Champions League Day 2
Some of the favorite teams to win the Champions League had a rough evening in their respective games. Big names like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester United could not find a way to win and only score one goal all together. It was one of those nights where everyone struggled.
CSKA 1-0 Real Madrid
The champions get tangled in Russia and could not answer an early goal for the Moscow team.
Coach Lopetegui on the surprisesd loss:
“We created plenty of chances and couldn’t finish them off. We were unfortunate today, but if you don’t score, it’s not easy to win. It would not happen for us. The work, performance, and will to win shown by my players was clearly on show. The game started in a surprising manner, as CSKA nicked a goal and we were then really unlucky in front of goal”.
“When the goals don’t come, you can keep trying, create some chances and try to be more accurate. This team will be scoring goals again soon enough, and we’ll be back to winning ways. In football, you find yourself in these situations. We have to suck it up and take the defeat.
Manchester United 0-0 Valencia
Things are pretty darn dark for coach Mourinho. Another pale performance from his team and many rumors on him getting sacked before the end of the year.
He shared his opinion after the match:
“It was a frustrating night and not the result we want. There were some improvements in our performance because if we don’t perform at least at an acceptable level, we would lose and a defeat would leave us in a difficult situation.
So, in such a difficult group like we have, if you cannot win, you don’t lose. I think we were the team that tried more and had probably a couple of the biggest chances to win it but I accept the result as a fair result.
It’s not a good result but not a bad result. Normally, Valencia will be with seven points after the fourth fixture. I believe they are going to get six points against Young Boys. So they will have seven and we have two matches with Juventus to make points and, the last match, we will probably go there [the Mestalla] to decide but it’s a very difficult group.”
Bayern Munich 1-1 Ajax Amsterdam
It has been a very difficult stretch for the Bavarians with a three-game skid and no victories. They also lost Bundesliga first place to BVB so this result is negative as coach Kovac explains:
“We were a little shy of my expectations today and of the whole team’s expectations. We did a lot well in the first 15 minutes and we took the lead, but the goal didn’t give us any sort of security. On the contrary, we gave the opposition encouragement and that ultimately wore us down.
Ajax got stronger and played really well. We misplaced too many paces and wanted to get forward too quickly in decisive situations. When you make mistakes, you become unsure. Then it comes down to the basics: running, sprinting and tackling. Ajax did them well today, so we have to settle for the point.”
