Premier League clubs show ruthlessness on UCL Matchday 2
The Matchday 2 fixtures of the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League won’t be forgotten quickly by football fans in England. The matchday saw all the Premier League teams participating in this season’s competition win their games, keeping clean sheets in the process.
Nobody saw such performances coming. Let’s say they were expected to win. Okay, how about the clean sheets they kept? This was a very good day for the Premier League and it has been a while we witnessed such an occurrence.
The Premier League’s defending champions appear to be the only side that struggled scoreline wise. Their Danish visitors Midtjylland came ready for a fight at Anfield with possession stats ending at 60:40 in favor of Jurgen Klopp’s men.
The Reds couldn’t find the back of the net until the 55th minute via a goal by Diogo Jota before a penalty was converted by Mohammed Salah to make it 2 nil in favor of the Merseyside outfit.
The game saw both sides have two shots on target each. Regardless, the Reds got the desired points and this was one clean sheet in the bag for the Premier League.
Manchester City traveled to France to face Olympique Marseille. It can be recalled that their last encounter against a Ligue 1 outfit in the competition is one they’d want to forget in a hurry.
However, this was not the case this time as they won 3 nil at Stade Vélodrome via goals from Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan, and Raheem Sterling. Pep Guardiola’s men also dominated play and this comes as no surprise. It was another clean sheet in the bag for Premier League clubs.
The third game saw Chelsea travel to Russia to face Krasnodar. It was an interesting game that proved that Frank Lampard is working to see his team stop conceding goals for fun.
This was shown in the Blues’ cautious approach in the first half with the home side also appearing up for the encounter.
Jorginho crashed his penalty against the bar in the first half before Callum Hudson-Odoi scored the opener as the goalie for Krasnodar Safonov fumbled a seemingly harmless shot into the back of the net before half time.
The home side came out all guns blazing in search of an equalizer in the second half but it was not to be as they also hit the crossbar.
Regardless, goals from Timo Werner via another penalty, Hakim Ziyech, and Christian Pulisic ensured an emphatic victory for the Blues. The result was harsh on the Russian outfit as they put up a good fight.
The final game on the matchday saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United take Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig to the cleaners at Old Trafford in a 5 nil defeat.
The final result was a shocker going by Julian Nagelsmann’s tactical prowess and Leipzig’s antecedents before the game.
The game also saw Marcus Rashford bang his first career hattrick impressively. The opener on the night was scored by Mason Greenwood after receiving a pass from Paul Pogba.
It is one of the most clinical finishes you’ll in recent times. The other goal for the Red Devils was scored by Anthony Martial from the penalty spot.
It was a good day for Premier League football with 14 goals scored on a UCL Matchday and none conceded. No Premier League team has lost thus far but the same can’t be said for teams from other European Leagues.
Regardless, it’s still early days but the Premier League clubs look good to go in this season’s UEFA Champions League competition.
