Those Crazy Turks!

As most everyone knows by now, and as HalaMadrid noted in his roundup of Tuesday's Champions League action, points are often hard to come by away to Turkish teams, even for the big boys. Well for those lucky enough to watch or even just hear the Man U-Besiktas match, you got a lesson on great football atmosphere. Check out these videos, which confirm why Sir Alex said it was the loudest noise he'd ever heard (clearly he wasn't at the Confederations Cup and those vuvuzelas):

Full length highlights from UEFA, which I love because it cuts out all commentary and lets the crowd atmosphere be the soundtrack to the game:

And for a cool fan view, here's a four and half minute, high quality video from behind one of the goals. The shots of the entire crowd jumping and clapping and chanting are very cool. It was like this the entire game.



Man U is certainly happy to get all three points from this trip. They'll be encouraged by signs that Nani and Antonio Valencia can be dangerous, but they still can't seem to put it all together. And fortunately for the Red Devils, with Rio Ferdinand again an injury concern, Nemanja Vidic seems in fine fettle ahead of this weekend's Manchester Derby.

As for the other match I paid particular attention to, Juve missed their new talisman, Diego, against a feisty Bordeaux. In the pouring rain, the two sides were fairly even. Iaquinta actually scored, though he's still one of the more wasteful strikers on a top European team right now. I like Amauri on the other hand, but he seems to be extremely unlucky, this time being denied by a lucky reaction save by Cedric Carrasso. Although Brodeaux probably shouldn't finish top two, they will not be an easy victory for either Juve or Bayern. Gourcuff was a handfull and he forced Buffon into a few nice saves. Fortunately for the bianconeri, this season Buffon seems to have regained his form from 2006 that saw him as the top keeper in the world.

Juve will be disappointed to have dropped two points from their first home match, especially since Jaroslav Plasil was off-side when he struck his equalizer and the goal should have been disallowed. In two weeks time hopefully Juve can travel with a healthy Diego to the Allianz Arena to get a better gauge of where they stand in this tournament.