PARIS: Kylian Mbappe came off the bench but couldn’t prevent defending champion Real Madrid from losing 1-0 at unheralded Lille in the revamped Champions League on Wednesday, while Aston Villa defeated Bayern Munich 1-0 in a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final.
Liverpool continued their flying start under new boss Arne Slot with a 2-0 victory at home to Bologna to secure a second successive win over Italian opposition this season.
Mbappe made his return from injury for Real in France as a substitute but he was upstaged by Jonathan David, whose penalty condemned Carlo Ancelotti’s side to a first loss in all competitions since January — a run spanning 36 matches.
It was Real’s first loss in the competition since a 4-0 hammering by Manchester City in the 2023 semi-final return leg.
“It hasn’t been a very good night for us, we shouldn’t look for excuses,” said Ancelotti. “We made a lot of errors. In the first half, we had a lot of issues in the transitions. We weren’t aggressive enough. We weren’t able to create chances, we weren’t great in possession. We were slow, we lacked ideas. We have forwards that need to play vertically, and, if we can’t supply that, it’s difficult. … It was the same the last time we lost a match.”
Canada international David, scorer of a hat-trick in Ligue 1 at the weekend, buried his spot-kick at the end of the first half after Eduardo Camavinga used his arm to block a strike from Edon Zhegrova.
Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier produced a string of late saves as the French club clung on for a famous win over the record 15-time European champions.
Villa also enjoyed a night to remember as a brilliant goal from in-form Colombian forward Jhon Duran lifted the hosts past Bayern.
When the sides met in the 1982 European Cup final, Villa won 1-0 in a big upset. Prince William was born that year, and he was cheering in the Villa Park crowd when Duran pounced late on.
Coach Unai Emery sent the 20-year-old Duran on in the 70th and the Colombia forward — who has made a habit of scoring goals from the bench — did it again with a majestic lob in the 79th minute that caught Manuel Neuer well out of position and earned Villa their second win in a row in the club’s first appearance in Europe’s top competition in 41 years.
Harry Kane almost snatched a last-gasp equaliser but Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez pulled off a superb stop to deny the England captain. “It’s unreal to be fair. This is the loudest Villa Park that I’ve heard since I joined the club, that’s for sure, it was hurting my ears at some point,” Martinez told TNT Sports. “It’s a statement, there’s still a lot to play. We want to qualify in the first eight, in the top eight, it’s one step at a time.”
Liverpool coach Slot got his first taste of a European night at Anfield and saw his team beat Bologna thanks to goals from midfielder Alexis Mac Allister and prolific forward Mohamed Salah, who set up the first goal.
Salah teased the defence with an 11th-minute cross for Mac Allister to score from close range and curled in a rising shot in the 75th as Liverpool carried over the confidence from easing past AC Milan 3-1 at San Siro two weeks ago.
Slot is the first Liverpool manager to win eight of his opening nine matches, surpassing even the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Kenny Dalglish, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
“It’s hardly impossible to do something special at this club. It says a lot about how we started how players bought into it, the effort put in,” said Slot.
Bologna, playing in the competition for the first time in 60 years, are still looking for a goal after drawing 0-0 with Shakhtar Donetsk in the first round.
JUVENTUS RESILIENT AS ATLETICO FLOP
Juventus won 3-2 in a thrilling encounter against RB Leipzig in Germany despite having goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio sent off in the 59th for handling outside his area.
Leipzig led twice through goals from Benjamin Sesko but Juventus replied both times through Dusan Vlahovic, his magnificent second coming just after Di Gregorio saw red.
Francisco Conceicao’s fine solo effort late on won it for Juventus, who are one of seven teams with maximum points in the new 36-team league phase.
Atletico Madrid fell to a humiliating 4-0 loss at Benfica.
The Portuguese team went ahead through Kerem Aturkoglu, with Angel Di Maria extending the lead from the penalty spot.
Alexander Bah headed home the third and Orkun Kokcu completed the rout with another penalty.
Benfica’s victory equaled the biggest winning margin by a Portuguese team against a Spanish one in Europe’s elite club competition. They also claimed the other victory, defeating Real Madrid 5-1 back in February 1965.
To add to the pain, it was Atletico’s joint-biggest margin of defeat in UEFA club competitions.
Earlier, Atalanta and Feyenoord got their first wins in the competition’s second round of matches.
Italian team Atalanta coasted to a 3-0 win over Ukraine’s Shakhtar while Dutch club Feyenoord secured a gritty 3-2 win at tournament newcomers Girona.
Albanian Berat Djimsiti, Nigerian Ademola Lookman, and Italian Raoul Bellanova scored for Atalanta in the German city of Gelsenkirchen. It was officially a home game for Shakhtar, which is playing at German club Schalke’s stadium because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Girona led through centre-back David Lopez’s close-range finish, but the visitors equalised with an own goal from Yangel Herrera and took the lead on Antoni Milambo’s 31st-minute strike.
Donny van de Beek made it 2-2 but another own goal, this time from Ladislav Krejci, gave Feynoord — Slot’s former club — victory in a match where both teams missed a penalty.
Monaco rallied from two goals down on a sodden pitch to salvage a 2-2 draw away to Dinamo Zagreb.
Goals from Petar Sucic and Martin Baturina had Dinamo on course for victory, but Mohammed Salisu halved the deficit for Monaco before Dennis Zakaria equalised from the spot in the final minute.
Club Brugge picked up their first points courtesy of a curling strike from Christos Tzolis in a 1-0 win at Sturm Graz.
Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024
