This week we had the emotions of matchday 3 of the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, where all teams played their respective matches to start, from next week onwards, the final stretch of the group stage, where teams must score as many points as possible to stay alive in the competition and advance to the round of 16.
In this matchday 3, we had many results with very high scores, where the favorite teams in some games managed to give a blow on the table to let everyone know that their only goal is to be the champions of Europe this season.
Bayern crushed Viktoria Plzeñ 5-0, Marseille did the same with Sporting Lisbon with a score of 4-1, and Napoli has pleasantly surprised by crushing Ajax in Amsterdam with a spectacular 6-1. We can also point out Leipzig’s 3-1 win over Celtic, Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Milan, and Manchester City’s 5-0 win over Copenhagen.
There were also two unexpected results for Spanish soccer, as neither FC Barcelona nor Atlético Madrid could win matches in which they were the clear favorites. FC Barcelona failed to beat Inter in Milan, while Atlético Madrid was crushed 2-0 by Club Brugge.
After these first 3 rounds of the Champions League group stage, the groups are as follows:
Group A
- Napoli – 9 pts.
- Liverpool – 6 pts.
- Ajax – 3 pts.
- Rangers – 0 pts.
Group B
- Club Brugge – 9 pts.
- Porto – 3 pts.
- Leverkusen – 3 pts.
- Atlético Madrid – 3 pts.
Group C
- Bayern – 9 pts.
- Inter – 6 pts.
- FC Barcelona – 3 pts.
- Viktoria Plzeñ – 0 pts.
Group D
- Sporting Lisbon – 6 pts.
- Tottenham – 4 pts.
- Frankfurt – 4 pts.
- Marseille – 3 pts.
Group E
- RB Salzburg – 5 pts.
- Chelsea – 4 pts.
- Milan – 4 pts.
- Dynamo Zagreb – 3 pts.
Group F
- Real Madrid – 9 pts.
- Shakhtar – 4 pts.
- RB Leipzig – 3 pts.
- Celtic – 1 pts.
Group G
- Manchester City – 9 pts.
- Borussia Dortmund – 6 pts.
- Sevilla – 1 pts.
- Copenhagen – 1 pts.
Group H
- PSG – 7 pts.
- Benfica – 7 pts.
- Juventus – 3 pts.
- Maccabi Haifa – 0 pts.
Champions League Group Stage Matchday 3 – Group Stage – Roundup – Bayern vs. Viktoria Plzeñ
When: Tuesday, October 04 at 12:45 pm ET
Moneyline odds: Bayern -2000 / Viktoria Plzeñ +3700 (Source: MyBookie.ag)
Draw Offs: +1325
The clear favorite in this group of death, Bayern Munich, received at home the Cinderella, Viktoria Plzen. A match where the 3 points were easy to obtain for the Germans, as it turned out to be.
Leroy Sané scored Bayern’s first goal in the 7th minute with an excellent shot that ended up in the back of the visitors’ net. In the 13th minute, Serge Gnabry scored the second goal, culminating in good collective play of his team.
It didn’t matter that Plzeñ was stacking up in defense, as the Germans found a way to create danger. Sadio Mané scored the third goal in the 21st minute.
A first-half performance that foreshadowed more goals in the second half. Leroy Sané scored his second goal of the night in the 50th minute, and Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, who is not playing from the start and hardly gets any minutes in this team, scored Bayern’s fifth and final goal in the 59th minute.
This confirms that, despite a difficult start in the Bundesliga, Bayern is still one of the best teams in the world in international competitions.
Result: Bayern (5) – (0) Viktoria Plzeñ
Champions League Group Stage Matchday 3 – Group Stage – Roundup – Ajax vs. Napoli
When: Tuesday, October 04 at 03:00 pm ET
Moneyline odds: Napoli +198 / Ajax +124 (Source: MyBookie.ag)
Draw Offs: +275
Napoli has made a spectacular start to the season and is one of the most in-form teams in Europe. The team coached by Luciano Spalleti is the leader of Serie A and its UEFA Champions League group, being undefeated so far in all competitions.
