Spanish Clubs See Success in the Champions League
The 2015-2016 UEFA Champions League campaign was a success for Spain even before group play began this week with a record five Spanish teams qualifying for Europe’s top club competition. The five clubs combined for a record of three wins, one draw, and one loss.
Let’s begin our whirlwind wrap-up of this week’s Champions League play by heading off to Madrid.
Real Madrid 4 – 0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Another game, another new record for Cristiano Ronaldo. The five goals he scored for Real Madrid in Saturday’s 6-0 win at Espanyol made him the club’s all-time leading scorer in La Liga. Tuesday’s hat-trick against Shakhtar Donetsk took him to the top of the Champions League all-time goalscoring chart. Karim Benzema opened the scoring before Ronaldo converted two penalties and a late header to finish off a 4-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Speaking to MARCA after the match, the Portuguese star made light of the recent talk of his goal “drought”:
Before I was bad and now I’m good because I scored eight goals. I’m very happy, I’m grateful to the lads for the faith they’ve shown in me.
However, it was far from a perfect night for Real Madrid since Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane all left the game with injuries. Varane was taken off as more of precaution and is expected to be able to play this weekend against Granada. Ramos will be out of action for a while after he nearly dislocated his shoulder, and Bale asked to come off in only the 27th minute after experiencing pain in his left calf.
A team spokesperson says a scan on Bale’s calf is likely to take place on Thursday. For their next Champions League match on September 30th, Real Madrid will travel to Sweden to take on Malmö.
Galatasaray 0 – 2 Atlético Madrid
After struggling to make an impact in Atlético Madrid’s defeat to Barcelona this past weekend, Antoine Griezmann’s two first-half goals proved more than enough in a relatively easy victory over Galatasaray. Diego Simeone opted to go with new signing Jackson Martinez instead of Fernando Torres. He also gave new signing Luciano Vietto his first start of the season. In his post-match comments to AS, Simeone said his line-up may have caught the Turkish side off-guard.
The team put in a good first half. We were able to catch Galatasaray by surprise by fielding Griezmann, Vietto and Jackson in attack but what pleased me the most was the our midfielders contained Galatasaray. Our first 20 minutes were very good, grabbing a couple of early goals allowed us to confront the rest of the game relatively relaxed.
Comfortable is a good word for it. Galatasaray only managed three shots on goal for the entire game.
Atlético Madrid will host fellow Group C leaders Benfica at the Vicente Calderón Stadium in their next Champions League in two weeks.
Sevilla 3 – 0 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Sevilla have had a sluggish start to the La Liga season and currently sit 18th in the table. A return to European action might prove to be just what they need to spring their domestic season to life. The two-time defending Europa League champions defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0 in front of a buoyant crowd at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. Sevilla should have been well ahead at the break, but it took second-half penalties from Kevin Gameiro, Ever Banega and a curling strike from new signing Yevhen Konoplyanka to secure the win.
Speaking at the UEFA post-match press conference, Sevilla Manager Unai Emery said the victory should boost the team’s confidence.
We are proud of the final result. We are becoming consistent and we are maturing. We got into dangerous positions, which is the reason we won three penalties. We will take it match by match and enjoy ourselves as well as trying to compete. This has been a big day for all Sevilla supporters. It is a great victory that gives us cause for optimisim. It was very important to win at home in the first match, especially in a group where the favourites are Juventus and Manchester City.
Speaking of Juventus, last season’s finalists battled back to defeat Manchester City 2-1 and will host Sevilla in Turin in two weeks.
Roma 1 – 1 Barcelona
Barcelona started their Champions League title defense with a draw against Roma, the team that gave Barca coach Luis Enrique his first-team managerial debut in 2011.
Barcelona took the lead in the 21st minute at the Stadio Olimpico when Luis Suarez got on the end of Ivan Rakitic’s deflected cross.
The home side would equalize within ten minutes when Roma’s 24-year-old midfielder Alessandro Florenzi crossed the half-way line, looked up and noticed Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen standing well off his line and decided to launch a shot that sailed over ter Stegen and into the net.
Speaking to MARCA after the match, Luis Enrique took the blame for Roma’s equalizer.
The Barça keeper plays exactly as I tell him to play. I’m responsible for that kind of move. I’m at fault for the goal. I want my keepers to play like that.
The most notable event of the second half was a nasty-looking injury to Barcelona’s Rafinha, who had to be carted off just one minute after entering the match.
Tests should be completed by the end of the week, but Enrique admitted that it doesn’t look good. Barcelona will welcome Group E leaders Bayer Leverkusen to the Camp Nou when Champions League play resumes.
Valencia 2 – 3 Zenit St. Petersburg
GOALSCORERS | @aftgomes scored his first @ChampionsLeague goal and his fifth for #VCF pic.twitter.com/xf5rvzYaSP
— Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) September 16, 2015
The wildest opening game of Champions League group play took place Wednesday night at the Mestalla Stadium. Valencia’s home support saw their side fall behind to the defending Russian champs when Hulk scored twice in the first half.
.@FCBarcelona and @valenciacf_en could not find victory in their @ChampionsLeague opening http://t.co/goOZFZz5BP #UCL pic.twitter.com/Gt1CxgZI6l
— LaLiga (@LaLiga) September 16, 2015
An own goal ten minutes after the re-start halved the deficit and when Valencia’s André Gomes poked home the equalizer, it seemed like a “Mestalla Miracle” might be on order. It wasn’t meant to be as Hulk set up Axel Witsel for Zenit’s winning goal
Valencia will now try to earn their first points of the 2015-2016 Champions League when they travel to France to take on Lyon.