10 things you might have missed from Tuesday night’s Champions League action

Tuesday night saw Champions League game week two commence and it did so in some style.

Manchester City were involved in one of the two early kick-offs this week, with Hoffenheim providing Pep Guardiola’s side with a tough test in Germany.

The other English side to play on Tuesday were Manchester United, who only managed a 0-0 draw at home to Valencia.

The big shock of the night saw holders Real Madrid beaten by CSKA Moscow, whilst Bayern Munich were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Ajax.

Here are 10 things that you may not have noticed amidst the Champions League drama on Tuesday.

1. Early goals galore

More of this, please. Goals had been registered within the first six minutes in six of the eight Champions League matches on Tuesday.

The quickest came at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena, with Ishak Belfodil giving Hoffenheim a shock lead against Manchester City after just 44 seconds. That was the quickest goal to have been conceded by an English team in the Champions League since Stephan El Shaarawy’s strike against Chelsea in October 2017

Elsewhere, Benfica, Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and Roma were all on the scoresheet in the early stages.

Niko Vlasic’s goal to put CSKA 1-0 up against Real Madrid after just 65 seconds was the fastest goal the holders have conceded in the Champions League since March 2007.

Bayern Munich’s early goal courtesy of Mats Hummels was the second quickest goal Ajax have ever conceded in the competition.

The moral of the story? Don’t be late home from work on a Champions League night.

2. 100 up for Benfica

Switzerland striker Haris Seferovic scored Benfica’s 100th Champions League goal against AEK Athens on Tuesday. Rui Vitoria’s side are the 27th team to reach a century of goals in the competition and just the second Portuguese side after FC Porto.

Benfica went on to win 3-2, their first win in this seasons competition.

3. Edin Dzeko’s impressive Champions League run continues

Edin Dzeko loves a goal in Europe. On Tuesday night, the striker became the first ever Roma player to score a Champions League hat-trick. And as if that wasn’t enough, he is also the first Bosnian to do so.

Furthermore, the hat-trick against Viktoria Plzen means the Bosnian now has eight goals in his last seven Champion League appearances, a run stretching back to last season’s round-of-16 second leg against Shakhtar Donetsk.

In that time, only Real Madrid have stopped Dzeko from scoring in the Champions League, in the first game of this season’s group stage.

4. Dybala joins elite list of Juventus hat-trick heroes

No Ronaldo? No problem. It was the Paulo Dybala show at the Allianz Stadium on Tuesday.

The Argentinian put Young Boys to the sword with a classy hat-trick against Young Boys. His first goal was the pick of the bunch as he steered home a stunning pass from Leonardo Bonucci.

Dybala’s hat-trick makes him the fourth player to score a hat-trick for Juventus in the Champions League, following in the footsteps of Filippo Inzaghi, Alessandro Del Piero and Arturo Vidal.

5. Lyon and Shakhtar Donetsk play out behind-closed-doors tie

A Champions League match with no crowd. Surreal.

This was Lyon’s punishment for the crowd trouble and racism that overshadowed their Europa League campaign last season.

Fans missed out on a cracker of a match, too. The home side, fresh from their impressive victory over Manchester City last month, found themselves 2-0 down to Shakhtar after 55 minutes, but worked their way back into the game in the second half.

Goals from former Celtic striker Moussa Dembele and Leo Dubois salvaged a point for Lyon and, given the circumstances, we think they’ll take 4 points from their opening two matches in Group F.

6. Kluivert Jr has arrived in the Champions League

Justin Kluivert, who arrived at Roma from Ajax this summer, became the youngest Roma player to ever score in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Son of Patrick, the Dutch forward netted his first Champions League goal in his side’s 5-0 rout of Viktoria Plzen.

His Dad scored his last goal in the competition in March 2003 for Barcelona at Newcastle. He’d have been a proud man on Tuesday evening, as Justin got himself on the scoresheet at the age of just 19 years and 150 days. The first of many, we think.

7. The shocking stat that outlines Real Madrid’s problems in front of goal

The pressure is already on for Julen Loptegui at Real Madrid.

The holders were without Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Isco and Gareth Bale on Tuesday, but not many would have expected them to slip up against CKSA Moscow.

Their 1-0 defeat meant that they have failed to score in three consecutive games in all competitions. The last time they did that? In 2007, when Fabio Capello was in charge. 11 years ago. Improvements needed.

8. Third time lucky for the Dutch in Munich

Ajax put in an impressive performance to salvage a point from the Allianz Arena on Tuesday, despite a fourth minute Mats Hummels goal putting Bayern in control in the early stages.

This was only the third time in 12 matches and the first time since 1995 that a Dutch team has managed to avoid defeat during an away game at Bayern.

It was Noussair Mazraoui who got the equaliser for Ajax, with Bayern now winless in their last three matches in all competitions.

9. Another snooze-fest at Old Trafford

When things aren’t going Jose Mourinho’s way, they really aren’t going his way.

Fresh from back-to-back defeats to Derby County and West Ham United, Manchester United were held to a goalless draw by struggling Spanish side Valencia at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

The stalemate was the 23rd time United have been part of a 0-0 draw in the Champions League, more than any other team in the competition’s history.

Of those 23 0-0s, two have come under Mourinho, one under Louis van Gaal, another under David Moyes and 19 under Sir Alex Ferguson.

10. Real Madrid didn’t score in the Champions League, that doesn’t happen a lot

On a crazy night in Russia, an impressive run of Real Madrid’s came to an end.

The 1-0 win for CSKA meant the 13-time Champions League winners had failed to score in the competition for the first time since April 2016, when Manchester City kept a clean sheet in the first-leg of their semi-final tie.

Since that day at the Etihad, Real Madrid had scored in 29 consecutive Champions League games, winning the competition three times in that run, and scoring 74 goals – an average of 2.55 per game.

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