Krejčí only played 10 minutes in the first five rounds of the Spanish league after his summer transfer from Sparta, but now he got a chance in the starting line-up for the first time. The 25-year-old Czech representative received a yellow card early on, but then performed well. He flashed at the beginning of the second half, when he caught up with Dembélé on the run and punched the ball cleanly in a clear chance.
The Parisians had a significant upper hand throughout the match, but struggled for a long time in the end. After an hour of play, Dembélé hit the crossbar, in the 85th minute he failed alone in front of goalkeeper Gazzaniga Hakimi. The visiting goalkeeper was reliable for a long time, but in the last minute he hesitated and let Mendes’ light cross from the left pass into the net.
Manchester City could not build on the 1-0 victory from last year’s final against Inter Milan in the battle between Sparta’s two future opponents. Already at halftime, home game director de Bruyne had to substitute due to an injury, the English champion still had several chances in the second half, but Gündogan, who substituted in the end, did not make his mark.
Slovan Bratislava appeared in the main stage of the Champions League for the first time, before that they only played in the previous Champions Cup of European countries. However, the Slovak champion was not enough against Celtic in Glasgow and conceded five times. Slovan also suffered a four-goal defeat in the cups last season in the European League qualifiers, when they lost away to Aris Limassol 2:6. Celtic, on the other hand, claimed their highest victory in the main stage of the Champions League.
Unlike Slovan, Bologna scored points in the first round of the regular season of the Champions League and drew goalless with Shakhtar Donetsk. Even though the Italian team had a significant shooting advantage in its return to the most prestigious club competition after 60 years, the closest to the winning goal was the Ukrainian champion, but Heorhij Sudakov missed a penalty in the fourth minute.
Bologna, which qualified for the main stage of the Champions League from fifth place in the last season of the Italian league, only appeared in the most prestigious club competition so far in 1964, when the then European Champions Cup was played in the knockout stage. She had to face a penalty right at the start, but the midfielder Sudakov played the penalty kick poorly and did not follow up on the goal from last week when the Ukrainian national team lost 2:3 in the League of Nations against the Czech team.
In Bruges, Dortmund confirmed the role of slight favorite and won 3:0, but scored all three goals in the last 20 minutes. Bynoe-Gittens scored twice. Borussia remained unbeaten in the season.
The Champions League is played in a new format. The traditional eight groups of four have been replaced by a league phase in which all 36 teams form one table. Each team will play four home and away matches against eight different opponents. The first eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, the clubs in ninth to 24th place face the opening round of the elimination phase.
