UEFA Champions League: Group Stage pt 1 🎬

 Matchday 1 ⚽🏆

Hello ladies and gentlemen! The new season of the UEFA Champions League has commenced and it opened up with a flurry of action. There were big score-lines as well as shocking results and I'll be writing to you how all this transpired. 

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester United

The feature game on my live blog. Manchester United came into this game on the back of an emphatic win against Newcastle in the Premier League after an average start to the season. PSG also came into the game on the back of 3 consecutive wins in Ligue 1 after a bad start as well. Man. Utd frustated PSG in the game and from their own attacking, managed to get a penalty when Anthony Martial was brought down by Diallo. Bruno Fernandes had his penalty saved, but VAR took another look at the penalty only to find out that Keylar Navas was off his line. The penalty was re-taken and Fernandes scored, giving Man. Utd the lead. PSG drew level in the second-half after a Neymar corner-kick was met by Martial and went down as an own goal. The game went on with Man. Utd continuing to find a goal. With 4 minutes left, they got their answer. Marcus Rashford struck the winning goal, similar to how he won it for the English team in the 2018/19 season. An enthralling finish. Man. Utd manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, stated "I think the performance was good, I thought we deserved to win it. We created chances."

Rashford and co conquered Paris

Lazio vs Borussia Dortmund

Ciro Immobile, Europe's top goal-scorer in the 2019/20 season, came up against his old side. Lazio headlined the game as Immobile got onto the scoresheet in 6 minutes, followed by a Hitz own goal from Dortmund and Immobile setting up Akpa Akpro for the Italian side's third in the second-half. Before that third goal, Erling Haaland scored for Dortmund, his first Champions league goal of the season. 

Immobile got one over his former employers

Barcelona vs Ferencvaros

Barcelona might have endured the most embarrassing exit to a Champions league last season but they started this season's campaign in good fashion. The Catalans showed their attacking prowess in this game as five different players got onto the scoresheet including Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati and last season's winner, Phillipe Coutinho. One controversial incident in the game happened when Gerard Pique was shown a straight red card for denying Ferencvaros a goal-scoring opportunity, making Barca finish the game with 10 men.

Barca's past is behind them

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Real Madrid vs Shakhtar Donetsk

The shock amongst the fixtures. The Spanish giants were trailing by 3 goals to nil in the first-half after goals from Tete, an own goal from Varane and Manor Solomon put the Ukrainian team in front. Los Blancos fought their way back into the game when Luka Modric produced a moment of magic and Vinicius Junior scored as well. Real Madrid scored a third goal and levelled the game, but VAR came to Shakhtar's rescue and the game finished in their favor. According to the Daily Mail, Real Madrid's manager stated that his team 'lacked confidence'.

False start for Real Madrid

Bayern Munich vs Atletico Madrid

The reigning champions came out on top in this game, showing us exactly why they dominated the competition last season. Kingsley Coman, the man who won it for Bayern last season, scored a brace in this game. That brace was added to by goals from Leon Goretzka and a stunner of a strike from Corentin Tolisso. Bayern looked like a well-oiled machine again, and many have touted them to retain their crown this season. 

Some spotlight on this man please 🔦

Inter Milan vs Borussia Monchengladbach

Last season's runners-up in Italy, Inter Milan were looking to start their Champions league campaign with a win and improve upon their exit from last season's group stage. That wasn't to be the case. All four goals from this game came in the second-half beginning with Romelu Lukaku's strike to put Inter ahead. Monchengladbach responded when they got a penalty which was struck home by Ramy Bensebaini. The German side took the lead when a pass cut through Inter's defence and allowed Jonas Hoffmann to get his goal. Monchengladbach were on the brink of victory but Lukaku and Inter were able to push for a goal which they got off Lukaku's thigh.

Spoils shared

The results for Matchday 1 were as follows:

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Zenit 1-2 Club Brugge

Dynamo Kyiv 0-2 Juventus

Rennes 1-1 Krasnobar

Chelsea 0-0 Sevilla

Lazio 3-1 B. Dortmund                ←Click here to watch this game

Barcelona 5-1 Ferencvaros           ←Click here to watch this game 

PSG 1-2 Man. Utd                        ←Click here to watch this game

RB Leipzig 2-0 Istanbul Basaksehir

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

RB Salzburg 2-2 Lokomotiv Moskva

Real Madrid 2-3 Shakhtar Donetsk     ←Click here to watch this game

Bayern Munich 4-0 Atletico Madrid   ←Click here to watch this game

Inter Milan 2-2 B. Monchengladbach 

Olympiacos 1-0 Marseille

Man. City 3-1 Porto                   ←Click here to watch this game

Ajax 0-1 Liverpool

Midtjylland 0-4 Atalanta

That marks the beginning of the 2020/21 season. What a start it's been so far. Looking forward to action in the next matchday, and more drama.

Stay tuned and see you next matchday ⚽🏆❗🛣