Winners and Losers from UEFA Champions League Matchday 4
It was certainly a Champions League week of two halves.
Tuesday’s results underwhelmed with four 1-1s and a 0-0 draw…but Wednesday wasn’t having it. High stakes, high drama and 36 goals more than made up for the temporary malaise.
The squeaky end of the group stage is here, and with it, a set of Winners and Losers that could have major consequences…
Losers: Anyone Who Wanted to Enjoy Milan vs. Chelsea
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Did you switch over to Milan vs. Chelsea, arguably the game of Tuesday night, and have your excitement dashed almost instantly?
German referee Daniel Siebert had an absolute stinker, starting with an 18th-minute decision from which the game never recovered. Fikayo Tomori was adjudged to have fouled former teammate Mason Mount in the Milan box, leading to a penalty and red card.
It was barely even a foul, let alone one worthy of double jeopardy, which Chelsea duly took advantage of. Once Jorginho stepped up for 1-0, the game was over. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's strike before half-time put it to bed and with it Milan's hopes of avenging last week's 3-0 defeat.
Siebert's penalty call and the subsequent awful overlooking of it by VAR wasn't the only frustrating thing to happen at the San Siro. The ref kept blowing his whistle and halting momentum when the game could have proceeded. With every tackle, the whistle went. Someone's wig flew off in the crowd, and the whistle went again! A child laughed too loudly. Boom: Yellow card.
He dished out nine yellows alongside Tomori's straight red. It was disappointing that on a pitch full of talent it was the person in the middle who wanted to be the main character.
Winners: Mykhaylo Mudryk's Hopes of a January Move
2 of 6Shakhtar Donetsk are proving to be an entertaining and hard-to-beat side in this year's Champions League.
They've suffered just one defeat in four games and were seconds away from earning three points against defending champions Real Madrid on Tuesday. Only a very committed Antonio Rüdiger—who received a whack to the face and was bloodied when beating goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin to the ball for 1-1—stood between Shakhtar and second place in Group F.
For all the great team effort, one young star is beginning to outline himself as the next major purchase for a European giant. Mykhailo Mudryk's confidence is shining through every time he steps on the pitch, and vitally, he seems to improve against better opposition.
Consistently linked with Arsenal, Mudryk recently said he "couldn't say no" if a January move to the Premier League leaders were offered. Since then, PSG have been rumored to be circling—stories that won't quieten now that Kylian Mbappé is said to want out.
Mudryk has the spark and cutting edge to improve most teams. The winger has scored two and assisted two in the Champions League and once again proved he has the quality to cut it against the best.
The Spaniards were slow to get moving in Warsaw, Poland, but Shakhtar's energy and spirit put them on the brink of a famous victory. Mudryk, with his quality on the ball and lethality in front of goal, embodies everything that is good about the side.
Losers: Fans of Juventus' Resurgence
3 of 6Juventus started October with two wins. Their awful season seemed to be turning around. Galvanised by the inventiveness of the returning Ángel Di María, last week's 3-1 win over Maccabi Haifa offered a glimmer of hope amid the crumpling mess of Massimiliano Allegri's second reign.
That was last week, though. Juve are on a two-game losing streak once more after defeats against Milan in Serie A and on Tuesday an embarrassing 2-0 loss to the side they overpowered six days prior. But wait. It gets worse.
Di María left the pitch in tears through injury. Though it seems he will be fit for next month's World Cup, he is expected to miss around three weeks for his club. He will almost certainly be absent for the must-win clash against Benfica on Oct. 25 and is likely to remain touch-and-go for Paris Saint-Germain on Nov. 2.
The Old Lady sits five points behind second-placed Benfica with two games to go in Group H. There is no more room for slip-ups, no matter how much support Allegri continues to receive from his colleagues.
It looks like it will be the Europa League, at best, when the knockouts arrive. The startling thing is you'd say that is quite the result given how badly Juventus have played for most of the season.
Winners: Viewers of the Barcelona-Inter Match
4 of 6What an incredible game this was. It's difficult to design a bad 3-3 draw, especially when three of the goals happen in the last 15 minutes, but this game was special.
The aforementioned stakes were written all over Barça's play. They threw numbers forward in the first half, leaving huge spaces at the back for Inter to swarm into. The defense was sketchy as Xavi's side struggled to match the visitors' organization and control on the ball.
But Inter are prone to lapses in concentration, and Barça looked to exploit this whenever possible with their wicked array of pace and skill.
Ousmane Dembélé's importance to the team continues to grow, highlighted by a 40th-minute opener that ignited the fuse for a sensational second half. Inter fired back with precision. Lautaro Martínez's goal for 2-1 could not have been closer to bouncing off the post and back into play, while André Onana's pinpoint long ball to set the third in motion was worthy of helping to win any game.
If you've got Robert Lewandowski, you've got half a chance, though. His brace kept Barça's heart beating, albeit faintly. If yours wasn't racing after the best group-stage match of the year, this sport isn't for you.
Losers: Barça's UCL Chances
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Barcelona needed to finish Wednesday with their Champions League future in their own hands. They didn't manage that with a stunning 3-3 draw with Inter.
Granted, Robert Lewandowski's 91st-minute equaliser kept the Blaugrana three points behind the Serie A outfit in the hunt for second place, but their survival in this competition now rests on Inter's failing to beat pointless Viktoria Plzen on matchday five. Barça will also likely need to take down Bayern Munich.
Failing to escape the Champions League group stage would be a financial disaster for Xavi's side, who activated multiple "economic levers" in a desperate summer in which they were barely able to register new signings.
Would Frenkie de Jong's exit once again be on the radar? Could it be even worse than that? The nightmare scenario is getting closer.
Winners: Liverpool and Super-Sub Salah
6 of 6Jürgen Klopp may have feared the worst 17 minutes into Liverpool's trip to Ibrox. Rangers, well-organised and fiery, cut through the Reds defence for 1-0 in a way we've seen too many times this year.
Luckily for Klopp's men, Scottish sides have a tendency to run out of steam in Champions League matches.
Enter Liverpool's ridiculous array of forwards. Roberto Firmino was a forgotten man last season after Luis Díaz's sensational opening six months on Merseyside. He has been Liverpool's best player this campaign and dragged his side back into it with two classy goals in Glasgow, Scotland.
Rangers were out of ideas once Liverpool were ahead. Darwin Núñez linked well with Firmino, battling hard against a physical defence and grabbing a deserved goal.
It was then time for a little-known player named Mohamed Salah to enter proceedings with 22 minutes left to play. Thirteen minutes later, he had a hat-trick, scored within a sensational six-minute spell. Throw in Harvey Elliott's strike for 7-1 right at the end, and you've got as near perfect a night as the struggling Premier League side could have asked for.
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