Drulovic 65´), Ilic; Iliev and Delibasic (Stojanovski 45´).
0 - REAL MADRID: Casillas; Salgado, Roberto Carlos (Guti 11´), Pavon, Raul Bravo; Helguera, Beckham, Figo, Zidane; Raul and Ronaldo.
REFEREE: Cosimo Bolognino (Italy)
OTHER FACTS: Champions League Matchday 4, Group F. Partizan Stadium, 32.000 people (full). Riki and Juanfran were ruled out of this outing by Carlos Queiroz. Temperature under 0º when the match kicked off. Partizan fans had already filled up the stands one hour ahead of kickoff time.