UEFA Champions League
Actions went down last week as opening matches were played to kick off the world’s famous football competition. The competition took a little twist as the traditional home and away group stage to semi-final stages are expunged. The 2024/2025 UEFA Champions league will no longer have the traditional group stage where 36 teams forms a single league and play eight different games against opponents (four home, four away), but will now have all 8 top teams grab automatic spots in the knock out stage. For teams that will finish between the 9th and 24th position, a two legged play-off will eventually be played to secure a place in the round of 16. The teams who finish between the 25th to 35th position will be eliminated with no option to play in the UEFA Europa League as it used to be.
Some matches that were played last Week:
Young Boys Bern Vs Aston Villa: Three goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey, and Amadou Onana, in the 27th, 38th, and 86th minutes were convincing enough to have Aston Villa trash Young Boys in the first round of the UEFA 2024/2025 Champions League competition.
Statistics of the game showed that Aston Villa had 55% possession of ball, 20 goal attempts, 7 shots on goal, 8 shots off goal, 417 passes (361 completed passes), and 106 attacks, while Young Boys had 45% ball possession, 13 goal attempts, 5 shots on goal, 6 shots off target, 364 total passes( 312 completed passes), and 75 attacks.
Real Madrid Vs Stuttgart: Despite having a slow start in the Spanish La liga this season, Real Madrid are gradually seeming to be picking up in terms of performance and team blend. The Los Blancos trashed German side Stuttgart three goals to one in their opening Champions League match for the 2024/2025 Season. At first, barren draw at half time generated mixed feelings for football fans on the expected outcome of the game. Goals came in the second half from Kylian Mbappe in the 46th minute, while an equalizer for Stuttgart came in the 68th minute as Deniz Undav scored. Two late goals from Antonio Rudiger and Endrick in the 83rd and 95th minute sealed the victory for Real Madrid.
Barren Draws: Two matches (Atalanta Vs Arsenal), and (Manchester City Vs Inter Milan), ended in a barren draw as the four teams failed to register a goal in the opening games. A great opportunity came in for Atalanta as they were awarded a penalty kick but Retegui missed the spot kick as David Raya made a historic save for the Gunners to have them share the points. Both Manchester City and Inter Milan could not get at least a goal in their first match of UEFA Champions League on 18th September, 2024.
French Ligue 1
OSC Nice Vs Saint Etienne: OSC Nice were on fire as they trounced Saint Etienne 8 goals to nothing. The first goal come for the Les Aiglons after Dan Ndoye Batunbisika got an own goal in the 4th minute of the game. Three minutes later Tanguy Ndombele doubled the lead, and it was made 3-0 by Cho Min-woo in the 24th minute. Moukoko Youssouf got a brace as he struck twice in the 26th and 39th minute, while a 38th minute goal from Eddy Dylan Guessand made the goal 6 for Nice at half time.
After the half time break, Sada-Thioub Diop in the 75th minute made it 7, and P Rosairo converted a penalty spot kick to wrap it up for the Les Aiglons.
German Bundesliga
Augsburg Vs Mainz: Mainz were too difficult to be handled as the secured all the 3 points in a highly competitive away match on Friday. Mainz struck twice in the 13th and 15th minute of the 1st half courtesy goals from Andreas Sieb, and Jonathan Burkardt. Augsburg pulled one as Kelvin Schlotterbameck scored 20 minutes before the end of half time to keep the scoreline at 2-1 halftime. Burkardt got a second goal after recieving an assist from Hong Hyun-Seok in the 49th minute of the fierce encounter. Samuel Essende scored the last goal of the match for Augsburg as the match ended 2-3 in favor of Mainz.
Spanish La liga
Alaves Vs Sevilla: Sevilla could not just keep up with consistency so far the in 2024/2025 Spanish Laliga Season. After having a win in their previous match before yesterday, the Los Rojiblancos were defeated by home team Alaves. Alaves scored twice in the 17th and 60th minute while a late response from Sevilla got them a goal from Dodi Lukebakio to deny the clean sheet win for Alaves.
Eredivisie – Netherlands
Zwolle Vs Az Almaar: Alkmaar secured a 2-1 victory over Zwolle on Friday night in the Netherland’s Eredivisie League of the 2024/2025 season. Though the home team dominated as they possesed the ball with a 60% to 48% possession, 487 passes (397 completed passes), and 10 corner kicks, but two goals from I sadiq in the 6th and 51st minute saw them emerged victorious in the game.
Italian Serie A
Cagliari Vs Empoli: It was a 2 nil win for Empoli in the Serie A match played on Friday 20th September 2024. The away win saw them moved to the position on the League table. After been shown a yellow card in the 12th minute, Lorenzo Colombo recorded the first goal in the 33rd minute and kept the scoreline at 1-0 half time. Esposito Se doubled the lead for Empoli in the 49th minute to seal the victory for Empoli.
