UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions’ League Group Stage Begins
As the group stage of the UEFA Champions League opens this Tuesday, there are records in the offing. Manchester United’s manager, Jose Mourinho will not just be delighted that the club is returning to top flight European football after a year of ‘sabbatical’ leave, he is aiming to be the first person to manage three different clubs to European glory should Manchester United emerge champions next year’s May.
In similar circumstances, defending champions, Real Madrid will be aiming to be the first club to achieve a three straight win since the feat of Germany’s Bayern Munich in the 1970s.
GROUP A (BENFICA, MANCHESTER UNITED, BASEL, CSKA MOSCOW)
In Group A where Manchester United squares up with the trio Portugal’s Benfica, Switzerland’s Basel and Russia’s CSKA Moscow, the English Premership side is expected to start as the group favourite having obtained 10 points out of possible 12 in the new English premiership season.
Manchester United will open its account facing Basel at Old Trafford at 7.45 pm. Basel is reportedly weakened by persistent sales of top players since eliminating United in the 2011 groups.
The club which has been without a win in eight European games, drawing three and losing five had in the 2011/12 season faced Manchester United in the group stage. Basel won and drew the other match.
Manchester United which is making its 21st group stage appearance will be without Phil Jones and Eric Bailly who are serving a match ban.
But Mourinho seems not missing the duo as he told Simon Hart, the UEFA reporter attached to the team that Victor Lindelöf will start alongside Chris Smalling,
“Even if Jones and Bailly were not suspended, probably I would still play Lindelöf and Samlling.
“For me, they are the same level. I think it’s easier for [Lindelöf] to play Champions League – it is more comparable to the style of football in the Portuguese league. There is no need to adapt to the Champions League but he needs a little bit of time to adapt to the Premier League.
“He’s an intelligent kid, very bright, very calm; he knows that step by step he is going to be there.”
Added to that is the possibility of playing without Marouane Fellaini who reportedly picked a calf injury whole on international assignment for Belgium last week.
“Fellaini didn’t train yesterday (Sunday) and let’s see if he can today (Monday)”, Mourinho told the UEFA reporter.
“It’s a very important day for me, much more important than you can imagine. I feel weaker without Fellaini in my squad. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the pitch or on the bench, if his condition improves, he will be selected because I need him”, remarked Mourinho.
In the other Group A match, Benfica is a consistent performer in the Europa League will host CSKA Moscow which finished last in its group in each of the last four seasons – including one that contained United in 2015. –
GROUP B (BAYERN MUNICH, PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN, ANDERLECHT, CELTIC)
Neymar made it his big goal to win the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain after securing his world-record transfer from Barcelona for 222 million euros ($262 million) in July.
Advancing to the knockout stage should be a formality for his new team, which also includes teenage striker Kylian Mbappe in a new-look and exciting forward line.
Neymar’s first European campaign with PSG will take him to five-time champion Bayern, whose coach Carlo Ancelotti used to manage the French club. Celtic is never an easy team to visit, but the Scottish champions are likely to be fighting it out with Anderlecht for third place.
GROUP C (CHELSEA, ATLETICO MADRID, ROMA, QARABAG)
Qarabag is the first Azerbaijani team to reach this stage and its reward is one of the most competitive groups.
Atletico Madrid has reached the final twice in the past three years, losing both times to Real Madrid, while Chelsea – the 2012 European champion – is the current English champion and has recovered after an uncomfortable start to the Premier League.
Chelsea and Atletico could be in negotiations over the next few months regarding the sale of Diego Costa, the Chelsea striker who has been estranged in his native Brazil for much of the summer and wants to join former club Atletico.
GROUP D (JUVENTUS, BARCELONA, OLYMPIAKOS, SPORTING)
It will be a major surprise if Juventus and Barcelona, European champions a combined seven times, fail to qualify from the group.
They met in the 2015 final, with Barca’s prolific front three of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez inspiring a 3-1 win in Berlin. Neymar, of course, is no longer around for Barca, with new signing Ousmane Dembele replacing him.
Juventus lost last season’s final to Real Madrid and hasn’t won the Champions League since 1996. Olympiakos and Sporting are regular qualifiers but rarely advance, with Sporting weakened by the recent sale of midfielder Adrien Silva to Leicester.
GROUP E (SPARTAK MOSCOW, SEVILLA, LIVERPOOL, MARIBOR)
Five-time European champion Liverpool came through the playoffs and gets a chance to avenge its loss to Sevilla in the 2016 Europa League final, which denied the English team a place in last season’s Champions League.
Spartak, which won the Russian Premier League, is in the group stage for the first time since 2012-13, while Slovenian team Maribor is the big outsider in its third attempt to reach the knockout stage. This will likely be considered the weakest of the eight groups.
GROUP F (SHAKHTAR DONETSK, MANCHESTER CITY, NAPOLI, FEYENOORD)
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City avoided tougher options by being drawn into top-seeded Shakhtar’s group.
The Ukrainian champion is always fighting against the disadvantage of not playing a real home game in three years due to the conflict involving pro-Russian separatists around its home city.
Still, Napoli was one of the more difficult opponents for City from the third-seeded teams and eased past Nice in the playoffs round. Feyenoord returns to the group stage after a 15-year absence and is likely to face a steep learning curve.
GROUP G (MONACO, PORTO, BESIKTAS, LEIPZIG)
Monaco, last season’s surprise semifinalist, is the top seed but has been hurt by the departure of key players like Kylian Mbappe, Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy this summer.
The French team comes up against Porto in a rematch of the 2004 final won by the Portuguese team.
