After their partly botched starts in the new Champions League, the title favorites Manchester City, FC Barcelona and FC Arsenal achieved confident victories on the second matchday. Hansi Flick’s FC Barcelona beat Young Boys Bern 5-0.
Former Bayern professional Robert Lewandowski scored two goals, Raphinha and Inigo Martinez scored for the Catalans, who lost 2-1 in Monaco in the first match. In addition, Mohamed Ali Camara from Bern scored an own goal.
Because the commitment of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny as a replacement for the seriously injured German international Marc-André ter Stegen is still not official, Inaki Pena was once again between the posts for Barcelona. He was hardly challenged by the Swiss.
Similar to former national coach Flick’s team, another former FC Bayern coach also had a relaxed evening: Pep Guardiola saw his Manchester City team on track from the start at Slovan Bratislava. Returnees Ilkay Gündogan and Phil Foden were successful in the first quarter of an hour. After the break, Erling Haaland and James McAtee increased.
Manchester couldn’t get beyond a goalless draw against Inter Milan on the first matchday – league rivals Arsenal also played 0-0 at Atalanta Bergamo. Scoring goals worked better against the supposedly difficult opponent Paris St. Germain: DFB striker Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka celebrated against the French, where former Dortmund player Ousmane Dembélé was not in the squad for disciplinary reasons.
Inter also showed no weaknesses in the 4-0 win against Red Star Belgrade – PSV Eindhoven and Sporting Lisbon drew 1-1. The surprise team – and the shock of the Austrian teams – in the first preliminary round phase is Stade Brest: The French clearly won 4-0 away against RB Salzburg and, after a 2-1 opening win at Sturm Graz, have six points, as do Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.
