Barcelona, Inter and upstart Brest win once more in Champions League; weird penalty dooms Aston Villa

FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal in motion on the Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, Netherlands, on November 6, 2024.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

Barcelona and Inter Milan received once more within the Champions League on Wednesday (November 6, 2024), although each former title holders are wanting up within the standings towards upstart newcomer Brest.

Aston Villa began the week atop the 36-team desk however its profitable run ended after a weird penalty was awarded when defender Tyrone Mings picked up the ball within the space at Membership Brugge, leading to a 1-0 loss that despatched the English membership plummeting to eighth place.

Paris Saint-Germain, in its first season with out Kylian Mbappé, trails far behind in twenty fifth after Atletico Madrid scored in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win for the Spanish group at Parc des Princes.

Barcelona’s blistering scoring type continued in a 5-2 win at Pink Star Belgrade — a seventh straight win because the begin of October at a price of 4 targets per recreation. Robert Lewandowski scored twice and has 21 this season.

Inter Milan stifled Arsenal in a 1-0 win at San Siro sealed by Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s penalty in first-half stoppage time.

Inter is unbeaten on 10 factors and in fifth place, one beneath Brest which received 2-1 at Sparta Prague. The French debutant appears to be like certain to advance to the knockout part beginning in February.

Atalanta received 2-0 at Stuttgart to remain unbeaten on eight factors and Salzburg bought its first targets and factors in a 3-1 win at Feyenoord.

Bayern Munich received 1-0 at house to Benfica in a recreation that was delayed quarter-hour by crowd congestion after which was performed in a muted ambiance due to a medical incident for a fan.

Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov had a superb help and an excellent higher objective in a 2-1 win for the Ukrainian champion in opposition to Younger Boys. Shakhtar’s No. 10 confirmed why he’s anticipated to be the membership’s subsequent big-money sale.

Liverpool, which on Tuesday (November 5, 2024) routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-0, leads the standings on the halfway level of the eight-round program.

Liverpool is the one group with 4 straight wins, whereas 5 groups have 4 losses. They’re Leipzig, Sturm Graz, Younger Boys, Pink Star and Slovan Bratislava.

Two Italian groups – Inter Milan and Atalanta – have but to concede a objective in 4 video games. One other Italian facet, Bologna, is the one group with no targets scored.

Villa had led the standings within the new league-phase format after three straight wins with out conceding a objective — and it took a weird incident earlier than goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was finally crushed.

Mings was punished for selecting up the ball when Martínez appeared to restart play with a objective kick handed ahead to his teammate. Mings walked a pair steps to collect the ball along with his left hand and returned to put it within the six-yard field.

“It’s the largest mistake I witnessed in my profession,” Villa coach Unai Emery stated. “It has solely occurred one time in all my life at the moment.”

Brugge captain Hans Vanaken positioned the 52nd-minute spot-kick to Martínez’s left because the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his proper.

It was the standout results of the inaugural week of the brand new Champions League in September: Bayern Munich 9, Dinamo Zagreb 2.

It was the primary time a group had scored 9 instances in a recreation within the 32-year Champions League period, and Dinamo fired its coach two days later.

Since then, Bayern misplaced twice, together with a 4-1 rout at Barcelona, and Dinamo received twice. On the finish of play Wednesday (November 6, 2024), Bayern was seventeenth on six factors, one place beneath Dinamo on seven. If these placings maintain till January, they meet once more twice extra within the knockout playoffs spherical.

The fifth spherical in three weeks’ time has maybe the stellar attraction of 144 video games within the league part: Liverpool vs. Actual Madrid.

That recreation on November 27 is a rematch of the 2022 and 2018 finals, each received by Madrid, and the 1981 European Cup title match that Liverpool received.

There’s one other last rematch: Bayern Munich hosts PSG on November 26, 2024, in a repeat of the pandemic-season last performed in August 2020 with out followers in Lisbon. Additionally, sixth-place Barcelona hosts Brest, a fixture which could have been ignored when the draw was made in August but the French group is presently fourth.

Solely the highest eight groups in January advance on to the spherical of 16 in March.