UCL roundup: Napoli shock Liverpool as Lewandowski nets hat-trick and Griezmann grabs win
Atletico Madrid - FC Porto 2-1
In a frantic ending that had to be seen to be believed, Antoine Griezmann headed home a winner for Atletico Madrid in the 11th minute of added time, securing the hosts a first home in the Champions League group stage since October 2020.
A fixture that certainly saved the best bits until last, it was a predictably sluggish first half at the Civitas Metropolitano Stadium. Sharing just a single shot on target in the opening 45 minutes, Koke’s driven strike from outside the penalty area was the only real sight of goal either team had.
Having come close in the first half, Koke did find the net early in the second, guiding home an incisive right-footed strike into the bottom corner. Much to the disdain of the Madrid locals, the goal wouldn’t stand, as an offside in the build-up would deny the 30-year-old midfielder.
With four red cards across two meetings last season, perhaps it was no surprise that this game would end with less than 22 players on the pitch. Receiving a second yellow card for diving inside the penalty area, Mehdi Taremi’s moment of madness ensured Porto would be forced to finish the game with 10 men.
Whittling away, Atletico’s pressure eventually paid off when Hermoso's heavily deflected strike looped over Costa in the Porto goal. Wheeling away in celebration, little did the 27-year-old know just three minutes later his lazy handball would give Porto a late penalty kick. Squeezing home from 12 yards, Mateus Uribe looked to have sealed a dramatic point for Sergio Conceicao’s men.
All that before Griezmann, who had once again been substituted in on the hour mark due to a reported clause in his contract, popped up in stoppage time to send the Metropolitano into raptures. The kind of unfiltered drama only reserved for the UCL, when referee Szymon Marciniak blew the final whistle, it brought an end to a titanic clash that will be immortalised by Atletico supporters for years to come.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
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Barcelona - Plzen 5-1
Barcelona started this game with a point to prove following last season’s failure of missing out on playing in the knockout stages for the first time in 17 seasons. Xavi’s side were dominant in the opening stages and went ahead just before the 15-minute mark. A corner kick was poorly dealt with by Plzen and Jules Kounde headed back across goal for Franck Kessie to nod home his first-ever UCL goal.
The hosts were given a scare when Andreas Christensen seemed to bring down Jhon Mosquera in the penalty area, but after consultation with VAR, it was deemed that Mosquera had fouled the Dane instead and Barca breathed a sigh of relief.
Having come close to surrendering their lead, Barca typically went further ahead when Lewandowski curled a delightful shot into the corner with just over 10 minutes until HT. That was the Polish striker’s sixth goal in seven UCL season-opening games. Pedri then saw his dinked shot cleared off the line by Vaclav Jemelka.
Plzen weren’t to be denied their goal when Jemelka’s cross was converted by Jan Sykora to momentarily quieten the crowd. However, in first-half stoppage-time, Lewandowski bagged his second of the night when he stooped low at the back post to restore Barca’s two-goal lead.
The second half saw Barcelona search for more goals and the worry for Plzen was likely how many the home side would get. Lewandowski then compounded those fears by becoming the first player in UCL history to score a hat-trick for three different clubs, coolly stroking home Barca’s fourth goal on 69 minutes.
A minute later, substitute Ferran Torres hit a delightful volley to add an extra layer of gloss to a comfortable night for Xavi’s men, which saw Barca win only their second home European game in nine matches.
Plzen’s welcome back to the UCL was a tough one, ending their 34-game unbeaten run.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
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Club Brugge KV - Bayer Leverkusen 1-0
Club Brugge extended their winning run to five matches in all competitions as they defeated Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 at the Jan Breydel Stadium. Leverkusen were looking for an escape from their domestic misfortunes that had seen them lose four of their first five Bundesliga games.
As ever, the electric Moussa Diaby appeared the best route to goal for the visitors, with his direct running earning him a chance inside the first 10 minutes, but Simon Mignolet was equal to it. The Frenchman would go close again, as his strike from the edge of the box struck the woodwork.
Carl Hoefkens’ men had offered very little as an attacking threat throughout the majority of the first half, but that all changed three minutes before the interval. Andreas Skov Olsen’s corner was flicked goalwards by Abakar Sylla, and Lukas Hradecky made a complete mess of it, catching the ball before falling over the line to give the hosts the lead against the run of play.
The Leverkusen skipper was in the action again before the break as he tipped Kamal Sowah’s shot over the bar, with the German outfit hanging on in the contest as Irfan Peljto blew for HT. Gerardo Seoane’s men desperately needed a response as they looked to turn both this game and their season around.
Despite failing to register a shot on target in the first 25 minutes of the second half, the visitors found the net in strange circumstances. Callum Hudson Odoi’s looping cross was eventually nodded into the corner by Patrik Schick, who thought he had scored his first ever UCL goal, only to be denied by a pitchside VAR review for an offside.
Incredibly, Schick scored another moments later with a superb bicycle kick, but again, he had made his run too early and the strike was disallowed. Leverkusen ran out of ideas in the final third, and have now failed to win their opening game of a UCL group campaign in six of their last seven participations in the tournament.
Pressure will be mounting on Seoane after a torrid start to the campaign, while Brugge prevailed for just the second time in their last 13 clashes with German sides.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Abakar Sylla (Club Brugge)
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Inter - Bayern Munich 0-2
Bayern Munich began their campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Inter Milan at the San Siro, extending their unbeaten run against Italian opposition in the competition to 11 matches.
