Tuesday UCL Recap

The 2018/19 UEFA Champions League season has finally begun with Group A, B, C and D kicking things off on Tuesday. Barcelona got their campaign off to a perfect start with an easy 4-0 win against PSV Eindhoven at the Camp Nou. Liverpool beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at Anfield continuing their perfect start to the season while Spurs fell short losing to Inter Milan 2-1 at the San Siro. Galatasaray, Dortmund and Atletico got their campaign started with three points while Napoli and Porto dropped points. Here are the three things from yesterday’s action.

Messi Is On a Mission

Lionel Messi before the season started stated that Barcelona have unfinished business in the Champions League and will try their hardest to win the Champions League this season. So basically, Messi is on a quest this season starting with a magical display against PSV Eindhoven. The Argentine was at his best as usually scoring a hat-trick in Barcelona’s comprehensive 4-0 win against the Eredivise champions. That was Messi’s eighth UCL hat-trick which is the most from any player and taking his goal tally to 63 in the group stages. Barcelona have been underwhelming in the Champions League getting knocked out in the quarterfinals over the past three years but with Messi starting off this UCL season with a banger as well as the additions from the transfer window, Barcelona could make a statement this season.

Spurs Woes Continues

Spurs experienced back-to-back defeats in the Premier League losing to Watford and Liverpool in between the international break. So starting off their Champions League season well would be very important for Pochettino as he’s never experienced three straight defeats as Spurs manager. However, things got more difficult for Poch as Spurs started off with a 2-1 defeat to Inter. Spurs were on the ascendency with Christian Eriksen opening the scoring only for Spurs to lose it in the final seven minutes with goals from Icardi and Vecino to snatch all three points for the Nerazurri. Harry Kane again looked off raising questions on whether he needs to be rested and why they didn’t make any additions during the transfer window. Spurs have to recover from this defeat quickly to get out from a very tight group with Barcelona their next opponents in two weeks time.

5-Goal Thriller at Anfield

Liverpool’s game against Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield was the biggest game of the night with each team’s explosive forward line going at each other as well as both teams have a 100 percent start to the season and the game certainly lived up to the hype. Liverpool started off well for themselves with goals from Daniel Sturridge and James Milner to give the Reds a strong lead before Thomas Meuneir gave the Parisians a lifeline with a goal before half-time. Liverpool dominated the game again in the second half having a goal that was disallowed before Kylian Mbappe equalised from a poor pass by Mohamed Salah. With the game tied 2-2, it looked like PSG managed to get a point but Roberto Firmino turned the game on its head coming from the bench to score the winner in added time capping off a thrilling game. For Liverpool, their run-in this month has started with two straight wins while PSG have finally suffered defeat for the first time this season.