*Haaland still on fire, grabs another brace against Sevilla
Real Madrid’s defence of their UEFA Champions League title began with a hard-fought 3-0 win at Celtic last night.
Ange Postecoglou’s side proved worthy adversaries for the European champions but eventually ran out of steam and fell to defeat on their return to the competition.
The same with last season’s semi finalist and English champions, Manchester City who saw off host and embattled Sevilla with a 4-0 win with new signing, Erling Haaland with a brace at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan.
While Lique 1 champions and tittle contender, PSG at home squeeze past former Champions, Juventus with a 2-1 result after Kylian Mbappe’s first half brace but the Turin side reduced the tally in the second half via Weston Mckennie with assist from Filip Kostic.
The shock of the night was Dinamos Zagreb’s lone goal win against Chelsea. The English side with better positional play were on receiving end off counter attack in the first quarter of the match when Mislav Orsic raced off the pace just a little into centre circle to beat goalie Kepa Arrizabalaga for the only goal in the 13th minute.
An angry Tuchel also blamed himself but said it was not the performance he expected after Chelsea narrowly beat West Ham United over the weekend.
“I didn’t see it coming, obviously I was in the wrong movie,” Tuchel told reporters. “I thought that the last game helped us… I thought the team was prepared, I thought we know what this is all about.
“I don’t really know where this performance today comes from. A lack of determination, a lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level. We are clearly not where we want to be.
“I’m angry about our performance… It’s not precise enough, it’s not clinical enough, it’s not aggressive enough on the ball, it’s not determined enough. It’s not good enough individually, it’s not good enough as a team.”
Tuchel said they did not underestimate Zagreb but added that Chelsea losing focus has been the “story of the last few games” where they start well before conceding goals.
“We start okay for 15 to 20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood,” Tuchel added.
“We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack –never happened before. I don’t understand why it happened today. It’s clearly my job to analyse it.
“We need to be much better… We are not happy with our results, we are not happy with the way we play in general, but I thought we were on a good way. I’m a bit surprised by this performance today.”
In Scotland, Celtic nearly took the lead inside 30 seconds when Liel Abada’s close-range effort was deflected into the side-netting by David Alaba.
A sweeping move from the hosts nearly set Georgios Giakoumakis through on goal, but again Alaba came to Real Madrid’s rescue with a huge block.
Abada then had a clearer sight of goal at the end of a counter attack from a corner, but he couldn’t quite get a clean strike away and Thibaut Courtois denied him.
Reo Hatate was next to force the Belgian’s hand with a strike from range, before Callum McGregor’s shot thundered against the post as Celtic’s fast start continued.
Real Madrid’s first opportunity of note came when Federico Valverde cut inside of Jota and let fly, but his effort sailed wide of Joe Hart’s net.
Eden Hazard – brought on for the injured Karim Benzema – spurned a great chance after meeting Dani Carvajal’s deep cross, but he couldn’t get a solid contact on it and the ball bounced harmlessly out of play.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men were finally clicking into gear, with Hazard turning provider for Vinicius Junior to sprint away despite suspicions of offside, with Joe Hart standing tall to deny the Brazilian.
Substitute Daezen Maeda should have put Celtic ahead when he was first to Josip Juranovic’s searing cross, but he couldn’t sort his feet out and the ball trickled into Courtois’ grateful arms.
Real Madrid took a 56th-minute lead after Valverde’s terrific low cross was converted by Vinicius Junior, who to that point had contributed very little.
Luka Modric doubled the advantage minutes later after Hazard carried the ball into the area and teed up the Croatian, who rode a challenge from Moritz Lenz and fired past Hart.
The visitors added a cruel third when Toni Kroos’ ball over the top was knocked back across goal by Dani Carvajal, and Hazard was on hand to tap in.
Sead Haksabanovic came off the bench and forced Courtois into a strong save at his near post, but Real clung on to keep a clean sheet.
RESULTS
D’Zagreb 1-0 Chelsea
Salzburg 1-1 AC Milan
Dortmund 3-0 Copenhagen
Sevilla 0-4 Man City
Benfica 2–0 Mac’Haifa
PSG 2–1 Juventus
Celtic 0-3 R’Madrid
Leipzig 1–4 Shakhtar
TODAY
Ajax v Rangers
Napoli v Liverpool
Atletico v FC Porto
C’Brugge v Leverkusen
Barcelona v Viktoria Plzen
Inter v B’Munich
E’Frankfurt v Sporting
Tottenham v Marseille
