Champions League Round Up

The first round of Champions League fixtures is over, and there were a number of interesting results and performances from across the continent. With the new format, every result matters for every team, so getting off to a winning start is important, while losing could be costly. Here are the three biggest talking points from this week.

Bayern Mean Business

Sure they weren’t up against the most difficult of opponents, but Bayern still sent a message to the rest of the Champions League with their performance on Tuesday. They hosted Dinamo Zagreb in the opening game, a team that has European experience and a squad littered with both solid professionals and young talent, so the magnitude of the result was certainly a shock.

Different year - Same Bayern 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/Hyg8ZA3gq7

— MAD ABOUT BAYERN 🔴⚪ (@MadAboutBayern) September 17, 2024

Bayern dispatched their visitors with ease, winning 9-2. Harry Kane continued his good form in a Bayern shirt, scoring four, including three penalties, and Michael Olise netted his first two Champions League goals. Raphael Guerreiro, Leroy Sane and Leon Goretzka were also on the score sheet for Bayern.

It may only be one game in, but this performance really reminded me of some of their games in the 2019/20 Champions League campaign, where Robert Lewandowski scored four against Crvena Zvezda, and the German giants smashed seven past Tottenham in London. They went on to win the Champions League that season, and the signs are certainly good for Bayern this time around.

Is Raya The Best Goalkeeper In The World?

Arsenal travelled to Italy to face Atalanta this week and managed to walk away with a point and a clean sheet, entirely down to the work of David Raya in goal. It has now become a very common occurrence for Raya to bail Arsenal out, as he did so against Aston Villa a couple of weeks ago, with one of the best saves in Premier League history.

David Raya is having a save of the season competition with himself 😅 pic.twitter.com/wZtHEPo7Qc

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 19, 2024

He did the same in this match with a double save. First he saved Mateo Retegui’s penalty, and when the ball rebounded to the Atalanta player, he was able to get back up and get across his goal to stop the follow up too. It was very similar to his save against Villa, but this time he had to make one just before it too.

Ligue 1 Is Not A Farmer’s League

Of all of the leagues in Europe, Ligue 1 recorded the best results over the first round of games, with three wins and a loss for their teams. Bundesliga teams also recorded three wins, but they had two losses, with RB Leipzig falling to Atletico Madrid and Stuttgart losing to Real Madrid.

MAN OF THE MATCH WITH JUST 18 YEARS OLD. 🦅🏆

GEORGE ILENIKHENA. TAKE. A. BOW. 😍 pic.twitter.com/HHpu1oyT9X

— AS Monaco EN (@AS_Monaco_EN) September 19, 2024

Lille were the only French side to lose this week, as they lost 2-0 away to Sporting. PSG, as expected, defeated Girona at home, although they made it more difficult than it had to be. Meanwhile Brest marked their competition debut with a home win over Sturm Graz. The game was sloppy and there were a lot of fouls, but they managed to get over the line thanks to goals from Hugo Magnetti and Abdullah Sima.

The biggest shock result from this week was definitely Monaco’s slim victory over La Liga leaders Barcelona. The Catalans had to play with 10 men from the 10th minute after Eric Garcia saw red, so the victory was more or less handed to the French side, but they still had to wait until the 71st minute for a winner. With the win, Monaco have put themselves in a very favourable position to qualify from the Group Stage already. Their only other difficult matches are against Inter and Arsenal.