Real Madrid 2 - AEK Athens 2

Real Madrid: Casillas; Salgado, Iván Helguera, Pavón, Roberto Carlos (Raúl Bravo 74'); Cambiasso, Celades; McManaman (Miñambres 81'), Guti, Zidane (Solari 60'), Raúl; Ronaldo. 4-2-3-1.
AEK Athens: Hiotis; Kapsis, Wright, Kostenoglu, Georgatos (Centeno 68'); Lakis, Katsouranis, Zagorakis, Kasapis; Tsartas (Maladenis 53'); Nikolaidis (Ivic 53'). 4-4-1-1.

Goals:
1-0. 24. McManaman. Placed shot wide of keeper after Cambiasso laid ball in.
2-0. 43. McManaman. Took short pass from Ronaldo to beat keeper.
2-1. 74. Katsouranis. Header down past Casillas following corner from right.
2-2. 86. Centeno. After Ivic rounded Hierro and squared ball across.

Group C:
Real Madrid.......... 8 points
Roma...................... 5 points
AEK Athens........... 4 points
Genk........................ 2 points

Real Madrid missed the chance of sewing up their place in the second phase after throwing away a two goal lead to draw against AEK Athens. Both Figo and Raúl were still unfit after aggravating their injuries playing for their respective countries, and Makelele's name was added to the last after the weekend's games. That solved the problem of overbooking in attack, and gave a chance to Celades and Steve McManaman to get a rare run out.

Madrid should have tied everything up in a first half which only had one colour, white. Guti shot wide in the first minute, and from then on the play was almost entirely in the Greek half of the field. Midway through the first half Cambiasso found McManaman with a through ball, and the Englishman placed a shot wide of the keeper for the opener.

Guti could have made it two a couple of minutes later when he beat the offside trap only for his shot to clear the bar by inches. Zidane brought a good save out of Hiotis from a free kick, and with the half coming to a close McManaman got his second of the night after Ronaldo put him through.

That should have been it, especially when Ronaldo got the ball in the net after the restart only to see his effort ruled out for a borderline offside. Del Bosque's mind was already on next Saturday's league match, and he decided to rest Zidane and bring on Solari, who immediately had a claim for a penalty turned down after a hard tackle by Wright. But with three fresh players on the pitch the Greeks started to step up their game, and suddenly Casillas was forced to make a double save from substitutes Maladenis and Centeno. The ball went for a corner, and Katsouranis was there as the ball came over to head down past the keeper and in to the net.

Still Madrid didn't perceive any real threat, and Roberto Carlos and McManaman were taken off. The pressure was on Casillas' goal however, and with four minutes to go Ivic ghosted round Hierro and crossed in for Centeno to finish off. Madrid had dropped two vital points, and although they still head the group, they really need to beat Capello's Roma next week in the Bernabeu stadium to go through. Nobody expects them to fail to qualify, but a better performance than this is expected from the European champions.