The first matchday of the European competitions is now over. We again got to enjoy some interesting matches, with beautiful football and sometimes lots of goals.
Champions League
Surely the most interesting match in Group A was the one between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. In this opening match between the two titans, Manchester could have been sharpest in the beginning, but that would soon change. In minute 28, Sané scored the first goal after a nice one-two with Kane. Less than five minutes later, it was 2-0, after a clever dribble from Musiala and Gnabry’s goal. Just after the second half kick-off, Hojlund scored the tying goal, but that too was quickly forgotten after Harry Kane’s penalty goal. Then heads went down at Man Utd, but the final promised to be spectacular. In minute 88, Brazilian Casemiro scored the 3-2 from the ground, giving Manchester United hope after all. Substitute Mathys Tel made it 4-2, and then it was again for Casemiro to tie it 4-3 via a header.
Antwerp, the only Belgian team in the Champions League, could not win against Barcelona. The Catalans almost made firewood of the Belgian metropolis, resulting in a crushing 5-0.
In Group C, we saw the two favourites win their matches. Both Napoli and Real Madrid won by moderate scores against their opponents, Braga and Union Berlin. In Napoli’s match it was 2-1, at Real Madrid 1-0. Napoli thus come first in their group.
Dortmund kept pace against PSG for a long time, but Mbappé scored the first goal from the spot after almost 50 minutes. Ten minutes later, it was Hakimi who put his dribbling skills to good use and doubled the lead.
Manchester City were also able to beat Red Star with some ease, eventually making it 3-1. Last year’s winner did as well as RB Leipzig, who also won 3-1 against Young Boys. So it remains to be seen whether the two teams will remain evenly matched, or whether one of the two will prevail after all.
Europa League
After a very even first half, Toulouse FC still scored a penalty goal in extra time against Union. The Brusselers did not have a whirlwind start like last year this time, but still resisted firmly against a club almost equal to them. It was therefore also waiting until the 69th minute until substitute Amoura was able to break through the French defence and force the goal. In the same group as Union, Liverpool were able to win 3-1, even though they were on chase for a while.
For the rest, it was mostly the favourites who lived up to their role. Roma, Leverkusen, Atalanta, Sparta Prague, all managed to win their matches. Only Marseille and Ajax could not decide who was the favourite: their match ended 3-3.
Europa Conference League
Belgian clubs did not do very well in the ECL right away. KAA Gent visited Ukrainian side Zorja Luhansk, where it was very difficult for them to get on level terms in the first half. The East Flanders club struggled to play off the combinations, and the Ukrainians mainly focused on defence. That made for a sloppy and almost sleep-inducing first half.
So the second half had to be better. In it, Gent already played slightly better football, but it still took until the 67th minute until a goal was scored. Hugo Cuypers opened the scoring after a low cross from Andrew Hulsjager. But the lead did not last long: barely three minutes later, Guerrero kicked the ball cleverly into goal. Zorja thought it was all right then: they built up the defence, preventing Gent from scoring.
Club Brugge, in Group D, also failed to get beyond a 1-1 draw against Turkish side Besiktas. But that score is treacherous, as Club Brugge actually deserved more. They overpowered the visitors, especially in the first 20 minutes. After that, things were a bit more even at the Jan Breydel Stadium, but in the second half Bruges found a new breath. There were quite a few chances, but Brugge could only score one goal, a beautiful volley by Hans Vanaken. It was one goal, when in fact it could have been four. Besiktas were still looking for the 1-1, and a blunder by Casper Nielsen gave them one. Aboubakar extended Nielsen’s slip in one go, providing the assist for Cenk Tosun.
The last Belgian club in the ECL, Genk, also fell short of a draw against Fiorentina. More so, it even had to make up ground twice. Already in the 7th minute, Luca Ranieri, a defender who had only scored once before this match, brought Fiorentina into the lead. Then it took only a short while for Genk to find the equaliser: in the 12th minute, Andi Zeqiri was able to take advantage of fumbles in the Italian defence. But Fiorentina were also still fresh, and it was Ranieri again who was able to head the ball against the net. Then it was more than an hour’s wait for the equaliser. This time it was Mark Mckenzie, who was able to head the ball in after a corner. It almost made it 3-2, but Tolu saw his shot just not curl far enough: the shot deviated off the inside of the post.
