Champions League scores: Liverpool top Ajax late, Bayern Munich down Barcelona, Spurs lose to Sporting

Matchday two of the Champions League play began with Inter Milan rebounding with a victory over Viktoria Plzen behind a goal and an assist from Eden Dzeko. Scoring 10 goals in nine appearances versus Viktoria Plzen, he’s no stranger to goals against them. Viktoria Plzen were reduced to ten men following a bad tackle by Pavel Bucha and Inter rolled from there.

Sporting CP and Spurs were playing an even match until they weren’t with both sides missing chances early until almost the 90th minute. After a strong save from Hugo Lloris, Sporting drew first blood from a Paulinho header in the 90th minute after coming off the bench. Continuing bench contributions, Paulinho then found Arthur Gomes to double the advantage taking control of Group D early. It was a winnable match for Spurs but the finishing just wasn’t there while Sporting took control at home.

In the late window, Club Brugge jumped all over Porto for a 4-0 win which was their largest away victory in Champions League history. Antonio Nusa also became the second youngest scorer in Champions League history at 17 and 149 days driving home the fourth goal. Continuing the firsts, Jesper Lindstrom scored Eintricht Frankfurts’s first Champions League goal to see the team to their first victory in the competition. Atletico Madrid went the way of Spurs earlier in the day by conceding in the 84th and 87th mintues to lose to Bayer Leverkusen.

Liverpool played an absolute barnburner with Ajax before Joel Matip’s winner inched just over the line for a 2-1 victory. After the Reds opened the scoring, there was a slight worry when Mohammed Kudus scored a thunderbolt to bring Ajax level. But taking 23 shots, Liverpool created too much pressure for the Dutch side to withstand. 

Bayern Munich secured an important 2-0 victory over Barcelona behind goals from Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sane. Barcelona controlled the first half but weren’t able to find the net before Bayern found their footing to put things out of sight behind Sane’s brilliance.

Tuesday’s scoreboard

That’s more like it for Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds may not have kept a clean sheet but the goal they conceded was worth the price of admission as Ajax dribbled through the defense before Kudus had quite the hit. 

With how the season has gone, that would’ve been a time that Liverpool could’ve conceded multiple goals like they did against Napoli but instead they piled on the pressure until Ajax cracked. It’s no surprise that this performance came with the return of key players into Klopp’s lineup with Joel Matip, Diogo Jota, and Thiago Alcantara starting. The trio not only knows how to play the Liverpool way, but were also critical to Liverpool’s success last season. Jota grabbed an assist while Matip scored the winner as one of the simplest answers for how to fix Liverpool seems to be just getting healthy. 

With Thiago’s return, the fullbacks created nine chances combined and eventually, Liverpool wore Ajax down. The goal after this will be to stay healthy and repeat this performance next time out against Brighton after the international break.

Late collapses for away teams

Spurs weren’t the only team to allow late goals as Sporting CP scored twice after the 90th minute. They were joined by Atletico Madrid collapsing to allow goals in the 84th and 87th minute while losing to Bayer Leverkusen. Junior Frimpong’s introduction into the match was the turning point for Bayer as he assisted both goals. Creating two chances on 15 touches from the bench he was able to find Robert Andrich and Moussa Diaby. After losing to Brugge on the opening day, Bayer winning this match pushes them to second in group B.

Antonio Conte’s collapse seems to be more on Spurs running out of steam and then losing composure. After subbing on Dejan Kulusevski, Conte forgot that his bench existed despite pressure from Sporting all match. While Hugo Lloris had a great day in net with four saves, he was lucky to not be beaten by former Spur Marcus Edwards at the end of the first half.

Once Sporting got fresh legs on the pitch, they pushed the pressure before Paulinho scored the go ahead goal. His goal made Spurs collapse before assisting an insurance goal to Arthur Gomes who was only on the pitch for seconds. The result now brings Spurs and Eintracht Frankfurt level on three points with both looking up at Sporting CP on six points in Group D.

Appreciation post for Nusa’s goal

Everyone raise your hand if you had Club Brugge perfect atop Group B two matches in. With five goals scored and zero allowed, Brugge are ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, and Porto as they look to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages. Even if they don’t, Brugge are setup well for at least dropping into Europa League.

A tale of two halves for Bayern Munich

While it started with Sadio Mane and Thomas Muller getting their paths crossed while going for a ball, it ended with Sane making excellent runs to get into space and score. This was the kind of statement win that Bayern needed after drawing three league matches. Barcelona won the xG battle 2.0 to 1.58 but it doesn’t tell the full story as Bayern’s best attacks didn’t end in shots in the first half. In fact, 0.94 of Barcelona’s xG came in the first half compared to .30 for Bayern. Most of that came from a familiar source in Robert Lewandowski who had five shots in the first half but was uncharacteristically wasteful only putting one on target.

Barcelona still created chances in the second half, but this time it was Pedri missing good chances instead. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich isolated Lucas Hernandez on Marcos Alonso during a corner kick leading to one of the easier headers that he’ll score following a great corner from Joshua Kimmich. 

But Sane’s goal was a thing of beauty. With Julian Nagelsmann improving his side’s positional awareness after the half, the stage was set for no one to get in Sane’s way when he dribbled into the box, finishing his chance and Barcelona at the same time.