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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Real Madrid maintained their unbeaten start


Real Madrid maintained their unbeaten start in the Champions League group stage with a 2-1 win over Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday making it the first time in five years they have won their opening two matches.

UEFA Cup and Super Cup holders Zenit, coached by Dutchman Dick Advocaat, welcomed back star striker Andrei Arshavin, who was missing for their opening Group H loss to Juventus.

Real coach Bernd Schuster, who was having to make do without injured midfielder Guti, started Raul on the bench as he and his multi-millionaire squad went in search of a follow up win after seeing off BATE Borisov of Belarus a fortnight ago.

The Spaniards, who travelled to Saint Petersburg in buoyant form having won their last four league games, were rewarded for coming out of the blocks smartly with an own goal from Tomas Hubocan in the fourth minute.

Hubocan came off for Alejandro Domniguez and Fatih Tekke was introduced for Pavel Pogrebnyak. Arshavin, a target for Premier league side Tottenham over the summer, had a shot blocked in the 76th minute.

Then three minutes later the player who burst onto the international stage at Euro 2008 had Casillas beaten only for his close range angled shot to hit the far post.

Robben made way for former Feyenoord left wing Royston Drenthe with eight minutes on the clock with the closing stages dominated by the Russians.

Danny should have got the elusive equaliser in stoppage time but his shot from in front of goal went the wrong side of the crossbar.

The result in Saint Petersburg left Real Madrid sitting atop the table on six points ahead of Group H's later game between Juventus and Borisov.

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