Well, our night went from good to about as bad as it could get. As you can see from the post below we were up 1-0 at half time.

The second half started and early on Majstorovic gets his second yellow and is sent off and Bate tie the game. So, one of our key players is sent off, the pitch condition is deteriorating (and it was disgusting to begin with) and we were loosing the control over the game we had before.

45 minutes in and we're leading this one 1-0! Blanco scored a penalty (certainly the correct call) to put us up and we now are in a great position and the win is definately possible.

Conditions are terrible in Minsk. It is extremely cold (near zero degrees celcius) and the pitch is extremely wet.

Up until last week, the Brasileirao seemed the tournament no one wanted to win. The favorites kept losing points with pale football. But the 30th round shows signs of change by two sides. Flamengo and Atletico-MG want to take the title home after a long time.

While Palmeiras, Sao Paulo, Inter and Goias gave another display of loss of steam, the two sides pocketed the three points in very important matches.

A Petkovic brace sinks the leaders

Two goals from Flamengo's Petkovic ended Palmeiras' unbeaten run in the Palestra Itália and cut their lead at the top of the table to just four points.

The Greens dominated for most of the first-half but an excellent dribble and finish by the veteran Petkovic put Fla ahead.

Down and out in La Paz

A lacklustre Brazil went down 2-1 in La Paz against Bolivia and so ended Dunga's team's 19 game unbeaten run.

Olivares and Marcelo Moreno had given the homeside a two-goal cushion before  Nilmar pulled one back in the second-half. The combination of high altitude and poor attitude meant that Brazil rarely threatened and the whole match had that ‘end of season' feel to it.

First off, the highlights:

AEKMAN74 posted a review earlier on this match which covered most of the main points so be sure to check that out as well. I'd just like to add a few things.

We lined up with Saja as keeper, Araujo, Arce, Majstorovic, and Georgeas (who played left back) playing defence, Hersi, Geurreiro, Jahic, and Manduca playing Midfield, with Scocco and Blanco playing attack.

A resurgent AEK overcame a depressing 4-0 thrashing to Everton two weeks ago to grind out a surprising but deserved 1-0 victory over Portugeuese powerhouse club Benfica FC.

The night started dismally for AEK. Playing what I believe was a 4-2-3-1 with Saja in goal and Juanfran, Arce, Marjstorovic, and Gorgeas in the back, Kafes and Jahic in defensive midfield roles, Manduca, Scocco and Hersi forming a three-man attacking line and Blanco playing lone goal-poacher up top, AEK struggled for possession early on.

A huge win for us, absolutely incredible! So many good things to say, its going to take a while. I believe AEKBaltimore recorded the game since it was on in the US as well, so hopefully he will have some more comments as well.

First off, let me just repeat that once more. AEK 1-0 Benfica.

The 26th round of Brasileirao smiled to Palmeiras again. The side headed by Muricy Ramalho increased the lead to 5 points over the second team, and sees the title getting closer. Besides the great victory, Sao Paulo and Inter did not win again.

On Saturday, Palmeiras received Atletico-PR.

An extremely disappointing result today for AEK in Giannena.

Our starting lineup consisted of Saja, Araujo, Majstorovic, Arce, Juanfran, Hersi, Guerreiro, Jahic, Manduca, Nemeth, Pavlis.

I can't comment much on the first half since I could only watch the second half, but from what I heard we saw some decent passing from the team.

Well, our match in Giannena starts in a little under an hour. Our most likely starting lineup is said to be Saja, Araujo, Majstorovic, Arce, Juanfran, Jahic, Guerreiro, Hersi, Manduca, Nemeth, and Blanco. We will be going 4-4-2 with Blanco and Nemeth up front. A good line-up in my opinion, very strong, with some experienced players.