Napoli, Bayern and Barca record big wins in Champions League

There were some big results in the second night of UEFA Champions League matchups.  Listed below are summaries of all eight European games on Wednesday:

Ajax 4 – Rangers 0

Ajax continued their impressive form with a commanding performance against Scottish club Rangers.  Edson Alvarez, Steven Berghuis, Mohammed Kudus, and former Tottenham winger Steven Bergwijn were the goalscorers on the night.  Rangers were dominated from start to finish in their first UCL group stage match in 12 years.  The only negative for the Dutch giants was the fact that Bergwijn injured himself while scoring the fourth goal and was forced to be substituted.

Eintracht Frankfurt 0 – Sporting 3

Although the Portuguese club seemingly controlled the match, the home side actually had more shots on goal.  In fact, Sporting managed just one total shot in the first half.  Nevertheless, the Lions netted three second-half goals to take all three points back to Portugal.  Marcus Edwards and Trincao scored their goals within three minutes of each other and then Nuno Santos finished off Frankfurt in the 82nd minute.

Napoli 4 – Liverpool 1

In the most shocking score of the day, the Italians stun Liverpool by three goals.  Piotr Zielinski, Andre-Frank Gamba Anguissa, and substitute Giovanni Simeone scored their goals inside the first half of the match.  Zielinski added another goal in the second period before Luis Diaz pulled one back for the visitors.  Victor Osimhen was forced to depart the match due to an injury only 41 minutes into the game.  Napoli could have pretty easily had at least another goal or two, as Liverpool‘s defense was downright dreadful.

Inter Milan 0 – Bayern Munich 2

Bayern dominated Inter away from home thanks to standout Leroy Sane.  The Germany international scored the first goal and essentially set up another.  Defender Danilo D’Ambrosio put the ball into his own net for the second goal after Sane and Kingsley Coman played some slick passes inside the Inter box.  Andre Onana made his debut in goal for his new club.

Barcelona 5 – Viktoria Plzen 1

The Spanish giants thwarted the visitors in route to an easy win.  Robert Lewandowski collected his sixth career UCL hat trick, while Franck Kessie and Ferran Torres scored the remaining two goals for Barca.  Jan Sykora scored a header for Plzen just before half time, but it goes down as a consolation goal.  Ousmane Dembele also starred for Barca with two assists on the night.

Atletico Madrid 2 – Porto 1

Astoundingly, all three goals in this game came in added time.  Defender Mario Hermoso’s shot looped over Diogo Costa to make it 1-0 in the 91st minute.  However, Porto was given a penalty shot four minutes later and Mateus Uribe made no mistake from the spot.  Atleti managed to steal the three points 10 minutes into added time as Antoine Griezmann headed in from a corner with the last play of the match.

Tottenham Hotspur 2 – Marseille 0

Spurs took care of Marseille with two second-half goals from Richarlison.  The goals, both headers, came just five minutes apart.  Richarlison’s first goal in the 76th minute was his club’s first shot on target in the match.  The visitors went down to 10 men early in the second half thanks to a harsh tackle by Chancel Mbemba on a sprinting Son Heung-Min.

Club Brugge 1 – Bayer Leverkusen 0

Abakar Sylla technically put his club ahead just before the halftime break, but replays showed Leverkusen keeper Lukas Hradecky appeared to make a mess of the shot.  The Finland international essentially carried the ball into his own goal.  Leverkusen thought they had leveled the score in the 73rd minute from a Patrik Schick header; however, VAR intervened and disallowed the goal because of offside.  Further reviews showed a Leverkusen player was offside by the tip of his boot.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Insidefoto