Leipzig didn’t even exist then – the club was created in 2009 – and is a newcomer at this level. But the Bundesliga runner-up was the team from the fourth seeds that most of the continent’s heavyweights wanted to avoid. Monaco won its group as a fourth-seeded team last season.
GROUP H (REAL MADRID, BORUSSIA DORTMUND, TOTTENHAM, APOEL)
Real Madrid has won the Champions League three times in the past four years, and is looking to become the first team since Bayern Munich (1974-76) to be European champion in three straight years.
Madrid’s path to the knockout stage may have been smoothed by its fierce rival Barcelona, which weakened Borussia Dortmund by signing Ousmane Dembele.
Tottenham will be hoping for better results at its temporary home of Wembley Stadium, where the English team lost two of its three group games last season and hasn’t won either of its Premier League games there this season. APOEL famously reached the quarterfinals in 2012 against the odds.
A first-half penalty earned Lille a shock 1-0 home victory over holders Real Madrid in the Champions League group phase on Wednesday, ending the 15-times European Cup winners’ 14-game unbeaten run in the competition.
Jonathan David converted from the spot three minutes into first-half stoppage time to hand Real, who had not lost in their previous 36 matches in all competitions, their first defeat since January.
The result put Ligue 1 side Lille on three points from two games in the new format of Europe’s premier club competition.
Real, who won their opening match against VfB Stuttgart, are also on three points.
“On the penalty, I try to focus, to keep calm to take a good shot but I’m confident when it comes to taking penalties,” David said. “It has not sunk in yet but it’s a memorable night.”
Real keeper Andriy Lunin said his team had lacked their usual aggression.
“It’s difficult to analyse right after. (We lacked) aggression, creativity, in the end, what we always have,” he said.
“To fight a bit more. In the second half we showed more desire, but in the first half we were worse, that’s obvious. We want to win because we know what colours we’re playing in. But that’s OK. Courage, keep working and prepare for the next game.”
Carlo Ancelotti’s side started with Kylian Mbappe, who joined from Ligue 1 champions Paris St Germain in June, on the bench after the France captain picked up a muscle injury last week.
Real’s Vinicius Jr. had the first chance with a low shot in the sixth minute as the visitors controlled the pace and the second came when Endrick’s close-range attempt was blocked by Lucas Chevalier.
Lille went close to opening the scoring after 26 minutes when Andriy Lunin made a spectacular double save to deny David, first from the forward’s header, then by tipping away the Canadian’s follow-up shot.
Their relentless pressure paid off in stoppage time when Eduardo Camavinga handled Edon Zhegrova’s free kick.
A VAR review ensued and David confidently converted the resulting penalty.
The hosts continued to apply pressure in the second half, refusing to sit back and wait as Real enjoyed possession, cutting off the supply to England midfielder Jude Bellingham.
Ancelotti sent Mbappe and Luka Modric on to replace Endrick and Eder Militao and Lille survived a late Real onslaught to hang on for the victory.
-Reuters
Defending champions Real Madrid failed to show the best version of themselves in a shock 1-0 Champions League defeat at Lille on Wednesday and must accept the criticism that comes their way, manager Carlo Ancelotti said.
Lille pressed relentlessly and took the win courtesy of a Jonathan David penalty in first-half stoppage time to hand Ancelotti’s team their first defeat in all competitions since January.
Real Madrid – record 15-times Champions League winners – have three points after two matches following their opening win over VfB Stuttgart.
“Everything was pretty bad. We did badly with the ball, although the team was quite compact in the first half, it was difficult for us to recover the ball, it was difficult for us to make transitions,” Ancelotti told reporters.
“We tried to be a little more aggressive, but it was difficult for us. So… We have to look at things with a cool head, not throw everything away. But obviously we have to improve.
“I am very sincere. The criticism for today’s game is fair, correct and we have to accept it because it is like that. We have not shown a good version in this game.”
Ancelotti said Lille “deserved” to win despite Real’s improved showing in the second half of the match.
“It was difficult for us to get into the game at the level of intensity, at the level of duels, at the level of clarity of play,” the Italian added.
“Obviously, the game could have been tied because we had opportunities at the end, but it wasn’t deserved.
“So we have to learn, as it happened the last time we lost a game, learn from what we have to improve, which is quite clear. I think it’s not very complicated.”
Real, who are second in the LaLiga standings with 18 points, next host third-placed Villarreal on Saturday.
-Reuters
Ademola Lookman scored one goal and was heavily involved in the other two to drive Atalanta to a 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday as the Italians outclassed their Ukrainian opponents in Gelsenkirchen.
Atalanta have four points from two games, having held Arsenal to a 0-0 draw in their opening match, and Shakhtar remained on one point, after they played out a scoreless draw in the first game against Italian side Bologna.
Atalanta went ahead in the 21st minute when Lookman curled a cross into the area which found Berat Djimsiti in front of goal and he controlled the ball before poking it past the keeper.
Atalanta doubled the lead a minute before the break when Sead Kolasinac squared a pass to Lookman in the middle of the area and the Nigerian struck a first-time shot through the legs of his marker Marlon Gomes into the bottom corner of the net.
The game was all but over as a contest three minutes into the second half after Lookman played the ball out wide to Davide Zappacosta and his cross into the six-yard box was headed home by Raoul Bellanova.
At 3-0, Lookman, who also hit the crossbar in the first half, was taken off with over half an hour to play, his work done for the night and the tie ended with the same scoreline as the last time the sides met in the Champions League in 2019.
-Reuters
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