Match day 1 of the Champions League started off with a bang. Interesting matchups and some upsets set the stage for the next match day and will have an influence on the rest of the campaign for several clubs. The matches on Tuesday had a few interesting results. Wolfsburg, as expected took care of CSKA Moskva 1-0 and PSV caused a shock with a 2-1 home victory against Manchester United.
But was it really a shock? With the huge loss of Luke Shaw by a gruesome tackle from behind, the young fullback broke his leg in two places. The result puts more pressure on Van Gaal to get things right again in Manchester and the red devils still have matches against a great looking Wolfsburg side and a tricky CSKA team.
Atletico Madrid made light work of Galatasary, winning 2-0 in Turkey and Benfica replicated that score with their own 2-0 result against Champions League newcomers, FC Astana. Sevilla was looking great against Borussia with a 3-0 victory at home and an amazing match between Manchester City and Juventus, saw Juventus taking the match 2-1.
With Manchester City going undefeated so far in the Premier League and Juventus having early season trouble in Serie A, the result was a shock for a lot of people. But for a lot of people, it was just a typical collapse of City in the Champions League. PSG took care of Malmo 2-0 in Paris and Real Madrid dominated Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 in a match that featured a Ronaldo hat trick. That hat trick gave Ronaldo a total of 8 goals in 2 matches.
Wednesday proved to be another great day in the Champions League. Most notably seeing Arsenal fall apart in Zagreb in a huge upset, losing 2-1 to Dinamo Zagreb. A controversial sending off of Giroud in the first half proved to do the guests in.
Bayer Leverkusen saw off BATE Borisov 4-1 in a result that surprised no one. Bayern Munich and Thomas Muller put on a clinic against Olympiacos with a comfortable 3-0 victory over the Greek champions.
Chelsea took care of Israeli champions Maccabi Tel-Aviv 4-0. The match could be a sign of better times to come for Chelsea Football Club. Newcomers Gent drew at home with Lyon 1-1 and the other match in that group, Valencia lost at home to Zenit St. Petersburg 3-2 with a brace from Hulk.
That group still is wide open. Dynamo Kyiv and FC Porto drew 2-2 in Kyiv. The defending champions Barcelona, took a point from their opening match in Rome, 1-1 against a stubborn AS Roma side, in which saw perhaps the goal of the year so far.
Match day 2 will paint a better picture of the groups and is certain not to disappoint anyone in terms of drama, great football and great goals!
