UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Matchday 1, 14^th September 2017

On the 13^th September, the most awaited tournament in the club football returned, and returned how.  Striking performances and surprising results. This night was no different. A host of the elite teams met and gave the fans another night to cherish the beauty of UCL.

Tottenham Hotspurs vs. Borussia Dortmund

The most looked forward match of the Wednesday night between the two dark horses of European football, and it did not disappoint. With a 3-1 scoreline, Borussia were blown away by a “Hurri-Kane”, so as to say as the English star netted two well deserved goals, one owing to his grittiness, perseverance and strength and the other to his deadly finishing after Son-Heung Min had opened the scoring with a sublime finish. The German side were caught on the counter on all three occasions, owing to their surprisingly high defence line.

Harry Kane celebrates his goal

But all wasn’t bad for Dortmund, who were hosting a number of absentees due to injuries; Reus, Bartra, Guerreiro. Andriy Yarmolenko scored a stunner and their slow and incisive build-up play shows the legacy Thomas Tuchel left behind. The match was marred by a second yellow to Jan Vertonghen, after accidentally hitting Mario Götze in the face. The group of death has already given us a spectacle, much more to look forward to.

Liverpool vs. Sevilla

After a hiatus of almost 3 years, the Merseyside team made their return to this elite competition. With the woeful memories of the likes of Balotelli and co still fresh, Jϋrgen Klopp ensured that a very potent attacking front entered the tournament this time around. But as is the perennial problem of the Kops, the defence frailties came to foray as Sevilla scored an early goal due to a defensive blunder from Dejan Lovren. Roberto Firmino quickly restored the parity with a typical Klopp-persona goal and then were given the lead by a massive deflection of a shot from Mohammad Salah. The game could have been won in the 1^st half for Liverpool, had Firmino put an awarded penalty in the net. Instead he smashed it against the upright and they were made to repent that, and a host of other missed chances in front of the goal as Joaquin Correa snatched a late equaliser for his team, ending the match at 2-2.

The match had its share of controversy as well. With Joe Gomez getting a second yellow, and the Sevilla coach being given his marching orders to the stands for his child-like stunt.

Wasteful Liverpool made to pay.

If Liverpool are to progress to the later stages of the competition, they need to take their chances and put in a solid defence performance, for this was an underwhelming one.

Real Madrid vs. APOEL Nicosia

A match all the Madristas were waiting eagerly, as their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo made a return the football humdrum after a 5-match ban. And return he did, scoring a strong header after fantastic work from Gareth Bale on the wings, as early as 12 minutes on the board and then calmly slotting a penalty home in the 2^nd half. However, the highlight of the match was a superb bicycle kick, scored by the Los Blancos’ capitán, Sergio Ramos, making the scoreline 3-0.

Sergio Ramos elated after his overhead kick.

An injury scare to Mateo Kovacic did hamper Zidane’s plans, but in all, it was an easy stroll for the reigning champions.

Feyenoord Rotterdam vs. Manchester City

One of the best City performances under Pep, David Silva and co ran riot in Rotterdam with a scoreline of 0-4. An unlikely star on both sides of the pitch, John Stones grabbed a brace of headers and was good defensively as well. Both Aguero and Gabriel Jesus scored in what became a cake walk for the visitors. A sublime shift,
as usual, was put in by Kevin De Bruyne, who Pep has described as “one of the best he’s worked with” and that, is well deserved.

This City side looks poised for success. Will they achieve that, or it’s just a mirage of a promise, that is a question the future will answer.

The results of the night are as follows: