Champions League 1st Round analysis

The opening round of Champions League group stage brought a lot of excitement and some unexpected results as well. We are going to analyse the most interesting matches of this round.

* Group E - Napoli v Liverpool 2:0

These two teams have already been drawn in the same group in the latest edition of the Champions League and once again Liverpool failed to score and bring back home at least a point from this trip. The match was pretty tight until the very finish when Napoli were awarded with dubious penalty which Dries Mertens converted into a 1:0 lead. Fernando Llorente sealed the win for the hosts in the stoppage time and Napoli bagged three important points from this match. Liverpool just wasn’t clinical enough, they missed a couple of good goal scoring opportunities and eventually got punished for that. Last year, a defeat in Naples almost costed them the place in the knockout round and hopefully they won’t have troubles this time as well. If you fancy betting on the 2nd round matches, consider checking BestBettingSitesOnline as you will find there the best offers from top bookmakers.

* Group F – Borussia Dortmund v Barcelona 0:0

Although everybody expected goal galore in this match since both teams are very offensive, the nets remained still and the match itself was a bit disappointing. Borussia Dortmund had a great opportunity to beat big rivals, but Marco Reus missed the penalty and Ter Stegen saved Barcelona from losing all points. The hosts were more dominant team in this clash, and Barcelona are simply not the same team when Leo Messi is not on the pitch. We can easily see lack of creativity, which was not typical for Barcelona in previous years and they are not a constant threat for the oppositions’ goalkeepers without Leo Messi in the team.

* Group A – PSG v Real Madrid 3:0

Since Cristiano Ronaldo left the club and joined Juventus, Real Madrid cannot pick up themselves and it seems they are going to have another disappointing season. Even Zinedine Zidane didn’t manage to shake the things up and it culminated with heavy 3:0 defeat in Paris. Angel Di Maria scored a brace already in the first half and caused a fatal damage to the opponents. The fact that Real Madrid didn’t have an attempt on target shows how inferior they were in the clash against PSG.

* Group D – Atletico Madrid v Juventus 2:2

These two sides faced each other in the knockout round last season and although it seemed that Atletico Madrid are going to progress further after a 2:0 home win in the first leg, Juventus managed to turn around the result and advance thanks to a 3:2 aggregate win. This was another exciting clash in which both teams snatched a point. By the middle of the second half, the visitors had a 2:0 advantage, but Atletico Madrid never give up. They managed to get back in the game thanks to goals by Savic and Herrera and book a point in the match which ended with a 2:2 draw.

* Group H – Chelsea v Valencia 0:1

The Blues are handled a very tight and tricky group, but they managed to disappoint in the opening round. They hosted Valencia at Stamford Bridge and although they had a total of 21 attempts, they couldn’t find the back of the opposition’s net. Valencia managed to punish the hosts 15 minutes before the end of the match and although Ross Barkley had a great chance to equalize from the penalty spot, he missed and the visitors got back home with all three points.