Dinamo Zagreb – Dortmund: Gittens and the former Rennais
On the Dinamo pitch, Wednesday evening, Borussia had to force its destiny, a bit teasing at the start of the match. Because the Germans came up against the Croatian uprights twice. Ramy Bensebaïni’s header only found the post (8th) while Donyell Malen saw his shot, deflected by Frenchman Maxime Bernauer, hit the bar (27th).
So Dortmund relied on a home action, or rather a new individual exploit from Jamie Gittens. The young Englishman (20 years old) is very comfortable attacking the ball. He rushed from the left lane, cut back into the axis at the entrance to the area, fixed an opponent and fired a sharp shot into the small opposite net of the goalkeeper, Danijel Zagorac, who had just released a beautiful parade a few seconds earlier (41st).
Borussia’s providential man this season, Gittens has now reached 4 goals in 5 days of the Champions League. The rest was much simpler for Borussia, in the wake of his former Rennais: Bensebaïni doubled the lead from a corner, jumping well above Bernauer (57th), then Serhou Guirassy took advantage of a missed Croatian clearance to beat the goalkeeper, who came to meet him, from twenty meters (90th).
Aston Villa – Juventus: a bar for Digne
This Anglo-Italian poster was the opportunity for Thiago Motta to meet Unai Emery, his former coach at PSG. The two technicians are not known for developing a cautious game but the first half between Aston Villa and Juventus was relatively closed. So, the English relied on set pieces to create danger, but Torres’ header from a corner (14th) and Cash’s volley in the same phase of play (37th) did not hit the mark. And Lucas Digne’s free kick failed on the crossbar (45th + 1).
Juventus took advantage of few situations, but they could have opened the scoring without a big save from Emiliano Martinez on a diving header from Francisco Conceiçao (64th). The Argentine goalkeeper, who presented his second Lev Yashin trophy at Villa Park, was decisive. Opposite, the other goalkeeper, Michele Di Gregorio, was assisted by his teammate Manuel Locatelli, author of a save in front of his line (70th). Aston Villa believed they could snatch victory in added time thanks to Morgan Rogers (90th + 4), but their goal was canceled for a foul by Diego Carlos on Di Gregorio in the air. With this draw (0-0), the Villans (9th with 10 points) and the Turinese (17th with 8 points) are placed among the virtual play-offs.
PSV Eindhoven – Shakhtior Donetsk: a Ukrainian red, an American hat-trick
Chakhtior was in good shape, it remained in five matches without defeat in all competitions, including a success against Young Boys Berne (2-1) which launched it (belatedly) into this Champions League. In Eindhoven, the Ukrainians believed they could maintain their good tempo. They led by two goals at half-time against a PSV destabilized by the rapid counterattacks of their visitors. On an action driven by a restart from his goalkeeper, Danylo Sikan opened the scoring with a serve from right side Youkhime Konoplia (1-0, 8th). The latter offered himself two assists since it was also he who launched Olexandre Zoubkov after having previously stolen the ball from the feet of the Belgian Matteo Dams (2-0, 37th).
But the match was completely overturned twenty minutes from the end of the match, following an expulsion of the Brazilian Pedrinho (69th). This fact of play disinhibited Peter Bosz’s team, and the Dutch scored three times in the… last eight minutes of the match, including added time, thanks to their two Americans Malik Tillman (87th, 90th) and Ricardo Pepi (90th + 5).
Celtic Glasgow – Club Bruges : un c.s.c. mémorable
Despite the incandescent atmosphere at Celtic Park, this poster was perhaps the least spectacular of this European evening, and it began with a huge blunder by a Glasgow player. In trying to escape the Belgian pressure, Celtic chained together several short restarts, but the last one, signed by Cameron Carter-Vickers, led to a highly improbable own goal. The defender thought he found Kasper Schmeichel behind but he did not see that his goalkeeper had moved near his right post to offer a solution, and his pass crossed his goal line (26th).
Instilled with confidence by this unexpected opening score, Club Bruges then put their Scottish host in difficulty with intense pressing. But Celtic came back to the level thanks, as often, to one of their Japanese. Served on the left, Daizen Maeda played a defender with a feint shot from the left before unleashing a powerful right shot which went in using the opposite post (60th). Held in check (1-1), Celtic (20th, 8 points) and Club Bruges (22nd, 7) did not jeopardize their play-off chances.
