It was another fantastic couple of nights in the world’s most elite competition.
Manchester City did book their place in the knockout stages with a point against Shakhtar however they will not be over the moon with the way their qualification came about; in a home match they were expected to dominate they were only able to draw. Gundogan scored their only goal of the night but certain players in attacking positions did not turn up at all and they were quite fortunate that their opponents were also poor or they may well have suffered defeat last night.
In the other game of Group C, Atalanta picked up their first CL victory this season and have in turn made the final matches a little more interesting. Assuming Dinamo Zagreb lose to Pep Guardiola’s side on the final day of the group, the Atalanta vs Shakhtar game will decide who comes second. And that is a very likely outcome. Can the Italian side make an unlikely qualification a reality? They certainly didn’t look like they could before their win over Dinamo Zagreb but now it is a real possibility for them.
In Group A, Real Madrid looked a right side better hosting PSG than they did when they travelled to France on Matchday 1, but they ultimately let a 2-0 lead slip in the last 10 minutes against the Ligue 1 Champions. Both sides, however, go into matchday 6 with knockout football secured.
In the other game of this group, Club Brugge and Galatasaray drew making it unlikely that either will leave the competition with a win this season, and neither have any hope of making it to the knockout rounds.
My favourite player in the world right now made history in Serbia as Bayern won 6-0 away from home at Red Star; Robert Lewandowski scored 4 goals in 14 minutes in a memorable night for the Polish goal machine. That result, naturally, meant that Red Star Belgrade crashed out of the competition but I believe I’m right in saying Europa League is still a real possibility.
Tottenham made an impressive comeback from 2-0 down at their new stadium on Tuesday evening. The Greek giants took a comfortable lead within the opening 20 minutes but a controversial substitution from Jose Mourinho in his first European night at Spurs eventually proved to be a good one; Eric Dier was substituted for Eriksen around 26 minutes in. Jose would later apologise to the midfielder however I’m sure he’ll be delighted to know that Spurs are in the CL knockouts and he’ll also recieve a lot of plaudits for a comeback that essentially only happened because of a woeful start. Despite that, I will say fair play to him and the team for getting it done. The point stands, though.
A masterful free-kick from an impossible angle saw Juventus confirm 1st place in their group. Paulo Dybala scored the winner and it was a very impressive set piece from the Argentinian, but few will argue that Oblak shouldn’t have done much better there. That might lead Atletico feeling a little worried because even though they do hold all the cards in securing their qualification, anything less than a win opens the door for Leverkusen to cause an upset and steal it from them on the last day.
Speaking of Leverkusen, they won relatively easily against Lokomotiv 2-0 and, like I just said, they know that a win against the Italian champions would mean anything can happen if Atletico slip up.
Group E is still wide open for everyone but Genk going into the last games; Liverpool could only draw with Napoli thanks to a Lovren equaliser whilst RB Salzburg dealt with Genk comfortably. Many tipped Napoli to cause a lot of problems for Klopp’s Reds and that proved true and they honestly didn’t look like winning at many points of the match. A draw was probably a fair result. As this was happening, Erling Haland was becoming the first teenager to score in all 5 of his first CL appearances and he is second to only Lewandowski for goals in the competition with 8. The guy is in his teens and he is tearing things up on a European stage. Bright future for the Norweigian, that’s for sure.
Three groups to go and I’ll start with the most intriguing; Group H. Chelsea, Valencia and Ajax could all potentially finish top, but any one of them could also slip into the inferior Europa League with the wrong result. It would be quite shocking for Chelsea to not qualify in some form, all they’d need is a win against the bottom side Lille and they’d be through, and if Ajax lose to Valencia they’ll top the group too. They couldn’t beat Valencia today in part due to a poor penalty decision, but a worse blow to their season was Tammy Abraham being taken off through injury. It still remains to be seen how bad that was for him. They drew 2-2 and will have felt very hard done by at full time. Ajax, however, beat Lille in France but they still have a tough game against Valencia from which they need to avoid defeat to secure qualification this season.
Lionel Messi proved exactly why he is the greatest footballer to ever do it against Dortmund tonight, providing some special moments and a goal in that 3-1 win. Barca top the group and comfortably so, considering this was percieved to be the “Group of Death”. Inter, on the other hand, did struggle a little to beat Slavia away from home, but eventually they got the job done and the scoreline ended up being quite generous; they won 3-1 as well.
And in Group G, RB Lepzig were held by Benfica in Germany and were in fact 2-0 down going into the 90th minute – another superb comeback in a matchday that seemed full of them. In the other match it was Zenit who emerged winners against Lyon 2-0, meaning the final day in this group will also prove crucial for all the teams in it.
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