The world’s most exciting football competition, the UEFA Champions League, returned to action with Matchday One on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, and Wednesday, September 20, 2023, with some outright trashings, stalemates, not-so-upsetting upsets and a goalkeeper’s goal.

Barcelona and Arsenal delivered outright thrashings to their opponents, AC Milan vs. Newcastle ended in a stalemate and Bayern served a not-so-upsetting upset to Manchester United, as did PSG to Dortmund.

Let’s start with the highs:

• Outright Trashing

Group H – Nothing ROYAL about that!
Barcelona 5-0 Royal Antwerp

Living up to the expectations of many spectators with the hashtag “pray for Antwerp” topping the trends the day before the tie, Barcelona gave Royal Antwerp a drubbing in a 5-0 defeat, with three of the goals coming in under 22 the minutes of play.

Joao Félix opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 11th minute and Robert Lewandowski doubled the lead in the 19th and a heart-wrenching own goal from Jelle Bataille in the 22nd minute saw the lead tripled.

Barcelona picked up from where they left off through Gavi in the 54th and Joao Félix put a bow on it for his second of the game in the 66th.

Robert Lewandowski hit the 100th goal mark in a European fixture.

Lamine Yamal became the second youngest player ever to feature in the Champions League, and the youngest ever to do so for Barça.

• Gunners with all guns blazing vs. PSV Eindhoven
Arsenal 4-0 PSV

After a six-year UCL hiatus, Arsenal made a stunning return to the competition. It all began just eight minutes into the encounter when Bukayo Saka tucked in a rebound into the bottom corner to score his first European goal at Emirates Stadium.

Leandro Trossard then doubled the lead in the 20th minute, Gabriel Jesus tripled it in the 38th and the Skipper, Martin Ødegaard wrapped it up in the 70th.

To the Stalemates: ” If you can’t win make sure you don’t lose”

• AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle

Newcastle held AC Milan to a goalless draw on Tuesday. Despite Milan’s 25 shots and nine on target, they failed to get past Nick Pope and the 18-yard box to get a shot into the back of the net, they simply were wasteful!

It is noteworthy that Pope made six saves within just 20 minutes of the game.

• Lazio 1-1 Atletico Madrid

Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel’s 90+5 header saw his side earn a point against Atletico Madrid, as the crowd went wild in what was an unpredictable turn of events.

How it happened:

It was the final seconds of the game and a corner was awarded to Lazio, the shot-stopper ran up to the Atletico Madrid box in an attempt to get his head on the ball. Remarkably, he ran into space, unmarked, and got on the end of a cross and headed the ball in to earn a point for his team.

Provedel became the first goalkeeper to score in the Champions League since Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama did so for Hapoel Tel Aviv against Lyon in 2010.

• Galatasaray 2-2 FC Copenhagen

The Turkish champions, Galatasaray, took the backseat as Mohamed Elyounoussi and Diogo Goncalves goals saw them stare at defeat in the eyes before Tete opened up a scoring opportunity for Sacha Boey in the 86th minute to pull one back and eventually got the leveller himself two minutes after.

• Sevilla 1-1 Lens
• Real Sociefad 1-1 Inter Milan

Now to the Not-So-Upsetting Upsets
• Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 Borussia Dortmund

PSG hosted Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night and with a not-so-impressive start to the season for both sides and
given that both sides are big names in their respective leagues, the tie was expected to be an even contest.

The could have been Bundesliga Champions, Borussia Dortmund started off their 2023/24 UCL campaign with a defeat to PSG courtesy of second-half goals from Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi.

Mbappe scored from the penalty spot in the 49th minute and Hakimi doubled the lead with a fine strike in the 58th minute to give the hosts a victory.

• Going down with a fight
Bayern Munich 4-3 Manchester United

It was a seven-goal thriller at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night, as Bayern Munich hosted Ten Hag’s Reds.

Manchester United entered into the tie with a poor run of form and as such, much was not expected but with the Champions League being a different ball game, some spectators expected a decent showing.

Hosts, Bayern took the lead in the 28th minute through Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry then made it two goals in four minutes for the Bundesliga champions.

New buy, Rasmus Hojlund, pulled one back for the Red Devils in the 49th minute as he struck his first goal for the club before Harry Kane converted from the spot in the 51st. Casemiro dragged United back into the game in the 88th minute but Bayern would have none of it, as they scored another through Mathys Tel in the 90+1 minute.

Casemiro then fought hard to head home Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick for his second and United’s third goal of the game four minutes later but it could fetch the win for Ten Hag’s Men.

Andre Onana’s first-half error saw United trail and did not hold back from admitting fault.

“It’s my responsibility, because of me we didn’t win — and I have to learn from it”

“I have a lot to prove because, to be honest, my start in Man United is not so good”

“It was me who let the team down. “

Other results:

Benfica 0-2 Red Bull Salzburg

SC Braga 1-2 Napoli

Real Madrid 1-0 Union Berlin0

Feyenoord 2-0 Celtic

Man City 3-1 Red Star Belgrade

Shakhtar 1-3 Porto

Young Boys 1 -3 RB Leipzig