The Champions League has finally started, fans all around the world have been waiting for this. Though it’s still with empty stadiums, or nearly empty, as some countries allow only a small number of fans to be in the stands, it’s still the Champions League, the most coveted trophy in the football world on the club level.
As I made some analysis in a previous post and promised to analyze it further day by day, so here I am fulfilling it and here we go with day 1.
Group A
Bayern Munich started their defending campaign with a huge statement, defeating Atlético Madrid 4-0. The Bavarians announced that they are here to defend the title, and that no one might be able to take it away from them, while Lokomotiv Moscow went back the Russian capital with a point from Salzburg.
Group B
Shakhtar Donetsk went to Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium without 10 of their key players due to COVID-19 and still managed to go back with a victory and by 3 goals to 2, after being 3-0 up at half time, in what can be considered the most surprising result of Day 1. Real Madrid and Zizou were apparently focusing more on El Clásico coming up this Saturday, but they paid the price dearly, while Borussia Monchengladbach visited San Siro and came back with a 2-2 draw against Inter.
Group C
Porto scored first but Man City came back with 3 goals to snatch the first 3 points, while Marseille traveled to Greece but Olympiakos ended up winners with a header from the Egyptian Koka.
Group D
Injury-struck Liverpool, missing Virgil Van Dijk, Alisson and Thiago, went to Amsterdam and came back with a 1-0 through an own goal by Tagliafico, while Atalanta are still giving signs that they are still a force to reckon with by defeating the Danish team Midtjylland 4-0 in Denmark.
Group E
All the matches ended in a draw, Sevilla went to Stamford Bridge and had a 0-0 draw with Chelsea, while Krasnodar went to France to earn a point at Rennes. Not any surprise here anyway.
Group F
Lazio hosted Borussia Dortmund and defeated them 3-1 in a game which featured goals from two of the most prolific strikers in Europe last season, Ciro Immobile and Erling Haaland.
While Club Brugge went to Russia and came back with THREE points, defeating Zenit 2-1. This might be the most remarkable result in this day.
Group G
Juventus and Barcelona both, expectedly, ended up winning against Dynamo Kyiv and Ferencváros, 2-0 & 5-1 respectively. Alvaro Morata with a brace for Juve, while Messi continued his record-breaking numbers when he scored in his 16th consecutive season in the Champions League.
Group H
Leipzig won 2-0 against Başakşehir in a game where Angelino scored a brace, probably for the first time in his career. Impressive!
While once again, Manchester United went to the French capital and came back with a win, this time 2-1 against PSG. Solskjaer is probably considering the French team as his lucky charm !! Two years ago, he was still an interim coach, and when he defeated them in Paris in the last 16, and he became the permanent coach for the Red Devils. Now, being under pressure in the Premier League, he went on again and defeated the same team and gained back some confidence. Great, let United keep him and they may end up regretting it!
Best Goals of Day 1
There has been a number of great goals in this day, in my opinion these are the most beautiful:
- Porto’s goal against Man City: a great solo effort by Luis Díaz
- Salzburg’s first goal: a stunning right-footed shot by Szoboszlai
- Zenit’s goal: a beautiful long-range effort by Dejan Lovren
- Real Madrid’s first goal: a huge curling shot by Luka Modric, a replica of his goal against Argentina at World Cup 2018 (do you remember it?)
- Bayern’s third: a huge shot by Tolisso which ended up in the top corner of Atlético’s net
- Atalanta’s second: a great shot by Alejandro Gómez
- Olympiakos’ goal: a very nice header by Koka
My choice would be Tolisso’s goal…. Which was your favorite?
Freddie's Bench 