Last week, the Champions League continued with its second matchday. Out of 16 matches, there were some notable ones. The main event of Barcelona and Juventus was slightly spoiled by the fact that Juventus star, Cristiano Ronaldo, was unable to play due to a positive COVID-19 test. Lionel Messi and Barcelona were able to beat Juventus 2-0 with goals by Messi and Ousmane Dembele. With this result, Barcelona is at the top of its group with 6 points, and Juventus is in second with 3 points. Just as a reminder, a win is 3 points, a tie is 1 point and a loss gives no points.
Another notable match was Real Madrid and Borussia Monchengladbach. The match ended up tied 2-2, but everyone expected Madrid to win by a wide margin. This puts Madrid at the bottom of its group with only 1 point. Needless to say, this is not what the 13-time Champion League winner needs. Liverpool got a 2-0 win against Midtjylland in a match that was tougher than expected. Defending champion Bayern Munich won 2-1 against Lokomotiv Moscow in a closely fought match. In other matches, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Sevilla finally got their first wins of the campaign against their opponents.
The Group standings are as follows:
Group A: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid ,Lokomotiv Moskva, RB Salzberg
Group B: Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Monchengladbach, Inter Milan, Real Madrid
Group C: Manchester City, Porto, Olympiacos, Marseille
Group D: Liverpool, Atalanta, Ajax, Midtjylland
Group E: Sevilla, Chelsea, Krasnodar, Rennes
Group F: Lazio, Club Brugge, Borussia Dortmund, Zenit,
Group G: Barcelona, Juventus, Dynamo Kyiv, Ferencvaros
Group H: Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), RB Leipzig, Istanbul Basaksehir
As a reminder, the top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stages while the third place teams join the Europa League. The next matches take place on Nov. 3 and 4. By the time this article is released, the matches on Tuesday will have already occurred. One thing to note is that if Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, Barcelona or Manchester United win their next matches, it will put them at 9 points, which will effectively guarantee a place in the knockout rounds. However, this is the Champions League, which means that anything is possible. Every team knows that this matchday is a must-win in order to have a chance to go through to the knockout rounds. Everything is to play for as the best teams in Europe fight for the top international club trophy in the world.
