Owen goal boosts morale

Group B/Real Madrid - 1 Dynamo Kiev - 0: Michael Owen scored his first Real Madrid goal yesterday to earn the nine-times European champions an edgy 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev and leave Group B finely poised at the halfway stage.

The England striker slid in to convert a Ronaldo cross from close-range in the 35th minute at a rainswept Bernabeu and open his account for the Spanish club.

Real went close again through Ronaldo eight minutes into the second half but there were few other clear chances for the home side, who were barely clinging on by the end of the game.

Real, beaten 3-0 away to Bayer Leverkusen in their opening game, revived their campaign with a 4-2 comeback win over Roma last month and a second successive home win was enough to put them level with Leverkusen and Kiev on six points.

Mariano Garcia Remon chose the most attacking line-up at his disposal for another must-win match and for the first few minutes Kiev seemed overawed at the sight of Owen, Ronaldo, Raul, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo bearing down on them.

Zidane struck a post with a low free kick after Figo had been fouled in the 11th minute and Raul took advantage of more artless defending to race towards goal and fire wide.

Real were unable to maintain the pace of their attacks for much longer and Kiev began to go forward with menace themselves.

Real were starting to look uncomfortable but quick thinking from substitute Santiago Solari and Owen provided the relief of a goal 10 minutes before the break.

Solari, on for the injured Figo, roared forward from deep in his own half and found Ronaldo in space. The Brazilian worked his way out left before crossing low for Owen to nip in ahead of two defenders and score his first Real goal.

REAL MADRID: Casillas, Salgado, Pavon, Carlos, Helguera, Zidane, Figo (Solari 29), Guti, Raul, Ronaldo (Morientes 80), Owen (Celades 65). Subs Not Used: Cesar, Borja, Bravo, Arbeloa. Goals: Owen 35.

DYNAMO KIEV: Shovkovskiy, Rodolfo, Sablic, Gavrancic, Yussuf, Rincon (Belkevich 75), Ghioane (Peev 87), El Kaddouri, Shatskikh, Husyev (Cernat 64), Kleber. Subs Not Used: Reva, Fedorov, Husyn, Nesmachnyi.

Referee: Gilles Veissiere (France).