Aned by superstar Lionel Messi, Paris St. Germain has won the duel of the heavyweights in the Champions League. PSG won 2-0 (1-0) against last year’s finalists Manchester City and initially took the lead in RB Leipzig’s Group A. Messi, who recently missed two games with a knee injury, scored his first goal for his new club.
Real Madrid meanwhile suffered an embarrassing bankruptcy: Against the blatant outsider Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova, the Spanish soccer record champions lost 1: 2 (0: 1). Former international Toni Kroos, who came on as a substitute in the second half and played his first game since losing the European Championship round of 16 against England after recovering from a pubic bone injury, did not prevent the defeat. Sebastien Thill (90th), national player of Luxembourg, thrashed the ball shortly before the end worth seeing for the decision in the corner.
In Paris, neither Messi nor one of his congenial strike partners Kylian Mbappe or Neymar met initially – instead, midfield clearer Idrissa Gueye (8th) struck early. ManCity struggled, but could not overcome the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Messi (74th) did better, leaving Manchester goalkeeper Ederson no chance.
The German team manager Jürgen Klopp has meanwhile firmly in view of the round of 16 with Liverpool FC. At FC Porto, the Reds triumphed 5-1 (2-0), the Egyptian Mo Salah (18th, 60th) and Roberto Firmino (77th, 83rd) scored twice in their second win in the second game. In Liverpool’s Group B, Atletico Madrid follow in second place in the table. In the happy 2: 1 (0: 1) at AC Milan, Luis Suarez converted a hand penalty (90 + 7) to the decision in stoppage time. With the Italians, Franck Kessie (29th) had seen yellow-red early on.
Haller with great goalscoring
Ajax Amsterdam has also won its second game in the still young Champions League season and is heading for the knockout phase early on. The Dutch soccer champions defeated Besiktas Istanbul 2-0 (2-0) and had a maximum of six points before the first duel with Borussia Dortmund on October 19th.
Steven Berghuis (17th) and the former Frankfurt Bundesliga professional Sebastien Haller (43rd) scored for Ajax, who had won 5-1 at Sporting Lisbon at the start. For Haller it was already the fifth goal in his second game in the premier class – no player had succeeded in doing this before.
Besiktas, on the other hand, suffered the second defeat in the current competition, on the first day of the match the Turkish champions lost 2-1 to BVB.
Meanwhile, Inter Milan had to take the next setback. After the opening defeat against Real Madrid (0-1), Inter did not get past a 0-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk. Former Bundesliga top scorer Edin Dzeko missed the best chance for Milan, who shot the ball over the goal from a few meters (34th).
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