OWithout Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s high-flyers surprisingly suffered a setback in the Champions League. At the underdog FC Copenhagen, the English champions did not get more than 0-0. However, star coach Pep Guardiola’s team qualified for the knockout stage early.
Meanwhile, Juventus suffered a surprise but well-deserved defeat at underdogs Maccabi Haifa. Coach Massimiliano Allegri’s troubled team lost 2-0 (0-2) to the Israeli champions and have to worry about progressing. Things are not going well for Juve in the league either: the record champions are currently only eighth there.
Penalty missed, Red conceded
In Copenhagen, Guardiola did without Haaland, who was so accurate recently – the former Dortmund player was on the bench. And the course didn’t play into the favourites’ cards: A nice goal by Rodri (11th) was denied because of a handball after viewing the video images, shortly afterwards Riyad Mahrez (25th) missed a hand penalty and just five minutes later Sergio Gomez flew (30th) sent off with a red card.
Manchester had a hard time outnumbered, but Copenhagen fought back with a lot of effort. Six days after the 5-0 in the first leg, it remained 0-0. The leaders of Group G, in which Borussia Dortmund also plays, gave up their first points in the fourth game.
Maccabi Haifa caused a huge surprise in Group H. The team from Israel won the second leg against Juventus Turin 2-0 (2-0), after the Italians had won 3-1 in the first leg last week would have. Omer Atzili (7’/42′) scored both goals for Haifa.
Late luck for Real Madrid
Defending champions Real Madrid averted an unexpected defeat at the last minute. Thanks to the goal of national player Antonio Rüdiger in the 5th minute of stoppage time, the Spaniards in RB Leipzig’s group drew 1-1 (0-0) at Shakhtar Donetsk. Olexandr Zubkow (46th) scored for the Ukrainians.
Again there was no winner in the duel between Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica Lisbon. As in the previous week, the French champions and the Portuguese team led by German coach Roger Schmidt drew 1-1 (1-0). While Lionel Messi was missing due to a calf injury, Kylian Mbappé (39th), who was apparently willing to emigrate, scored the PSG goal with a penalty kick. Joao Mario (62nd) also equalized from the penalty spot.
Meanwhile, Chelsea scored an unchallenged 2-0 (2-0) win at AC Milan with goals from Jorginho (21st) from the penalty spot and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (34th). RB Salzburg drew 1-1 (1-1) at Dinamo Zagreb
