Rain of goals for this 4th day of the Champions League. Well launched at the start of the evening by PSV Eindhoven and Dinamo Zagreb, respective winners 4-0 and 4-1 of Girona and Bratislava, the fourth waltz of matches on the European scene gave rise to two other spankings this Tuesday evening.
The first concerned leader Liverpool, well established at the top of the standings in this League phase with a fourth victory in as many matches, this time against Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen. After a rather lackluster first hour of play at Anfield in a match which nevertheless promised to be flamboyant, Liverpool made the difference thanks to a hat-trick from Luis Diaz (61st, 83rd, 90th + 2) and another goal from Cody Gakpo (63rd ).
The Germans, with keen ideas and ambitions, nevertheless took the game into their own hands from the start thanks to quick and well-executed passing circuits, a game plan which anesthetized and sometimes stunned the English. Bayer even thought they opened the score through Jeremie Frimpong, but the goal was invalidated for a handball from the Dutchman at the start of the action (43rd) before finally sinking at the end of the match. With 7 points in 4 games, Leverkusen is still very well placed for the Top 8 and will try to revive against Salzburg in twenty days.
Gyokeres much stronger than Haaland and City
Another encounter, another humiliation, but much more surprising. Sporting Portugal, again led by future Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim, drowned Manchester City (4-1) in Lisbon, inflicting Pep Guardiola’s men with their third defeat in a row in all competitions.
After a final match with Sporting on Sunday in the Portuguese championship, Amorim will take up his duties at Manchester United on Monday with a record of three wins and a draw this season in the Champions League with Sporting, guided in attack by his home scorer Viktor Gyokeres, author of a hat-trick this evening, his nine, ten and eleventh goals in the last five matches.
Opposite, Erling Haaland did not weigh enough and even missed a penalty in the 69th minute. The only good news for the Citizens is that their playing master Kevin De Bruyne played his first minutes at the very end of the match for two months.
With 7 points in 4 games, like Bayer, nothing serious for Guardiola’s City who will have to recover in three weeks against Feyenoord in three weeks. On the other hand, everything is moving ahead for Sporting, solid second with 10 points.
