Thursday, September 29, 2005
FC Xanthi 0 Boro 0
Mission Accomplished - was the phrase being bandied around at the end of a satisfactory 90 minutes in Greece. Two clean sheets over 2 legs is what the doctor ordered after the weekend (let's never mention that again, OK?), a feat only a handful of clubs around Europe could boast. We should have won the game tonight, and would have done if the linesman ruling out Massimo Maccarone's first half strike was a little more sharp eyed. Jimmy came close a few times too, as did James Morrison, who had another good game for us. But the pitch was very bad and the ball didn't run for us in the end - however, it was always about the clean sheet so no complaints.And through to the group stage again, which will take much the same format as last season, with 40 teams being split into 8 groups of 5, the top three of which will meet the 8 3rd place Champions League teams in the last 32 after Christmas. Got that? Teams that won't be there are Everton (ahem), Feyenoord, Galatasaray and most surprisingly, last years runners up and our own nemesis Sporting Lisbon, out on away goals to Halmstad! Bolton made a comeback to be the only other British club through, together with most of the other tournament favourites - Roma strolled through, for example; now a tie against them would be sweet...
Boro now rank 14th in the competition according to Uefa, a stat that may have some effect on Tuesdays draw. You have to be confident of progression into 2006 with some of the teams still out there, but lets wait and see who we get.
My MOTM: Gareth Southgate, for a captain's clean sheet - going forward, Morrison was best.
