The new format of the Champions League in its league format produces soporific matches, such as the armistice that Bayer and Inter were on the verge of signing, practically classified before starting the day (1-0); matches of great tension, like the “final” that Luis Enrique said that Paris Saint-Germain won in Salzburg (0-3); and matches imbued with the spirit of a post office, like the one Bayern Munich played in Gelsenkirchen against the hopeless Shakhtar (1-5).
1
Matej Kovár, Edmond Tapsoba, Piero Hincapié, Jonathan Tah, Nordi Mukiele, Jeremie Frimpong, Exequiel Palacios, Florian Wirtz (Robert Andrich, min. 93), Granit Xhaka, Álex Grimaldo (Aleix García, min. 93) and Nathan Tella (Martin Terrier, min. 82)
0
Yann Sommer, Stefan de Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni, Yann Bisseck, Hakan Çalhanoglu (Kristjan Asllani, min. 65), Piotr Zielinski, Carlos Augusto (Federico Dimarco, min. 55), Davide Frattesi (Nicolò Barella, min. 65), Matteo Darmian, Mehdi Taremi (Marko Arnautovic, min. 84) and Marcus Thuram (Lautaro Martínez, min. 65)
Goals
1-0 min. 89: Nordi Mukiele
Referee Slavko Vincic
yellow cards
Calhanoglu (min. 24), Carlos Augusto (min. 26)
The poor Donetsk club was deprived of peace, of its city, of its fans, of its stadium, and, finally, of its money and its country. Now he migrates through the most distinguished competition in Europe devoid of the competitive resources that until recently allowed him to entertain fans. They are part of Champions League folklore and Bayern beat them 1-5 to move into 8th position, in direct qualifying positions.
PSG, which had accumulated three defeats and was sinking into the elimination zone, faced impoverished Salzburg, forced to add points to avoid being eliminated in January. He did more than enough to get the three points. By game, by occasions, by the beauty of its combinations. The 0-1 by Gonçalo Ramos, who entered the far post as is the law, led to the victory after a header from Hakimi. Mendes and Doue rounded out the score for the French club, which clung by its nails to 24th place in the table, the last car in the qualification zone via playoffs. They have two dates left to defend their small conquest: against Manchester City at the Parc des Princes, on January 21; and against Stuttgart on the 29th.
The adrenaline of Salzburg contrasted with the calm and moderate calculation of Leverkusen. There two lovers of tactics understood as risk control faced each other. When they were calculating probabilities of prizes and rewards, Xabi Alonso and Simone Inzaghi, the coaches of Bayer and Inter, deployed a tangle of such dimensions that the match slowly drifted towards stagnation.
Mukiele’s goal
A shot by Tella against the crossbar, in the first minutes, represented the most exciting action of the night. A surprise that Inter did not allow again until the bitter end. For 90 minutes, the two contenders locked horns in what seemed like a full-fledged armistice. Xabi lined up four centre-backs in a line and two long full-backs in front, doubling the possibilities of the center to the pot on one side and the shielding on the other. The Basque coach’s Leverkusen played to press just enough and retreat quickly. When Inter stretched, Leverkusen showed serious problems playing since accumulating defenders so much depopulated their midfield of experts in association. Between Kovár, the goalkeeper, Tapsoba, the left center back, and Palacios, the second pivot, they delivered so many balls to Çalhanoglu that the midfielder must have felt overwhelmed by the duty of doing something productive with so many gifts. He didn’t do anything, maybe he couldn’t. Another team would have gone under. Not this Leverkusen, a strong block, calm beneath its multiple protective shells, face to face with an adversary in which it recognized itself in the art of speculation. A tie was good for both of them.
The party headed towards mutually assured paralysis. The fans were resigned to leaving the stands with the score at 0-0 when in added time, after a corner and several rebounds in the area, Mukiele, the fourth center back of his team, pushed the score to 1-0. A moment of relaxation was enough. The goal, without major consequences in the classification, implies a statistical curiosity. After almost six games played, Inter, ranked fourth, thus conceded the first goal they have conceded in this Champions League, while Bayer automatically rose to second place, just below Liverpool and just above Unai Emery’s Aston Villa. that beat Leipzig at home (2-3).
