We were all waiting for the return of Champions League football and the matches did not disappoint. On this Tuesday groups A, B, C and D played their games and there was a total of 30 goals in the 8 matches.
This gives an average of 3.75 goals per match, which already shows there were some goal fests happening. PSG, Manchester City, and Tottenham all thumped their opponents, while Real Madrid, Juventus, and Bayern had to sweat to take the 3 points.
Here is how it all turned out.
Group A
Club Brugge 0 x 5 Paris Saint Germain
If Brugge was expecting such courtesy from PSG as they received in the Santiago Bernabeu, they were probably disappointed. If they were 0x2 up in Madrid, this time, at home against PSG, they were already 0x1 down with 7 minutes played.
Mauro Icardi seems to finally have got the hold of his new job at PSG and he delivered his second goal in the Champions League group stages. This makes 4 goals in 6 games in all competitions for the Argentinian.
However, it would be a certain French starlet to obfuscate Icardi’s exhibition. Kylian Mbappe replaced Choupo-Moting in the 52 minutes and 10 minutes later he would already be on the scoresheet.
Two minutes later, the same Mbappe would assist Icardi to make his second. If this sounds like already a man of the match show-off, Mbappe did even more.
He tore apart Brugge’s defense once again with 2 more goals in the last quarter of the match and completed a hat-trick, the 100th in the history of the UCL group stage.
Match ball for Mbappe, a brilliant show and PSG are flying rampant with 9 points in 3 games. Will they go all the way this season?
Galatasaray 0 x 1 Real Madrid
The 13-time winners of Champions League, Real Madrid, were looking for their first 3 points, after losing to PSG and drawing against Brugge. They headed to Istambul to face Galatasaray, who had the same points as the La Liga side.
This time the match opened up better for Real, as Toni Kroos received a ball from Eden Hazard in the heart of the area and scored with a well placed finish. The top passer of the club and of La Liga returned from injury and he put his mark on the score, on his 100th Champions League appearance.
Real Madrid had a pretty good chance of making it 2 in the second half. However, Eden Hazard somehow did the most difficult part: got over Muslera and with an open net… hit the crossbar.
Still, Galatasaray did not cause much trouble and once again they were protected by Muslera’s incredible exhibition. The Uruguayan shows that he justifies a move to a bigger league, even though he is 33.
After the defeat in the weekend and the takeover of La Liga lead by Barcelona, Real Madrid gets some confidence boost with this victory. They will have a weekend to rest since El Clasico was postponed.
Group B
Olympiakos 2 x 3 Bayern Munich
Bayern was probably not expecting to face such adversities in Athens, as they faced Olympiakos. The Greek side demonstrated passion and spirit and were almost on the verge of putting up a surprise result.
The Greek warriors were the first to score, with Tsimikas setting up El Arabi for the goal. The Bavarians had to call in their goal machine to solve the issue and he did it as usual.
Lewandowski scored his 17th goal of the season in 12 games, assisted by Thomas Muller.
Later in the second half, Lewa would cement his place as the top scorer of the group stages – as he is already the top scorer of Bundesliga – after another Muller’s pass.
Tolisso would clear all the doubts of the result as he shot a beautiful strike into the top corner. One of the goals of the week for sure, the first goal of the midfielder in 2019/20.
With the game being 1×3, it looked settled, but Olympiakos had another card up their sleeve. Guilherme put some hope back into the Greek side and they battled til the end for the draw, but the 3 points were claimed by Bayern.
The Bundesliga champions have 9 points in 3 games and are comfortable leading their group.
Tottenham Hotspurs 5 x 0 Crvena Zvezda
If you remember, the last matchday was one to forget for Spurs as they were absolutely destroyed at home by Bayern. The 2×7 result probably hasn’t vanished from the players’ minds, but Pochettino men were able to give a proper response this time.
A competent performance by the North London boys, with Harry Kane opening the score with 7 minutes on the clock. Before the break, two more: South Korean wonder Son Heung-min completed a brace and took the Spurs relaxed to the locker rooms.
The party in London kept going as Erik Lamela completed a luxury performance. After assisting twice in the first half, he was able to put his name on the scoresheet too.
It finished as it started, with Harry Kane putting the final nail in the coffin of Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda). The Serbians were completely smashed and they will need to step up their game if they want to fight for second place in the group.
Group C
Manchester City 5 x 1 Atalanta
Atalanta keeps without finding its form on their Champions League debut and although they are doing a respectable Serie A campaign, they seem to lack experience at this stage. When they faced the Premier League table champions the lack of maturity showed up, as Guardiola’s side completely trashed them.
The Italian team actually started well, with Ukrainian midfielder Malinovskiy scoring the opener from the penalty spot.
The response from City was ruthless. Aguero scored twice before the break, the second one from a penalty.
Then, it was Sterling time to shine. The Englishman completely danced over Atalanta’s defense and tore them to pieces. In 20 minutes, Sterling scored 3 goals and established the second hat-trick of this Champions League evening.
City would end up playing with 10 players though, as Phil Foden got 2 yellow cards in 5 minutes. It didn’t seem to bother them as Atalanta made no damage and the game ended 5×1.
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 x 2 Dinamo Zagreb
In the other match of Group C, as expected, we saw a tight match, between two sides who believe they can get out of the group stage. With Atalanta having 0 points in 3 games and still having to face City again, both Shakhtar and Dinamo know they can get a historical knockout place this season.
Shakhtar threw the first shot, by Ukrainian international Konoplyanka. Dinamo Zagreb answered almost immediately, with Spanish under-21 star Dani Olmo putting the result even.
In the second half, Dinamo was awarded a penalty and Orsic did not hesitate to put the visitors ahead. Shakhtar was still alive though and a quarter later right back Dodô would level the result again.
2×2 and it is all open from the game in Zagreb in two weeks. The team that comes up on top is the most likely to go through.
Group D
Juventus 2 x 1 Lokomotiv Moscow
In the last group of this Tuesday evening, Lokomotiv Moscow had enough fuel to scare the Italians in Torino. Unfortunately, the locomotive stopped halfway through the second half, with Dybala ending the dream of the Russians.
If all the attention was focused on Cristiano Ronaldo, it was another Portuguese player who caught the attention. Joao Mario had a fairly good exhibition and it was the former Inter midfielder who set up
Aleksey Miranchuk for Lokomotiv’s opener.
Juventus took a hard blow and Lokomotiv was able to hold the advantage until the late minutes of the second half. Unfortunately, a certain Argentinian wizard called Paulo Dybala would score a wonder strike from outside the box to destroy Lokomotiv’s wall.
Two minutes later, Dybala once again showed up in the box, getting the advantage of an incomplete save of Guilherme. A brace for the forward, who in Winter was on the verge of being sold. With his exhibitions so far, we guess Juventus board is regretting that thought.
Atletico Madrid 1 x 0 Bayer Leverkusen
It’s been a tough week for Leverkusen, after being destroyed in the Bundesliga by Frankfurt last weekend. Their match in Wanda Metropolitano could be redemption, but Oblak denied them any potential ambition.
Atletico would eventually get their goal when Alvaro Morata completed his first Champions League goal for the ‘Colchoneros’. An early gift for the Spanish forward, whose birthday is on this Wednesday (23rd October).
The La Liga side is leveled with Juventus on points in Group D. Leverkusen has 3 defeats in 3 games and will likely end up in the last place of the group.
More games this Wednesday
Tuesday’s goal-fest was an entertaining one, but there are more games this Wednesday. Check out which teams are in action:
And do not forget to check here the top scorers and the current standings of the Champions League groups.
Be the first to comment