We are now 66.6% of the way through the Champions League group stage. In matchweek 4 some teams declared that they are for real and solidified their powerful positions in their group. Other teams floundered and came back down to Earth. Certain teams are on the verge of elimination while others have all but booked their places in the R16. I'll discuss it all here.
No More Perfection
Four games in and there are no more perfect teams remaining. Atletico Madrid responded to their thrashing in machweek 3 and ruined Dortmund's perfection by shutting them out at home. Barca were held on the road by Group B challengers Inter Milan, when a late goal from Mauro Icardi canceled out Malcom's first ever goal for Barcelona. Juventus, who looked virtually unbeatable before this fixture, fell at home to a Manchester United side that scored two late goals to ruin the party in Turin. Needless to say, this is a massive result for United.
Below I'll discuss the big winners and losers from this round of fixtures.
Winners
Club Brugge — The Belgian side took advantage of a dysfunctional Monaco to fly to their first Champions League win in 13 years. The result was vital for the side because it elevates them above Monaco by three points and they now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker for the Europa League spot in Group A. Two goals within the first 20' from Hans Vanaken put the visitors firmly ahead. Welsey Moraes added a 3rd and captain Ruud Vormer added one more toward the end of the match. Its been a miserable start to life as a manager for Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry, and this result only amplifies that.
Atletico Madrid — It would be assassin to leave Atletico off this list. The Spanish side were embarrassed last time out by high-flying Dortmund, but due to the Champion League's unique fixture style, they got an opportunity for immediate payback. And they took it emphatically. Saul Niguez's goal in the first half won it for the home side while the defense secured the victory. This result marked goalkeeper Jan Oblak's 100th clean sheet in 178 appearances for Atletico, an absolutely absurd record. It also brings Atletico even on points with BVB and gives them a real fighting chance to win the group. It also all but secures them a spot in the R16.
Red Star Belgrade — The Serbian side is doing their best to compete with CSKA for biggest upset of the tournament. As I said in my power rankings, Red Star had shown they can protect their home turf with their nil-nil draw against Napoli on matchday 1, but its safe to say no one expected them to beat Liverpool. Belgrade have conceded zero goals in two matches in Serbia, and that is no simple task against the likes of Liverpool and Napoli. An individual winner from this round of matches has to be Milan Pavkov, the scorer of both Belgrade goals, the second of which was an absolute worldie. The Serbian attacker was bought at the beginning of the 2017 season for a mere 300,000 pounds, which is comparable to a penny on the international stage. Red Star now have a legitimate chance to advance from the tightest group in the competition, as Napoli and PSG played to a 1-1 draw in the other match. Credit must be given to Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan as well, although this was certainly an entire team effort.
Manchester United — Again, it would also be unfair to not include United on this list this week. Jose Mourinho's side went into Turin and defeated a side that had not conceded a goal to this point in the competition. On top of that, United found themselves down a goal with only 5' plus extra time remaining in the match. Not only did they equalize, but they went on to win the game. Juventus took the lead through a brilliant volley from none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. However, United midfielder Juan Mata outdid him when he guided a free kick over the Juventus wall and passed the hopeless Wojciech Szczesny. In the 89', United lofted a ball into the box and chaos ensued, which eventually lead to a Juventus own goal, giving United the victory. This result allows Manchester United to keep pace with the Italians, as they sit two points behind them for the top spot in the group. With that said, Valencia recorded their first Champions League victory since 2015 in the form of a 3-1 win over Young Boys in the other fixture. Valencia are currently chasing United for the second spot in Group H.
Losers
Lokomotiv Moskva — I am actually getting tired of writing this. Yet again, Lokomotiv Moscow headlines the portion the "disappointment" section, after falling to Porto again, this time by 4 goals to 1. While Porto have looked impressive as they sit atop Group D with three wins and a draw, Moscow has been nothing short of dreadful during this CL campaign. The Russian side seems to keep winning their domestic fixtures but cannot seem to turn up in the biggest moments. Management and administration will almost certainly look back on these performances with great disappointment and perhaps questions about why the team struggled so much on this stage.
Liverpool — Yes, Red Star were impressive, but Liverpool were also poor. It started early in the match when the English side missed multiple chances to go ahead, most notably Sadio Mane missing a tap-in on the six yard box within the first 10' of the match. The Serbian side made them pay, and Liverpool missed a massive opportunity to put a stranglehold on Group C. Now, with just two matches remaining, the group is completely up for grabs. Napoli leads Liverpool on the head-to-head tiebreaker on six points, while PSG trails with five points, and Red Star now find themselves shockingly alive with four points. This is far and away the most wide open group of the eight and should make for massive entertainment down the stretch.
