BARCELONA VS REAL MADRID
Real Madrid beat Barcelona in a rather controversial Clasico at the Camp Nou. Both sides were coming into the game with only victory on their minds. The Champions had lost their last two games against Cadiz in La Liga and Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. Barca too had lost their previous league game versus Getafe.
The visitors opened the scoring early in the game as Federico Valverde slotted the ball home inside five minutes from a brilliant through ball by Karim Benzema. The men in blue and red weren't behind for long as just three minutes later, Ansu Fati finished off Jordi Alba's cross, bagging his fourth goal of the season and equalizing for the hosts.
The teenage sensation achieved yet another milestone; becoming the youngest player ever to score in an El Clasico at 18 years of age. At this point Fati holds the records for being Barcelona's youngest La Liga goal scorer, The youngest player to score and provide an assist in La Liga, Barcelona's youngest Champions League debutant, the youngest goal scorer in Champions League history and The youngest goal scorer with the Spanish national team.
Sergio Ramos, the Real Madrid captain was pulled inside the penalty box by Clement Lenglet in the 62nd minute. The incident had to be checked by VAR. The referee also made use of the pitch side monitor and after much confirmation, Los Blancos were awarded a penalty which Ramos scored with ease to reinstate Madrid's one goal advantage.
With just seconds left on the clock, Luka Modric sealed the game for Real Madrid by faking Barcelona goalkeeper Neto twice and scoring into an empty net. This 3-1 El Clasico result meant that Real Madrid now lead Barcelona 97-96 in head to head fixtures in all competitions.
JUVENTUS VS BARCELONA
Right after their 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid at home, Barcelona were put up to the test against a Ronaldo - less Juventus in Turin. Cristiano tested positive for Covid - 19 after his international game for Portugal against France, which also meant that he would miss the game vs Barca and we would not be able to see Ronaldo vs Messi for the first time sine May 2018.
Ronald Koeman made five changes to his lineup which saw Gerard Pique, Sergino Dest, Sergio Busquets, Philippe Coutinho and Ansu Fati all get replaced by Ronald Araujo, Sergi Roberto, Miralem Pjanic, Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann respectively.
Dembele broke the deadlock in the 14th minute with a shot from outside the box which took a huge deflection off Chiesa, leaving Szczesny with no chance. Alvaro Morata had the ball in the back of Barcelona's goal thrice only to have them all being disallowed for offside.
The Blaugrana did not score a second until the 91st minute when Fati was fouled inside the box and Lionel Messi made no mistake in converting from the spot, ensuring the three points for Barcelona.
MANCHESTER UNITED VS RB LEIPZIG
Man United faced off against Red Bull Leipzig at The Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford. The hosts have not had the ideal start to a fresh new season. Having won just 2 of their first five league games, they sit on 15th place currently. However, they did win at Parc Des Princes in the first Champions league matchday of 20/21 against PSG with another late Marcus Rashford goal.
Leipzig too won their first match in this season's CL vs Istanbul Basaksehir. Both teams were oozing with confidence as both of them had the perfect start in the competition.
Mason Greenwood gave United the lead with a cool finish into the bottom right corner through a perfectly timed ball from Paul Pogba. Marcus Rashford came off the bench in the 63rd minute and scored two goals in very quick succession. When it looked like it just couldn't get any worse for the German side, Leipzig midfielder, Marcel Sabitzer brought down Anthony Martial inside the box and conceded a penalty. Martial put the penalty away with no doubt in his mind.
Rashford then bagged his hattrick in injury time to conclude an amazing night for The Red Devils. United have now won two of their two group games this season and are the highest scoring CL team this campaign alongside Barcelona with seven goals.
RESULTS
Here are all the results in the second matchday of Champions League 20/21:
1 - Lokomotiv Moscow 1 - 2 Bayern Munich
2 - Shakhtar Donetsk 0 - 0 Inter Milan
3 - Marseille 0 - 3 Manchester City
4 - Liverpool 2 - 0 Midtjylland
5 - Monchendgladbach 2 - 2 Real Madrid
6 - Atletico Madrid 3 - 2 RB Salzburg
7 - Porto 2 - 0 Olympiacos
8 - Atalanta 2 - 2 Ajax
9 - Krasnodar 0 - 4 Chelsea
10 - Istanbul Basaksehir 0 - 2 PSG
11 - Ferencvaros 2 - 2 Dynamo Kyiv
12 - Juventus 0 - 2 Barcelona
13 - Club Brugge 1 - 1 Lazio
14 - Manchester United 5 - 0 RB Leipzig
15 - Dortmund 2 - 0 Zenit
16 - Sevilla 1 - 0 Rennes
The Champions League is off to a flying start and hopefully we can see more of the thrilling fixtures we've seen so far.
Credits: barcablaugranes.com