The defeat of Chelsea from Dynamo, the defeat of Leipzig, the doubles of Haaland and Mbappe: how the Champions League group stage started

The failed departure of the Londoners

The first high-profile sensation of the current Champions League draw was not long in coming and took place in Zagreb, where the winner of the tournament before last arrived.

In the off-season, Chelsea made a large-scale purchase and spent more than anyone in Europe on new players - € 281.99 million. However, this did not save the team from losing to the modest Dynamo.

It is all the more remarkable that the only goal was scored already in the 13th minute, and the main culprit was Wesley Fofana, who spent almost a third of the club's entire transfer budget (€80.4 million).

It was the Frenchman who could not catch up with Mislav Orsic, who rushed forward, and only watched the Croat leave Kepa Arrizabalaga out of work.

In the remaining time, the wards of Thomas Tuchel managed to press the hosts to the gate, but did not surpass them in the number of dangerous moments.

Aryan Ademi could well have increased Dynamo's advantage, but Arrizabalaga turned the ball into the crossbar, and in the end the frame was shaken by the Blues' defender Rhys James.

Mason Mount could save the situation, but his volley was parried by Dominik Livakovich.

As a result, Chelsea did not even score one goal (0.94 xG) and for only the third time in history they were defeated in the opening round of the Champions League group stage, leaving the German with not the best memories of his 100th match at the helm of the team .

Unsuccessful Tedesco streak

Unlike Chelsea, Leipzig hosted Shakhtar at home, which lost almost all foreign players.

The team, usually crowded with Latin Americans, arrived in Germany with two legionnaires in the composition - this is the Croat Neven Djurasek and the native of Burkina Faso Lassina Traore.

However, this did not prevent Shakhtar from achieving an extremely unexpected and major victory.

The guests upset the opponent four times and led Group F, overtaking the current victor of the competition - Real Madrid.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the result fully reflects what happened on the field.

The hosts landed almost three times as many shots (13:5), had many chances to score and once even forced Anatoly Trubin to capitulate - a spectacular combination was completed by Mohamed Simakan.

But on this day, everything literally fell out of their hands.

Take at least a double of Maryan Shved.

Goalkeeper Peter Gulaci, who made a gross mistake out of the blue, helped him score the first goal, the second was made possible thanks to an unsuccessful rebound from Willy Orban, who was trying to block the shot.

After that, the Germans rushed to recoup, but completely forgot about the defense and missed twice more.

As a result - the second consecutive failure of the "bulls", which may well cost the work of Domenico Tedesco.

A few days ago, they devastatingly lost to Eintracht (0:4) and dropped to 11th place in the Bundesliga. 

The revival of Azar and the next accomplishment of Holland

Although Real Madrid remained on the second line in the Group F table, they started their performance in the Champions League no less successfully.

The Madrid team harnessed for a long time and almost conceded three times by the middle of the first half, but in the second they put Celtic in their place - 3:0.

And this is without Karim Benzema, who left the field due to injury.

Eden Hazard, suffering from injuries, unexpectedly tried on the role of leader.

First, he helped Luka Modric score in his 100th meeting for the "creamy" in the tournament (although the transfer was later taken away from him), and then he scored the 200th goal of his career.

So interrupted the "dry" series of the Belgian, numbering 229 days.

The last time he upset opponents was in January - in the 1/8 finals of the Spanish Cup with Elche.

In turn, Manchester City started no less brightly, leaving no stone unturned from the crisis of Sevilla.

Guests struck 24 shots on goal and sent four balls into the net, and exactly half of them fell on Erling Haaland.

First, the unstoppable Norwegian responded to Kevin De Bruyne's cross, and then played on the rebound, thanks to which he reached the mark of 25 goals in the Champions League.

It took him only 20 meetings to do this. 

Doubl 

In the central meeting of the day, Paris Saint-Germain broke the resistance of Juventus, but one cannot call a victory simple.

Yes, already by the 23rd minute the hosts were leading with a difference of two goals - Kylian Mbappe scored a brace.

But after that, the leaders of the French team strayed into individual actions and almost paid for it.

The same Frenchman did not pass to Neymar, who was in front of an empty target, the Brazilian ignored Nuno Mendes and shot from an unobvious situation, and Lionel Messi did not always take the initiative in his own hands in a timely manner.

It is all the more remarkable that the Argentinean was the only one of the star trio who did not wait for the final whistle and in the end gave way to Carlos Soler acquired from Valencia.

By this time, Juventus had already managed to reduce the gap to a minimum.

At the beginning of the second half, Gianluigi Donnarrumma lost his head during a corner and allowed Weston McKenny to head freely.

And in the remaining time, the Turintsy had more than one chance to restore parity, but the Italian goalkeeper was no longer mistaken.

First, he parried a dangerous blow from Dusan Vlahovic from the "second floor", and then coped with the "shot" of Manuel Locatelli from an acute angle.

True, against the background of the striking counterattacks of the Parisians, these attempts seemed not so sharp.