Tuesday's UCL Recap: Matchday 2

The UEFA Champions League made its return for Gameweek 2. Group E to H were in action yesterday with teams looking to consolidate points or get their campaign on track. Title holders Real Madrid fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to CSKA Moscow while AS Roma got their first three points with a thumping 5-0 win at home against Viktoria Plzeñ. Manchester City left it late to get their first win against Hoffenheim, Benfica also won their game against AEK Athens while Juventus were fine without Cristiano Ronaldo beating BSC Young Boys 3-0. Bayern Munich and Ajax shared the points, Lyon earned a draw in a close encounter against Shakhtar Donetsk while Manchester United’s game against Valencia was the only goalless draw. Here are the three things from last night.

Hat-trick heroes

There were a lot of goals from yesterday. More specifically, 23 goals were scored from the eight games and there were some players that were clinical in front of goal, one of which is Paulo Dybala. The Argentine hasn’t really been prolific on the Champions League stage with 4 goals from the 2016/17 season his best goal-scoring season till date for the Old Lady. However, Juve’s No.10 was fantastic against Young Boys and seized his opportunity scoring a hat-trick, which is his first in the UCL, and stepped up in Ronaldo’s absence who was unavailable due to suspension. He is now the fourth Juventus player to score a hat-trick in the UCL after Filippo Inzaghi, Alessandro Del Piero and Arturo Vidal. Edin Džeko was also in the goal-scoring act netting a hat-trick in Roma’s 5-0 win against Plzeñ. He’s the first Roma player ever and also the first from Bosnia and Herzegovina to do so in the UCL era. The Bosnian has now scored 6 in his last five UCL games for Roma highlighting his importance at 32 years old.

Real Shock

A lot of people were in agreement that Real Madrid would unlikely add any silverware this season as they are in transition with Cristiano Ronaldo gone and Julen Lopetegui brought in replacing Zinedine Zidane. At first glance, things were going good for the holders winning their first five games but things now have now brought questions than answers. Madrid lost to the Russian side CSKA Moscow 1-0 as they’re now winless in three in all competitions. Madrid were wasteful in their chances with only four of their 26 shots on target. This is the first time in 30 Champions League games that Los Blancos has failed to get the back of the net with the last time being against Manchester City in April 2016. Madrid have also failed to score in three games now raising more questions on where the goals are going to come from with only Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema likely to do that but don’t have the goal-scoring numbers that Ronaldo has. A bad run of form? Yes. However, with the lack of goals, a big name signing from the summer would have done Madrid some good.

Boring United

Manchester United have been receiving some bad press both on the field with their performances and results and off the field with the situation between Jose Mourinho, the players and the United board. For Jose and United, a return to winning ways would help ease the pressure but the performance was nothing short of boring football. United played to a goalless draw against Valencia as they have now gone four games without winning and Mourinho more isolated. It was a game where nothing happened with both sides poor in the final third with only 5 of the 26 shots on target from both of them despite the attacking talent from both sides. A loss would have amplified the problem with Mourinho at United and while a draw is fine, the performance was not inspiring at all for the United faithful as the Red Devils have had more goalless draws than any other sides in the UCL. Mourinho’s barren run continues.