Borussia Dortmund — None of the undefeated teams could live up to their top three rankings this past week. As we know, many pundits and fans were waiting for Dortmund to falter and were very skeptical of the German side being able to keep up their blistering form, both in the league and abroad. With that said, though, going into Madrid and getting a result against a quality Atletico side is never an easy task, especially when they feel that have something to prove. Dortmund will look to ensure a slide does not commence following this result. They did well to right the ship at the weekend in their massive match against Bayern Munich, which they came from behind to win 3-2 and retained their four point lead atop the Bundesliga table.
Galatasaray — The Turks missed a massive opportunity to not only keep pace in Group D, but they could have taken the second spot away from Schalke with a victory in their fixture. Instead Schalke captured a convincing victory and went four points clear of third and are on the tail of leaders Porto. It was not just the fact that Galatasaray fell in the match, it was the manner in which it happened. They conceded a goal in both halves and conceding a poor goal within the first 5' really set the tone for failure in what could turn out to be a pivotal match in the group.
The group standings after Matchweek 4 are as follows:
I continued my attempts to predict the results of each match during matchweek 4. After showing decently on my first attempt in matchweek 2, I had a disastrous matchweek 3. Lets see how I responded. Results are below.
Group A:
Actually Scores My Predicted Scores
Atletico Madrid 2-0 Borussia Dortmund Atletico Madrid 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
AS Monaco 0-4 Club Brugge AS Monaco 2-1 Club Brugge
Group B:
Inter Milan 1-1 Barcelona Inter Milan 2-2 Barcelona
Tottenham 2-1 PSV Eindhoven Tottenham 3-1 PSV Eindhoven
Group C:
SSC Napoli 1-1 Paris Saint-Germain SSC Napoli 3-3 Paris Saint-Germain
Red Star Belgrade 2-0 Liverpool Red Star Belgrade 0-2 Liverpool
Group D:
Porto 4-1 Lokomotiv Moscow Porto 2-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Schalke 2-0 Galatasaray Schalke 2-1 Galatasaray
Group E:
Bayern Munich 2-0 AEK Athens Bayern Munich 4-1 AEK Athens
Benfica SL 1-1 Ajax Benfica SL 1-1 Ajax
Group F:
Manchester City 6-0 Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester City 4-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Olympique Lyon 2-2 Hoffenheim Olympique Lyon 3-1 Hoffenheim
Group G:
Viktoria Plzen 0-5 Real Madrid Viktoria Plzen 0-4 Real Madrid
CSKA Moscow 1-2 AS Roma CSKA Moscow 4-2 AS Roma
Group H:
Juventus 1-2 Manchester United Juventus 2-1 Manchester United
Valencia 3-1 BSC Young Boys Valencia 1-2 BSC Young Boys
(Home teams are listed first)
By the numbers
Matchweek 4
Total number of matches: 16
Correct Result and Correct Score: 1
Correct Result but Wrong Score: 8
Completely Wrong: 7
Hey, better than 50%! Not a bad bounce back week. And missed a lot of results by one goal, and a good amount of my predicted scores reflected the themes and trends of the game just not the exact scoreline I also went for bold predictions with CSKA and BSC Young Boys, neither of which paid off. Can't complain. Pretty proud of myself this week.
Completely Correct:
SL Benfica / AFC Ajax
Correct Result but Barely Missed Score:
Inter Milan / Barcelona
Tottenham Hotspur / PSV Eindhoven
SSC Napoli / PSG
Porto / Lokomotiv
Schalke / Galatasaray
Manchester City / Shakhtar
Viktoria Plzen / Real Madrid
Miserably Wrong:
Red Star Belgrade / Liverpool
CSKA Moscow / AS Roma
Valencia / BSC Young Boys
Total thus far (keeping in mind I didn't make predictions for matchweek 1)
Total number of matches: 48
Correct Result and Correct Score: 3
Correct Result but Wrong Score: 21
Completely Wrong: 24
Combining correct results and correct scores with just correct results, I have now broke even on the season. Fifty percent is a good goal to keep going forward. Saying it is one thing, doing it is another. Stay tune to see if I can pull it off!
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