Kylian Mbappé came off the bench but could not revive a faded Real Madrid that succumbed 1-0 to the unknown Lille on Wednesday in the new format of the Champions League.
After recovering from a minor muscle injury, Mbappé entered in the second half. It was of no use for the reigning European champions, unable to reverse Canadian striker Jonathan David’s penalty goal in first-half stoppage time. The VAR confirmed a handball in the area by midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.
David, who had just scored a hat-trick in the French league, executed the maximum penalty with aplomb in the 57th minute, to beat goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, who replaced the injured Thibaut Courtois.
It was Madrid’s first defeat in the tournament since the 4-0 beating that Manchester City inflicted on them in the second leg of a semifinal in 2023.
And coach Carlo Ancelotti was not lenient with his team.
“The sadness comes from the team’s feeling because it was not a good game. You can lose, it’s sport, but losing without giving a good feeling is what worries me the most,” he commented. “We have all the resources to learn from the defeat and do better next time. “We have to fix things quickly because we have a game on Saturday.”
Madrid had not lost in 36 official matches, since Atlético de Madrid defeated them 4-2 in extra time in January, within the Copa del Rey.
“The criticism for today’s game is fair, we have to accept it,” Ancelotti acknowledged. “We have not shown a good version. “Hopefully it will be a fantastic attention-grabber,”
It was not the only big surprise of the day.
Once again lethal from the bench, Colombian attacker Jhon Durán scored the goal in the 79th minute with which Aston Villa defeated Bayern Munich 1-0.
When the rivals met in the 1982 European Cup final, Villa won 1-0. Prince William of England was born that year and celebrated at Villa Park when Durán pierced the nets in the final stretch.
For its part, Atlético de Madrid was wrecked 4-0 on its visit to Benfica. Argentine attacker Ángel Di María converted a penalty in the 52nd for the Portuguese club’s second.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot experienced his first European night at Anfield and his team beat Bologna 2-0, courtesy of goals from Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Allister and striker Mohamed Salah, who provided the assist for the first goal.
Salah sent the center for Mac Allister to score a few steps from the goal. His goal came with a bowed shot in the 75th.
Bologna, which is playing this tournament for the first time in 60 years, is still looking to score. They tied 0-0 against Shakhtar Donetsk on the opening date.
Despite the expulsion of their goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio in the 59th minute, Juventus took a 3-2 victory on the visit to Leipzig.
Earlier in the day, Feyenoord and Atalanta achieved their first away victories in the new Champions League format, although with varying degrees of difficulty.
While Atalanta of Italy defeated Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine 3-0 with authority, the Dutch team Feyenoord pushed hard to beat debutant Girona 3-2 on the second date of the tournament.
Berat Djimsiti, Ademola Lookman and Raoul Bellanova scored for Atalanta in the German city of Gelsenkirchen. Shakhtar plays at home at the stadium of the German club Schalke due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Girona took the lead with a goal from its centre-back David López in the 19th minute, but the visitors leveled in the 23rd with an own goal from Venezuelan midfielder Yangel Herrera and took the lead with Antoni Milambo’s shot in the 31st.
Donny van de Beek made it 2-2 but another own goal, in this case by Ladislav Krejci, gave Feyenoord the three points in a match in which both teams missed penalties.