Thomas Müller tested Inter keeper André Onana twice early on, with the German veteran firstly being teed up by Leroy Sané for an early shot, before seeing a long-range effort tipped over the bar by the Cameroon international. However, the pressure eventually told in the 25th minute, as Sane brilliantly latched onto Joshua Kimmich’s long ball forward, ran past Onana and calmly slotted the ball into an empty net to give Julian Nagelsmann’s side a well-deserved lead.
The hosts were on the ropes and relied on yet another fine save from Onana to keep an Alphonso Davies attempt at bay, before Marcel Sabitzer flashed a strike narrowly wide of the post. Meanwhile, forays forward were few and far between for Inter, as only half-chances fell for Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko to leave coach Simone Inzaghi with plenty to ponder at HT.
Inter made a bright start to the second half with another chance for Dzeko, but it was Bayern that struck again, with a beautifully-crafted goal that was orchestrated between Kingsley Coman and Sane. The duo played a succession of one-twos in a heavily congested penalty area, and there was nothing Danilo D'Ambrosio could do to keep out Sané’s goalbound effort, instead seeing the ball in for an own-goal.
A third could have followed soon after, but Inter had Onana to thank once again after keeping out Sadio Mane’s effort at his near post. The gulf in class between the two sides was clear to see on a sobering night for Inzaghi’s side, with their run of scoring in 20 consecutive matches across all competitions coming to an end.
Meanwhile, Bayern once again showed their efficiency in the UCL, with this result representing an 18th win in the Reds' last 19 group stage matches. Flashscore Man of the Match: Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich)
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Napoli - Liverpool 4-1
A deafening crowd at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona didn’t need amping up, but Napoli’s electric start did just that. Victor Osimhen raced in behind the Liverpool defence to round an onrushing Alisson, but couldn’t direct the ball into an empty net from a tight angle.
However, with just five minutes played, Gli Azzurri had a penalty when Matteo Politano’s shot was handled by James Milner, allowing Piotr Zielinski to send Alisson the wrong way from the spot. The hosts then had a second spot-kick just 12 minutes later, after Virgil van Dijk was deemed to have stamped on Osimhen’s foot. This time, the Nigerian stepped up, but Alisson guessed the right way before Giovanni Di Lorenzo blazed over on the rebound.
Luciano Spalletti’s side were unrelenting, forcing Joe Gomez into a first of several errors as Osimhen stole the ball and squared to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, only for a sprawling Van Dijk to clear the Georgian’s effort off the line.
Andre Zambo Anguissa's movement had been excellent, and he was duly rewarded after a neat one-two allowed him to sweep home Napoli’s second. Jürgen Klopp would have hoped the tides were turning when Osimhen departed the field injured, but his replacement Giovanni Simeone soon grabbed his first UCL goal to cap off a breathless first half.
Incredibly, within five minutes of the restart, two more goals were scored. First, Liverpool were carved open as Zielinski dinked over Alisson at the second attempt for a scarcely-believable Napoli fourth. Yet, just two minutes later, Luis Diaz had restored some pride with a clinical curler beyond Alex Meret. Having been well off the pace, the visitors came close to a second, but Meret’s quick reflexes denied Diaz’s flying header.
A host of substitutions combined with unsustainable tempo finally took its toll, producing the game’s longest period without goals as the match eased to its now-obvious conclusion. The result leaves Liverpool three points off the pace in Group A, but the manner of the defeat may be even more concerning.
Meanwhile, Napoli have now registered a sixth win in seven home UCL encounters against English sides and continue an impressive unbeaten start to the season as a result.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Andre Zambo Anguissa (Napoli)
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Tottenham - Marseille 2-0
A Richarlison double ensured Tottenham Hotspur opened their Champions League account with a victory over ten-man Marseille to stretch their impressive home record against French opposition to five wins from six.
Following a rather incredible pre-match display at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a rather flat Spurs display in the opening quarter somewhat stunted any atmosphere created by that spectacle.
It was Marseille who had the first notable action on goal, with former Arsenal player Nuno Tavares stepping infield and firing a fierce effort narrowly wide of the post, but his strike had Hugo Lloris worried. It took Spurs until the 40th minute to muster a serious effort on goal, but as Heung-min Son found Harry Kane in the area, the English striker flashed his effort wide of Pau Lopez’s post, ensuring the scores remained level at the break.
Spurs had been lacklustre in the first half to say the least, but after the break they were handed the initiative in unlikely circumstances as Son edged Chancel Mbemba out of a foot race, before the Marseille defender rashly dove in and brought down the South Korean, resulting in a red card for the former Newcastle man. Mbemba’s dismissal prompted Antonio Conte to shuffle his pack a little and introduce Dejan Kulusevski, and the Swede’s introduction almost paid dividends when his mazy run squared him off against Lopez, but his effort was rebuffed by the Marseille stopper.
Marseille’s time-wasting antics were becoming frustrating for both Spurs and the home crowd, but with the visitors down to ten men and happy with a point, it’s hard to see what else Spurs expected would happen.
Conte’s men channelled those frustrations and eventually created their first clear-cut chance of the game which fell to the head of their £50 million man Richarlison who powered a header past Lopez.
Spurs' big-money summer signing delivered again just moments later to wrap up proceedings, rising highest to meet Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s cross to ensure Marseille’s wait for an away win in UEFA’s top-two European competitions hit an unlucky 13.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Richarlison (Tottenham Hotspur)