Lazio keeper scores at CL start Barcelona wins big, Man City shakes off shock
September 19, 2023, 11:11 p.m
On the first Champions League matchday, FC Barcelona appeared to be in a scoring mood, with a DFB star scoring the first goal. Defending champions Manchester City beat Red Star Belgrade despite being behind, while a very special “home game” takes place in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion.
Dream start for İlkay Gündoğan and Marc-André ter Stegen, the defending champions with difficulty – plus great emotions in Hamburg: FC Barcelona made the first exclamation mark with its two German national players at the start of the Champions League, while Manchester City averted an embarrassment. Shakhtar Donetsk lost its premiere in the Hanseatic city.
Barca dispatched Belgium’s overwhelmed champions Royal Antwerp with coach Mark van Bommel 5-0 (3-0). João Félix (11th/66th), Robert Lewandowski (19th), Jelle Bataille (22nd/own goal) and Gavi (54th) scored the goals for the Spanish champions. Gündoğan and ter Stegen played through in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, which the Catalans moved to due to renovation work on the Camp Nou. La Masia talent Lamine Yamal became the second youngest player in the history of the premier class after coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute. At 16 years and 68 days, the Spaniard was just 50 days older than Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko when he made his debut in December 2020.
Man City struggled for a long time to win 3-1 (0-1) against the rebellious Serbs from Red Star Belgrade. The guests even took the lead through Osman Bukari (45th + 2), but after the break the spell was broken: Julian Alvarez (47th/60th) and Rodri (73rd) scored the triple winner from England to victory Group G with RB Leipzig.
Donetsk captain says thank you for German help
In Hamburg, 46,729 fans celebrated FC Shakhtar from Ukraine – who lost the emotional game against FC Porto 1:3 (1:3). The outstanding man at the traditional Portuguese club was double packer Galeno (8th/15th), and Mehdi Taremi (29th) also scored for the guests. Kevin Kelsy scored the interim equalizer (13th).
Because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Dutch coach Patrick van Leeuwen’s team is not allowed to play European Cup games in their home country for security reasons. Last season, Donetsk moved to Warsaw. HSV supports Schachtar in the organization and receives a share of the sales. In November, Donetsk will face Spanish champions FC Barcelona and Royal Antwerp at the Volksparkstadion. The game against Porto also brought back memories of the war. The entry children for both teams and the referee team were young refugees from Ukraine. Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko thanked the German help for his country in a video message before kick-off.
The game in Rome between Lazio and Atlético Madrid came to a spectacular end. After the guests had led deep into added time at 1-1 (0-1) thanks to Pablo Barrios’ goal (29′), Lazio’s goalkeeper Ivan Provedel came forward at the final corner – and scored a sensational header to the much-celebrated audience Equalizer (90th + 5).
In Dortmund’s strong Group F, last year’s semi-finalists AC Milan missed out on their opening win despite a dominant performance. Despite several top-class chances against Newcastle United, the Italians only managed a 0-0 draw. National defender Malick Thiaw was on the pitch for Milan until the end.
2023-09-19 21:11:00
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