The first evening of the Champions League delivered its verdict with the victory of Mbappé’s Real Madrid over Stuttgart, Bayern’s show against Zagreb and Liverpool’s victory in Milan.
The endless wait is over. The Champions League, in its new form, was well and truly back this Tuesday evening for a great evening with three golden posters in addition to the Sporting – LOSC duel. In this multiplex full of twists and turns, Kylian Mbappé struck for his first C1 match with Real Madrid. The defending champion dominated Stuttgart (3-1) on the Santiago Bernabeu pitch, thanks in particular to a goal from the captain of the Blues. At the same time, Liverpool went to win in Milan where Mike Maignan went off injured (3-1) while Bayern Munich blew away Dinamo Zagreb (9-2).
Merengues frustrate a valiant Stuttgart team
A majority predicted hell for them at Santiago Bernabeu but the German club Stuttgart showed its ambitions. After dominating the entire first half during which Thibaut Courtois made a total of four big saves (4th, 12th, 14th, 17th), Sebastian Hoeness’ troops did not disgrace themselves, even after Kylian Mbappé opened the scoring (46th, 1-0). The Frenchman opened his account with the Casa Blanca in the Champions League by taking a superb pass from the right signed by Rodrygo. With a few changes made, the Germans moved forward again and were even able to equalize thanks to Denis Undav’s header (68th).
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The Madrid players had not touched the ball since the equalizer, while Stuttgart were still pushing at the end of the match. But unfortunately for the German club, Antonio Rüdiger perfectly took the ball with a powerful header from a corner by Luka Modric (83rd, 2-1). Coming into play, the young Endrick even scored his goal (90th + 5, 3-1) to seal the Spanish victory (3-1). But Stuttgart must rely on this masterful performance to hope to dream. There will not be many of them attempting 17 shots in Madrid in C1 with 55% possession.
AC Milan drowns at San Siro and loses Mike Maignan
After a 4-0 win this weekend in Venice in Serie A, Paulo Fonseca’s AC Milan wanted to make a big splash to finally kick off their season after a more than mixed start to the championship. Against Liverpool, the match had all the makings of a potential benchmark match under the eyes of the legend Kaka’ and the match got off to a flying start with Christian Pulisic opening the scoring on a nice deflection from Alvaro Morata (3rd, 1-0). But on an avoidable foul from Davide Calabria, the Reds were offered a free kick on the edge of the corner on the left side that Trent Alexander-Arnold took magnificently to find the head of the Frenchman, Ibrahima Konaté (23rd, 1-1).
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Hit in the calf from the first moments of the match, Mike Maignan thus took a second hard blow since on the English equalizer, he was not exempt from all reproach with a hesitant exit and a dubious positioning. Less than twenty minutes later, bis repetita for Arno Slot’s players. On a corner taken by Kóstas Tsimíkas, captain Virgil van Djik doubled the lead on a header very similar to the opening score with another complicated positioning by Maignan (41st, 1-2). On returning from the locker room, on a great save, the Blues goalkeeper took Diogo Jota and also his teammate Tomori on the stomach and calf. He was therefore forced to give up his place to Lorenzo Torriani (19 years old). Manhandled, dominated, controlled, AC Milan was crucified by Dominik Szoboszlai (66, 1-3). The Reds strolled past the increasingly unrecognisable Rossoneri.
Offensive festival for Bayern and historic evening for Harry Kane
The spotlight quickly turned on. Bayern Munich rolled over Dinamo Zagreb without ever picking up the pace (9-2). In front of their home crowd, Vincent Kompany’s Bavarians quickly took the lead with goals from Harry Kane (19th, 1-0), Raphaël Guerreiro (33rd, 2-0) and Michael Olise (38th, 3-0). In the first half, Bayern also saw Sergio Gnabry score (18th). But the return from the locker room was very complicated, conceding two goals in quick succession with Bruno Petkovic (48th, 3-1) and Takuya Ogiwara (49th, 3-2). The rest is history with six goals scored by Bayern including Olise’s double (61st) and Kane’s quadruple (57th, 73rd, 78th) then the contributions of Sané (85th) and Goretzka (90th+2), both of whom came on as substitutes.
The former Tottenham striker even saw another goal disallowed by VAR (60th). Bayern Munich became the first team to score 9 goals in a Champions League match since Real Madrid against FC Tirol on October 24, 1990. Harry Kane became the first English player to score four goals in a Champions League match since Alan Smith with Arsenal against Austria Vienna on September 18, 1991. He also became the most prolific Englishman in history in terms of goals, surpassing Wayne Rooney. German Quality as they say.
