Liverpool got a slap in the face at the start, a goal from Milan that the English team would have scored, at a gallop and in the blink of an eye Pulicic scored, very bad news for a team that had just lost in the Premier League against Nottingham in the midst of a rebuilding process after Jürgen Klopp was replaced by Arne Slot. The situation seemed delicate, but the English team put on a show of character and before the break they already led the scoreboard. They had an easy time because the goals came with headers from their centre-backs (Konaté and Van Dijk) after set-pieces in which they finished in the six-yard box. It was a portrait of Milan’s lukewarm defence and, above all, of their goalkeeper Maignan, who can claim that he played in pain for almost 50 minutes of the match and left bruised to give the alternative to the young Torriani, who is 19 years old and looks younger because of his grimace, not because of his size, almost two metres of a youth goalkeeper.
Maignan had no reply to Konaté and Van Dijk and Liverpool showed their overwhelming dominance (1-3) after shaking off the initial blow dealt by their rival. Slot’s team was a steamroller, without pause and with finishing. With Salah as a spearhead, although focused on aiming at the Italian goalposts. There was no reply from Milan, so disappointing and outclassed that once they were down they never seemed to get back into the game. They dreamed of it until after the hour mark Gakpo destroyed the defence with a run and gave the third goal to the Hungarian Szoboszlai, who acted as an attacker. It was then that Slot called Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz in a move that made it clear who was in charge there. Liverpool had no problems, only having problems with a shot by Rafael Leão that hit the post in the last play of the game. Inconsequential, in any case.
The coin came up heads for Italian football with Juventus, who enjoyed themselves against PSV Eindhoven and introduced Kenan Yildiz, a young 19-year-old Turk who dethroned Del Piero as the youngest scorer for the Turin side in the Champions League with a curling shot from the edge of the area seen dozens of times to the unforgettable paintingMcKennie and Nicolás González completed Juve’s victory, against whom PSV were barely able to reduce the deficit in extra time.
Bayern Munich had a scare in Munich, having already beaten Dinamo Zagreb with three goals before the break and found themselves two goals down from the Croatian champions just after the break. Neuer was left injured in the dressing room and his replacement Ulreich conceded two goals in two minutes. Bayern responded in a German-style fashion, with the hammer and six more goals to achieve a historic scoreline (9-2) and become the first team to score nine goals in a Champions League match. Madrid had scored the same number against Tirol in the old European Cup in 1990. It was also a thrashing for the competition, which despite trying to find new formats has not managed to end the formalities like the one experienced in Munich. Harry Kane scored four goals.
Aston Villa also had no rivals in their return to the top continental competition after four decades of abstinence. They won 0-3 in Bern against Young Boys, with goals from Tielemans, Ramsey and Onana. Unai Emery dedicated the victory to Gary Shaw, one of the legends of the Birmingham team that won Europe in 1982 and who died on Monday. Sporting also had a profitable start for Portugal, who beat Lille (2-0) with a good goal from the Swede Gyokeres, who scored on the turn and once again showed the credentials that make him one of the sensations of continental football.