Champions League Roundup: Wins for Man City, Liverpool & Bayern, Real Madrid Earn Late Draw

Manchester City made it two wins from two | Alex Caparros/Getty Images

The Champions League was back with a bang on Tuesday night, and threw up some classic 2020 football – unpredictable, entertaining, perhaps just a little bit mad.

Real Madrid were the headline act, clawing back a late, late point from 2-0 down against Borussia Monchengladbach. Elsewhere, there were wins for the Premier League’s Liverpool and Manchester City, while Bayern Munich managed three points of their own in one of the early kick offs.

Here’s your roundup of Tuesday’s action…

We have to start with Real. They fell 3-0 down in the first half of their opening game against Shakhtar, and failed to find their way back, though you’d have been forgiven for thinking they may have found their footing again for their trip to Germany after a weekend Clásico win over Barcelona.

For a long time on this night, you’d have been wrong. Two goals either side of half time from Marcus Thuram gave Gladbach a deserved lead, though Real left it very late to avoid two consecutive group stage defeats. Karim Benzema gave them some hope with minutes to play, before Casemiro hit an injury time equaliser.

Real still sit bottom of Group B after two games, with a double header against Inter next up…

Inter themselves haven’t enjoyed the greatest start, taking their second consecutive draw. They failed to score away at Shakhtar in an early kick off, despite the fact they rattled the bar a couple of times in the first half. Their trip to Madrid next week will be very interesting.

Check out the Nerazzurri ratings here.

Ferran Torres scored the 600th Manchester City goal under Pep Guardiola early in their Group C clash away at Marseille, and it was a relatively easy ride for the former Premier League champions.

Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling scored second half goals to seal their second straight win in the group, and it puts them in a commanding position. Porto and Olympiakos met in the other fixture in the group, with the former running out 2-0 winners.

It’s not difficult to see City sailing through this group.

It was quite a goal… | Pool/Getty Images

Reigning champions Bayern made it two wins out of two in Group A, but it wasn’t quite as easy a night as they’d have hoped. Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich scored the goals to sweep Lokomotiv Moscow aside, though the German champions’ high line was exposed by the pace of Ze Luis on a number of occasions. Anton Miranchuk had equalised before Kimmich hit a sweet winner.

You can check the Bayern player ratings for the match here.

Elsewhere in the group, Atletico Madrid edged a thriller against RB Salzburg at the Wanda Metropolitano, with Joao Felix’s second half double ensuring they turned around a 2-1 deficit.

Marcos Llorente had given them the lead early on before Dominik Szoboszlai and Mergim Berisha turned the tables, with Diego Simeone’s side – led by their most expensive signing – fighting back to claim their first win. It could’ve been even better for Felix had an outrageous bicycle kick not cracked off the bar in the first half.

Diogo Jota scored Liverpool’s 10,000th goal in a 2-0 win over FC Midtjylland of Denmark, with Mohamed Salah scoring a late penalty to seal the win. It wasn’t all good news though, as Fabinho was substituted off with a suspected injury to make their crisis in personnel in central defence even worse. They’re already without Virgil van Dijk for the season.

Liverpool’s ratings can be found at this link.

They are, however, top of their group, as Atalanta and Ajax battled out an open and entertaining 2-2 draw in Bergamo. The visitors didn’t quite manage 13 goals this time but were still 2-0 up at the break, with a penalty from Dusan Tadic and a scrappy one from Lassina Traore putting them in control.

Atalanta being Atalanta though fought back, scoring twice in six minutes through Duvan Zapata to earn a point.