Champions League Matchday 1 Summary

The European Champions, Liverpool played Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo after losing 1-0 last year but winning in the reverse fixture 1-0 to qualify into the knockout stages where they went on to win the prestigious trophy.

However, this year, Napoli beat Liverpool 2-0 with Andrew Robertson conceding a penalty in the 82nd minute with Dries Mertens scoring and former Tottenham Hotspurs player, Fernando Llorente scored the winning goal in the 92nd minute after a rare mistake by Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool poor away run continues in the group stages of the Champions League with no away wins.

Frank Lampard started his first campaign in the Champions League with a home game against Valencia but ended in a loss with Rodrigo scoring the only goal in the 74th minute but Ross Barkley missed a penalty in the 87th minute to equalise. Mason Mount limps off the pitch after being injured by former Arsenal player Francis Coquelin which makes him a doubt to start against Liverpool this weekend.

Last year Champion League finalist, Tottenham Hotspurs played an early kick-off against Greek team Olympiakos with Harry Kane scoring a penalty in the 26th minute and Lucas Moura in the 30th minute. Tottenham had a 2 goal lead until Olympiakos came back fighting to score in the 44th minute by Daniel Podence and Mathieu Valbuena equalised in the 54th minute to end the game 2-2. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino was left “baffled” by Spurs performance.

The only English club to win their opening game was Manchester City against Shakhtar Donetsk after facing them in the third year in a row in the group stages. Riyad Mahrez, İlkay Gündoğan and Gabriel Jesus made it on the score sheets ending the game with a 3-0 comfortable win.

Borussia Dortmund lost the chance to beat Barcelona after Marco Reus missed a penalty in the 57th minute with a good save by Marc Ter Stegen however, Barcelona only had 1 shot on target, one of their poorest performances in a while.

Former Real Madrid player, Angel di Maria scored two goals for PSG against his former club, Real Madrid, with Thomas Meunier scoring the third goal to end the game 3-0 even though PSG did not have any of their usual starting 3 upfront with Neymar facing a suspension, Kylian Mbppe and Edison Cavani out injured. This leaves Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane in a sticky position after returning to the club.

Atletico Madrid fought back from 2-0 down to end the game 2-2 against Juventas with star player Cristino Ronaldo not making on the sheet this time after scoring a hattrick to knock Atletico Madrid out of the Champions League last season.

Photo by Tim Bechervaise on Unsplash