News Archive

Champions League – day 1

A disastrous start for Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Paris Saint Germain leaving Zidane’s side at the bottom of their group table. In the absence of the French team’s front three of Mbappe, Neymar and Cavani, ex Madrid midfielder Di Maria did the damage with two goals in the first half hour. Bale and Benzema both had strikes ruled out by VAR, and with the game coming to an end Meunier wrapped things up after combining with Bernat on a rapid counter-attack. Atlético Madrid were also in trouble after they went two goals down to Juventus at the beginning of the second half in the Wanda stadium, Cuadrado firing home the first, and Matuidi heading in the second from Alex Sandro’s cross. However Savic headed one back soon afterwards after Giménez nodded on Koke’s long free kick, and with two minutes to go substitute Héctor Herrera headed in a Trippier corner to save a 2-2 draw in the end. (18.09.19)

The Champions League returned this week, with tricky games for all four Spanish sides. Barcelona were at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, and they came away relatively unscathed after a 0-0 draw. However they had Ter Stegen to thank for that, the German keeper making a string of saves, including a penalty from Reus after Semedo brought down Sancho in the area early on in the second half. The one ray of light was the return of Messi, who came on for the last half hour or so after missing the start of the season through injury. He replaced Ansu Fati, who continued to rewrite the record books as the youngest player ever to appear for Barça in European competitions. Valencia though couldn’t have had a better start, a 0-1 victory at Chelsea calming the waters after the controversial replacement of coach Marcelino by Celades a few days ago. Rodrigo got on the end of a Dani Parejo free kick to score the only goal with a quarter of an hour to go, and Barkley missed an opportunity to save a point for the Premier League side when he fired a late penalty wide after Wass was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area. (17.09.19)