Matchday Two of the Champions League group stage is wrapped up, providing fans with late drama, upsets and plenty of goals. We asked our writers Rob Dawson, Alex Kirkland and Mark Ogden to answer some of our burning questions.
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What caught your attention from Matchday Two?
Kirkland: Last year’s winners Real Madrid have a habit of underperforming in the first Champions League game of the season at the Bernabeu — they were beaten 2-1 by unfancied Sheriff Tiraspol last year, lost 3-2 to Shakhtar Donetsk in 2020 and came back to draw 2-2 with Club Brugge in 2019 — but there was no such slip-up this time against RB Leipzig.
The visitors had looked dangerous, creating some early chances, but it was Madrid who were more clinical: Fede Valverde opening the scoring with his fifth goal involvement in his last six games before Marco Asensio finished the job in added time.
Dawson: Club Brugge have never been beyond the group stages of the Champions League but after thumping FC Porto 4-0 in Portugal on Tuesday, the Belgian side sit top of Group B with two wins from two. On Matchday One, they beat Bayer Leverkusen, who recorded an impressive result of their own on Tuesday with 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid.
It means that Club Brugge are three points clear at the top after two games ahead of back-to-back games against Atletico in October. Despite being the lowest-ranked seeds in the group, they have given themselves a great chance of qualifying for the knockout rounds.