The Italian team is a force of nature that destroys everything that comes its way. They scored 4 goals against Liverpool, 3 goals against Rangers, and on Tuesday, 6 goals against Ajax at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam, in what is the biggest-ever defeat suffered by the Dutch team there.
Despite starting 0-1 down at the Johan Cruijff Arena, Napoli recovered from Mohammed Kudus’ goal to crush Ajax in a historic display. Raspadori (18′ and 47′), Di Lorenzo (33′), Zielinski (45′), Kvaratskhelia (43′) and Giovanni Simeone (81′) scored the six goals on a dream night.
Such a dangerous team has not been seen since the times when Diego Armando Maradona played in their ranks and, despite having important losses such as Lorenzo Insigne, Fabian Ruiz, Dries Mertens, Kalidou Koulibaly or Arkadiusz Milik, the team has managed to come through to get the victories and in what a way.
Result: Napoli (6) – (1) Ajax
Champions League Group Stage Matchday 3 – Group Stage – Roundup – Inter vs. FC Barcelona – Info
When: Tuesday, October 04 at 03:00 pm ET
Moneyline odds: Inter +310 / FC Barcelona -121 (Source: MyBookie.ag)
Draw Offs: +285
One of the surprises of this matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League group stage was the defeat of FC Barcelona as visitors, this time against an Inter team that, although they have not managed to start the season as they would have liked, managed to neutralize the attack of the Culés to take an excellent 1-0 victory.
While it is true that there was a key play that marked the future of this match, where a clear handball inside the Inter area was not sentenced as a penalty for Barcelona, the Neroazurri managed to withstand the onslaught of the Spanish team to take a valuable victory.
The only goal of the match was scored by Turkish midfielder Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who in added time of the first half (45+2′) scored a superb goal from outside the box to give the Italians three points.
FC Barcelona now has everything to play for in the matches at Camp Nou against Inter next week and Bayern on matchday 5.
Result: Inter (1) – (0) FC Barcelona
Champions League Group Stage Matchday 3 – Group Stage – Preview – Milan vs. Chelsea – Info
When: Wednesday, October 05 at 03:00 pm ET
Moneyline odds: Milan +360 / Chelsea -132 (Source: MyBookie.ag)
Draw Offs: +285
After a very difficult start to the season for Chelsea, it seems that they have been able to regain the confidence in their game that led them to become European champions two seasons ago and, in the Premier League, they have won 3 of their last 4 matches played, while in the UEFA Champions League, they dealt a hard blow against Milan with a 3-0 score.
The Londoners went into the third matchday bottom of Group E, with just one point, and therefore could not fail if they did not want their future in the competition to become too complicated. In front of them was Milan, or at least that’s what the schedule said because the team that played in white at Stanford Bridge did not seem to be, by far, the reigning Serie A champion.
In the first half, the match was already completely overturned for Chelsea who, in the very 24th minute managed to score their first goal of the night through Wesley Fofana.
Chelsea’s supremacy was total in the first half, but they went into the break with a 1-0 lead. In the second half, Chelsea extended their lead with a goal by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the 56th minute.
To finally seal the victory 3-0 was a goal by full-back Reece James in the 62nd minute.
Result: Milan (0) – (3) Chelsea
Other UEFA Champions League group stage matchday 3 results:
- Marseille (4) – (1) Sporting Lisbon
- Porto (2) – (0) Bayer Leverkusen
- Club Brugge (2) – (0) Atlético Madrid
- Frankfurt (0) – (0) Tottenham
- Liverpool (2) – (0) Rangers
- Salzburg (1) – (0) Dynamo Zagreb
- RB Leipzig (3) – (1) Celtic
- Juventus (3) – (1) Maccabi Haifa
- Real Madrid (2) – (1) Shakhtar
- Sevilla (1) – (4) Borussia Dortmund
- Benfica (1) – (1) PSG
- Manchester City (5) – (0) Copenhagen
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