Curse of Barcelona

Already in the second round of the Champions League, one of the main events of the entire group stage took place.

Lewandowski, who left Bayern in the summer with a scandal, returned to the Allianz Arena with his new team and was determined to end Barcelona's unsuccessful streak.

In three matches, he upset the Blaugrana, and made an exception only in December last year.

But then this did not prevent the Germans from loading three balls into the opponent's goal and celebrating another major victory.

There was no doubt about the level of motivation of Lewandowski.

In 90 minutes, he struck seven blows, but he could not force Manuel Neuer to capitulate.

Somewhere there was not enough implementation, but somewhere the actions of the star forward were great read by former partners.

The same Dayo Yupamecano twice deprived the Pole of the opportunity to complete the attack, and once again the ball was removed from his foot by Jamal Musiala, who returned to the defense.

Thanks to their efforts, Robert's scoring streak of five meetings was interrupted, in which he scored nine goals in total.

Other star performers of Barcelona could not support their leader either.

Pedri ruined two wonderful moments, none of Rafinha's long-range “shots” reached the target.

And Bayern could not help but take advantage of this.

Julian Nagelsman's wards, although they created fewer chances to score, and in general attacked the gate less often, but still pulled out three points.

At the beginning of the second half, Lucas Hernandez turned out to be the quickest of all during a corner kick, and four minutes later, Leroy Sane left the entire defense of the Spaniards out of work.

Matip factor

Liverpool also had something to prove in the confrontation with Ajax.

A week ago, the current finalist of the tournament suffered a crushing defeat from Napoli and dropped to the last, fourth line of the standings.

And in order to rehabilitate for that failure and prevent Jurgen Klopp from following the path of compatriots Thomas Tuchel and Domenico Tedesco, the Merseysiders needed to take three points.

But the meeting with the Amsterdammers did not turn out to be an easy walk.

And that's because of the terrible implementation.

The Reds outnumbered opponents eight times in both shots (24:3) and expected goals (2.05 - 0.25), but prevailed by only a minimal score difference.

Up until the 89th minute, units were on the scoreboard, for which Mohamed Salah and Mohammed Kudus were responsible.

At the same time, it was not the expensive Darwin Nunez or the ubiquitous Trent Alexander-Arnold that became the lifesaver for the hosts, but Joel Matip.

Previously, the Cameroonian defender scored nine times for Liverpool and in eight cases it helped the team to win.

In his favor, everything ended this evening.

Capitulation of Atlético

In turn, Atletico did not perform in the most successful way, having arrived to visit Bayer without their main goalkeeper.

Jan Oblak has defended Madrid's goal in 47 previous Champions League matches, but this time he was left out of the squad due to injury.

The reason for this was a thigh injury received in a meeting with Real Sociedad in early September.

And although later the Slovenian even helped his team to get the better of Porto in the opening round of the European Cup, he still did not manage to solve his health problems to the end.

As a result, the place in the frame was taken by the Croatian Ivo Grbic, who has played only 185 minutes in total for the "mattress" until now.

It cannot be said that it was the absence of the Cloud that became the key, but without him the defense of Madrid did not act as confidently as usual.

The grossest mistakes of Nahuel Molina and Felipe led to the fact that by the middle of the second half, Bayer had several chances to score, but Patrick Schick and partners were frankly unlucky.

In one episode, the Czech failed to get the ball into an almost empty net, and in another hit the crossbar.

The framework was also shaken by his compatriot Adam Gloszek and defender Odilon Kossunu.

But in the end, luck still smiled at the owners.

First, Robert Andrich turned out to be uncovered in the support zone and flashed the Croatian goalkeeper, and then Moussa Diaby moved from the flank and shot irresistibly into the far corner.

And, at least in the case of the first goal, Jan could well help out.

The fiasco of Tottenham and Porto

There were also some sensations, and the first burst in Lisbon, where the local Sporting crushed Tottenham.

The intrigue persisted until the last minutes, when the wards of Ruben Amorim twice surprised Hugo Lloris.

In the 90th minute, Paulinho closed the corner from the corner, and in the third compensated, Arthur Gomez created a miracle.

The smart midfielder made a slalom from the left flank, dealt with two defenders and rolled into the “house” of the French goalkeeper.

Guests can only lament about the unused opportunities.

Only the same Richarlison could issue a double again.

But Porto suffered an even more crushing fiasco.

According to the bookmakers, Club Brugge was the main underdog of the game day, and the odds for its success were 7.00.

However, the wards of Karl Hoefkens not only broke the resistance of the favorites on the road, but defeated them with a score of 4:0.

Already in the 15th minute, Ferran Zhutgla irresistibly struck from the spot, and by the 52nd minute the advantage of the Belgians was measured by three goals.

The point was put by Antonio Nusa, who came on as a substitute.

The last time the Dragons lost in the Champions League by four goals or more was in September 2021.

True, then their opponent was Liverpool, and not the representative of the Belgian championship.