The Champions League action you might have missed: Saul stands above the rest for Spain

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We are now past the halfway stage of this season’s Champions League group phase with matchday four offering the reverse fixtures of the previous week.

Tuesday’s games include Barcelona visiting Inter Milan whilst Atletico Madrid hosted Borussia Dortmund offering Diego Simeone’s men the opportunity of revenge following their humiliating 4-0 loss in Germany a fortnight ago.

Elsewhere Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain duked it out in southern Italy and Tottenham Hotspur welcoming PSV Eindhoven to the home of English football. FC Porto and Schalke 04 entertained Lokomotiv Moscow and Galatasaray with the early fixtures being Red Star Belgrade v Liverpool and AS Monaco vs Club Brugges.

With so much happening it’s easy to lose track. But that is where we come in. Here are X things you might have missed from tonight’s matches.

Liverpool another victim of Red Star’s home advantage

Home is where the heart is. And for Red Star Belgrade, the four-time Serbian champions, that is most certainly the case. Across their last 45 matches in all competitions the Serbian powerhouse have suffered just one defeat in front of their boisterous support at Rajko Mitic Stadium and that was against Arsenal in October 2017.

Liverpool’s poor away run continues

Liverpool’s previous visit to Belgrade came in a European Cup round of 16 fixture 45 years ago – and they’d lose on that October day (2-1) – though historically the Reds have been good travellers it’s not been the case of late.

Jurgen Klopp’s men head back to England having suffered a third successive defeat on the road in Europe, four if you count last season’s final (played on neutral ground), with this one hurting the most.

Monaco register heaviest home defeat

Thierry Henry must be thinking what has he got himself into. Monaco’s latest setback, a third defeat in five matches under the former Arsenal legend, was one of historic proportions.

A holder of many records Henry would not have wanted this one. By suffering this humiliating 0-4 loss at the hands of Club Brugge was Monaco’s heaviest loss in Champions League/European Cup history.

Pique joins Barça’s century club

In the eyes of many his time at the Camp Nou should be drawing to a close but Gerard Pique isn’t quite ready to say goodbye. Yes, he’s no longer the exceptional central defender, but the 31-year-old Catalan still has a lot to offer – particularly from a leadership standpoint.

Tonight’s meeting with Inter Milan at the San Siro saw him notch 100 official Champions League appearances for his boyhood club. A milestone that sees him join Xavi (151), Andres Iniesta (130), Lionel Messi (127), Carles Puyol (115) and Víctor Valdés (106) in this exclusive club.

A four-time European Cup winner – three with Barça and the other whilst representing Manchester United – Pique will no doubt have a key role to play if Ernesto Valverde’s men are to go all the way again.

Luuk closes in on Ruud

Luuk de Jong’s period in English football can be can be best described as unforgettable. For one reason or another it just never worked out at Newcastle United and the Dutch marksman immediately relocated to PSV Eindhoven where he’s enjoying a prolific spell.

His late equaliser a fortnight ago earned Mark van Bommel’s men an unlikely point and De Jong’s early strike, with the game two minute old, put the cat among the pigeons. It was his fifth Champions League goal for PSV which sees him in sight of the club’s cerebral assassin of the late 90s: only Ruud van Nistelrooy (8) has registered more for the Dutch champions in Europe’s premier club competition than his predecessor (5).

PSG’s away-day blues

It goes without saying Paris Saint-Germain are first among equals in their back garden. They’ve started this season’s Ligue 1 campaign in unrelenting fashion, winning their opening 11 league fixtures, on top of claiming 18 of the last 21 major domestic honours including four of the last five championships.

However, it’s conquering outside of their realm which the club’s Qatari owners seek the most, hence extravagant spend in acquiring some of the game’s best footballers.

But they’ve yet to make a dent in the Champions League, having been spectacularly dumped out by Real Madrid and Barcelona in the last two editions, with their form on the road coming under scrutiny.

Tonight’s showdown in Naples saw them extend their winless streak in Europe away from the French capital to four matches. A 1-1 draw ended a three-match losing run but it was yet another disappointing result which puts their passage to the knockout phase on hold.

The wait goes on for PSV

PSG’s plight on the road pales into insignificance when compared to their Dutch counterpart PSV who agonisingly came close to ending an 11-year wait to win a Champions League game away from home.

Van Bommel’s club, who have lifted three of the last four Eredivisie championships, last celebrated winning a Champions League away game in November 2007 when Jefferson Farfán’s only goal was enough to topple CSKA Moscow.

For a while they looked like pulling it off, largely thanks to their inspired goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet, but in the end after much huffing and puffing Harry Kane blew the house down by striking twice in the final 12 minutes.

Better call Saul

A firm fan favourite of the Atleti faithful, Saul Niguez has somewhat become a man for the big occasions and when the chips are down.

Since breaking through, and before tonight’s game at home to Borussia Dortmund, he’s registered 29 goals across 218 matches with many of those strikes proving to be pivotal including against Bayern Munich in the 2016 Champions League semi-final.

His 30th for his boyhood club, in a game they desperately needed to win, was Champions League goal number nine; to put that into some perspective no Spanish player has managed more since September 2015.

Malcom!

In the end Icardi enabled Inter Milan to salvage a point against this season’s early tournament favourites Barcelona but the real story is what came earlier.

Just moments before the lethal Argentine bungled the ball home to equalise Barça went in front through an unlikely source. Luis Suárez, Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho with Lionel Messi yet to be passed fit.

So, on the bench was big summer signing Malcom, he’d come on with nine minutes left replacing Dembélé and two minutes later the would-be AS Roma signing was celebrating a first Barça goal.

It was a moment that beautifully reminded everyone that Malcolm is still here.

 

The post The Champions League action you might have missed: Saul stands above the rest for Spain appeared first on Squawka News.



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