The 28th season of the UEFA Champions League got underway this week, with the first round of fixtures featuring all the 32 teams in the competition. It's that time of the year which sets the tone for the time to come. Although several high-profile names failed to make a mark, fans were left exquisite with last-minute levellers and some screamers from outside the box. In total, there were 10 wins and six draws (2 goalless games), 41 goals and two hat-tricks. Salzburg's 6-2 win over Genk was the highest-scoring game. Here are all the results from Matchweek one:
Record 13-times-winners Real Madrid suffered a 0-3 thrashing to the hands of Paris St. Germain, while champions Liverpool lost 0-2 away at Napoli. Barcelona will feel lucky that they took a point off an inspired Dortmund side. Bayern and City cruise as they win against Crvena Zvezda and Shakhtar Donetsk respectively. Atletico left it late to seal a point against Juventus. Here are the top five talking points from UCL Gameweek 1:
Mats Hummels is not finished yet:
Mats Hummels has endured a tumultuous couple of seasons later. In the summer of 2018, he was part of an ill-fated Germany side. The title defence went all wrong and a lot of questions were raised about his quality in defence. In the aftermath of the loss, Joachim Low decided to drop the German defender in order to nurture future talent. On the club front, things weren't any better as Bayern Munich were crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the Champions League, with Hummels guilty of a few mistakes himself. Hummels returned to Dortmund in the summer. And, it's fair to say that he did strengthen his credentials against Barcelona. He was Rock solid in defence and rarely made a positional error. He was on hand with Luis Suarez's movements and didn't allow him any sniff at goal. Courtesy his display, Hummels might just have served a timely reminder to the footballing world of what he can still offer.
Eden Hazard looks rusty:
Eden Hazard left Chelsea to seal his dream move to Real Madrid in the summer. But things have not gone as planned by the Belgian and was injured in the pre-season itself. He looked clumsy in the middle as he hesitated in key moments whether to drive forward, pass or give it backwards. Although, he made some of his classic drop of the shoulder to fool the defender into moving onto the wrong side. This was only a fleeting movement though as he looked rusty throughout the game. Furthermore, there was only a little link-up play between the front three of Benzema, Bale, and Hazard. One may forgive Hazard since he was injured for a while and just made his debut four days ago. Hopefully, we get to see the Eden Hazard of late in the coming weeks.
A relatively quiet night for both Messi and Ronaldo:
Two of the biggest icons of the sport were involved this week too as Barcelona faced Dortmund for the first time in history while Juventus faced Atletico away. Messi was coming out of injury which kept him out of action until now. He was called upon around the hour mark. Although he looked lively in front of goal but failed to break the defence as Hummels and company stood firm. For Cristiano Ronaldo, he had few brief moments of brilliance, but failed to impose themselves on the game as he'd wanted. He was unselfish in the final third and looked for options on both sides. Let's hope that both return to their level best as the season progresses.
Ajax can still compete without De Jong and de Light:
A lot has changed since their loss against Tottenham in the semi-finals last season where they were just whiskers away from a spot in the final of the UEFA Champions League. Two of their most prized assets, Frenkie De Jong and Matthias de Light have both left the club to join Barcelona and Juventus respectively. And they were missing two more of their standout performers from last season- de Beek and Mazraoui. But two of their summer signings- Promes and Alvarez- were on the scoresheet as Ajax opened its CL campaign by beating Lille 3-0 in group H. It was an all-round dominating display as Ajax proved that they can still compete without their star names.
Lucas Moura makes a case for more game time, again:
Lucas Moura gathered all the headlines at the end of last season where he was put on the bench in the UCL final against Liverpool. This came after a marvellous hattrick which secured a win from the jaws of defeat against Ajax in the semi-finals. Moura was down the pecking order in his final two seasons in the French capital before moving to the Lillywhites back in January 2018. He has put up several solid displays for Tottenham, scoring 17 goals from 63 appearances. This has been a constant theme for his Spurs career as he had yet again started only 2 of the 5 games in the Premier League. This includes an equaliser against Manchester City in just 19 seconds after coming off the bench. Here too, Apart from scoring a wonder strike to increase the gap to two, the Brazilian posed a constant threat to Olympiacos's defence.
