Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

UEFA Champions League is Back

By DWIT News

After 13 long days, the UEFA Champions League had returned. A late night drama for Paris Saint-Germain F.C. who defeated the Belgian champions Anderlecht 5 goals to 0 in Parc des Princes, Paris, France. Marco Verratti opened the scoring for the Unai Emery’s side after Mbappe’s pass. The record transfer player Neymar then smashed the second one for the club from 25 yards after Draxler corner. The first half ended 2-0 on the score sheet. Early in the second half Layvin Kurzawa scored rebound from Neymar’s freekick which was pushed towards the post by the Belgian keeper Frank Boeckx on the 52nd minutes. Then the defender scored a close-range header to mark his second and club’s 4th  of the night after Cavani dummied Dani Alves’ cross on the 72 minutes. 6 minutes later Kurzawa scored again after Di Maria’s pass.  Kurzawa scores his first Champions League hat-trick and becomes the only second player to score a hat-trick as a left back. A peaceful night in Paris and a comfortable victory for the French runner-ups.

José Mourinho’s  side Manchester United defeated the Portuguese champions Benfica managed by Rui VitÓria 2 goals to 0 in The Old Trafford, Manchester, England. Mourinho’s side was led by Smalling, which started Champions League debutant S.McTominay and Eric Bailly who was out for months because of injury. Just 15 minutes on the clock and Anthony Martial was fouled inside the box by a Benfica player Douglas. Martial won the penalty for United but could not convert it into the goal because of Benfica’s keeper Svilar, he got his hands on the ball as the ball was rolling towards the near post on the left side and the ball went out for a corner. 30 minutes later Benfica conceded an own goal as Matic’s shot hit the bar, rebounded and hit Svilar’s back and went in the nets. Matic’s shot hit the post still Benfica conceded in an unlucky way. 1-0 was the score sheet after the end of first half. The second half was as slow as the first one. But the substitute Marcus Rashford was fouled once again inside the penalty area in the 78 minute which provided Manchester United with their second penalty of the night. Daley Blind stepped up this time to take the penalty and he scored in the Champions League after a long session. The red devils were looking dominant over the Portuguese champions from the very beginning and got 2-0 satisfying victory.  With this win, Jose’s side marches towards the knockout stage of the tournament along with PSG.

CSKA Moscow defeated F.C. Basel 2-1 on their away game. German champions Bayern Munchen defeated Celtic 2-1 at Celtic’s home with Coman and Martinez scoring for Munchen while McGregor scored one for Celtic. Atletico shared 1 point each with Qarabag after their 1-1 draw. Barcelona also shared 1 point with Olympiakos on their visit to Greek champions playing goalless draw match. Juventus also drew 1-1 with Sporting CP. AS Roma defeated Current English champions Chelsea 3 goals to 0  with Shaarawy scoring the fastest goal this year with just 1 minute on the clock when he scored second of the night on 36 minutes and the finishing goal on the 63 minutes was by Perotti. Besiktas and French champions Monaco still left to play. Still 7 Champions League games remain to be played on 2 of the November under the likes of Man City, Tottenham, Real Madrid, Liverpool just the names of few. The article is written by Swikrit Nepal, a grade 11 student at Deerwalk Sifal School.