Review of matches of the second round of the general stage of the Champions League
The start of the next round of the Champions League, the most prestigious of European tournaments, highlighted the existing imbalance in continental football. Five matches on Tuesday ended in crushing defeats for teams from modest championships against clubs from the Big Five. The central match of the day ended with a confident 2:0 victory for Arsenal over PSG.
The second round of the general stage of the Champions League started on Tuesday with nine matches. Five of them ended in major victories of favorites over outsiders. English champion Manchester City beat the debutant of the main European Cup Bratislava with a score of 4:0 "Slovan". With the same score, the current winner of the Italian championship "Inter" defeated the Serbian "Crvena Zvezda"and playing in the French championship this season not far from the relegation zone "Brest" - Austrian "Salzburg". Barcelona drove into the gates of the Swiss champion "Young Boys" five unanswered goals. But the Dortmund team especially distinguished itself Borussiawhich crushed the Scottish in its field Celtic - 7:1.
The outcomes of these meetings (with the exception of one - with the participation of Brest and Salzburg) were, strictly speaking, known even before the starting whistle - such a serious gap between the top clubs and representatives of countries from modest championships.
But the accounts recorded in them indicate a terrible gap in the hierarchy.
Two of the four teams that lost on Tuesday - Slovan and Young Boys - suffered their second major defeat of the tournament (in the last round, the Slovak club was beaten by Celtic - 1:5, and the Swiss club - by the English Aston Villa - 0 :3).
The fact that its central match was a meeting did not add any entertainment value to the game day. "Arsenal" And PSG in London - also suffered from lack of struggle. The newspaper Le Parisien headlined the French team's performance as follows: "Powerless and crushed PSG loses in the Champions League unconditionally."
And indeed, from the very beginning the match developed according to a somewhat strange scenario. Arsenal managed to achieve complete dominance on the field despite the rather calm pace of the game. The hosts could have scored the first goal already at the end of the opening ten minutes. Bukayo Saka entered the opponent's penalty area from the right edge and tried to spin the ball into the far corner. The result was a shot well above the goal.
However, the hosts managed to open the scoring in the first half of the half. Belgian Leandro Trossard, acting on the other side, crossed a good half of the field and crossed into the center of the penalty area, where Kai Havertz beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was late to the ball, who was playing his first match after recovering from a hip injury.
There is a temptation to find a mistake by the Italian goalkeeper of PSG in the episode with the second goal. However, Arsenal's original standards can confuse almost any goalkeeper. The free kick was taken dangerously close to the Parisians' goal by Bukayo Saka. The Englishman threw the ball at the near post, where his teammates Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel and Thomas Partey, who had been standing a moment before on the far corner of the penalty area, poured in as if not pretending to anything. None of them touched the ball, but it still ended up in the goal.
There was only one dangerous moment at the other goal. Moroccan Achraf Hakimi rushed forward down the right flank and headed towards David Raya's goal, but the angle was too tight for him.
The second half corresponded more to the poster. At the beginning of the game, Arsenal again attacked sharply: Martinelli could have completed the combination of the home team, which was stunning in terms of geometry, but shot at the goalkeeper from an advantageous position. However, when the playing time exceeded an hour, the guests began to regularly approach the goal. PSG's Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in made a good effort a couple of times, there was a crossbar and some claims for a penalty against the Londoners. However, the Parisians, perhaps, did not carry out a single truly harmonious, classy attack. The score remained 2:0 until the final whistle.
In other game day meetings "Stuttgart" tied with Prague "Sparta" (1:1), PSV from Eindhoven parted ways with Lisbon "Sporting" (1:1), Leverkusen Bayer turned out to be stronger "Milan".
Based on the results of Tuesday's matches, the table of the general stage of the Champions League is headed by Borussia Dortmund, which scored 6 points and has 10 goals scored and 1 conceded. Behind the leader in goal difference are Brest and Bayer (both +5), who also won two victories.
