Here’s what happened on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League, in case you missed it…
The results
Watch match highlights: Zenit Saint Petersburg 1, Bayer Leverkusen 2 || Real Madrid 1, Liverpool 0 || Arsenal 3, Anderlecht 3 || Juventus 3, Olympiakos 2 || Malmo 0, Atletico Madrid 2 || Basel 4, Ludogorets 0 || Benfica 1, Monaco 0 || Borussia Dortmund 4, Galatasaray 1
Talking points
Monreal penalty opens door for Anderlecht: The Gunners were flying high at the Emirates. Two goals before the halftime break gave Arsenal the clear advantage, and when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored on a great individual effort in the 58th minut, Anderlecht was done.
But the Belgians chipped away, and Anthony Vanden Borre scored in the 61st minute—albeit from an offside position—to give Anderlecht a lifeline. The decisive moment, though, came 12 minutes later. Nacho Monreal pulled down substitute Aleksandar Mitrovic as they were chasing down a cross played into the box. It was a blatant foul but also an unnecessary one—Mitrovic wasn’t going to get to the ball. Vanden Borre duly converted from the spot, giving Mitrovic a platform to net the equalizer in injury time.
Make no mistake about it: Monreal’s gaffe was the turning point. His poor decision making in committing that foul opened the door for Anderlecht and swung the momentum in the Belgians’ favour. If the Spanish defender had just let that ball go, Arsenal would have likely held on for the win.
Rodgers fields ‘B team at Bernabeau: Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers didn’t field a League Cup-esque starting 11 at the Bernabeu, but it wasn’t far off. With a home match against Chelsea in the Premier League looming this weekend, Rodgers decided to omit seven key starters from his lineup on Tuesday: captain Steven Gerrard, Mario Balotelli, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho, Dejan Lovren, Jordan Henderson and Glen Johnson. Amazingly, a Real Madrid side featuring Cristian Ronaldo (held off the scoresheet for the fist time in 13 games), James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale (as second-half substitute) managed just one goal against Liverpool.
Rogers came in for heavy criticism as soon as his starting 11 was made public. The Twitter-verse erupted with righteous indignation—accusations that Rodgers was throwing in the towel before a ball had been kicked and, far worse, he was damaging the reputation of English soccer’s biggest club competition.
But the hammering at the hands of Real that most predicted never materialized, Liverpool put in a decent showing, and—crucially—they remained firmly in the mix to advance beyond the group stage. You might not have liked Rodgers’ decision to field his ‘B team,’ but in the end the Reds nearly earned a result, and were able to rest a handful of starters ahead of Saturday’s clash with Chelsea at Anfield. Criticize it all you want—it turned out to be a smart move by Rodgers.
Llorente the difference for Juve: A majestic free kick from Andrea Pirlo rather disguised the fact that Juventus was quite poor in the first half against Olympiakos. The Italians had a hard time breaking down the Greeks, who scored shortly after Pirlo’s free kick to sap the life out of the Bianconeri and headed into the halftime break knotted at 1-1.
Delvin Ndinga’s glorious header after the re-start stunned the Turin crowd into silence. The Italian champions were on the ropes, and while a loss before their fans wouldn’t have officially eliminated them from contention, it would have put their hopes on life support.
Fernando Llorente, subbed into the game in the 58th minute, began to take charge and it was his goal four minutes after Ndinga’s that pulled Juventus back into the game. The Spaniard then went one better a minute later, firing a low cross into the box for Paul Pogba to fire home. 3-2 for Juventus—from dead and buried to comeback kings in the space of 60 seconds.
Juventus had been frustrated by Olympiakos’ defence who expertly dealt with crosses from the wings, but Llorente’s introduction changed the dynamic of the Italian’s attack. The Spanish forward gave Juve a big and physical presence up front, as he held up the ball to bring his teammates into the play through the middle. Olympiakos struggled to deal with him in and around the box, and Pogba and Carlos Tevez suddenly found more space and more opportunities to get inside the penalty area.
Wednesday programming alert: Watch Manchester City vs CSKA Moscow on the four main Sportsnet channels at 2:30 pm ET, Bayern Munich vs AS Roma on Sportsnet ONE at 2:30 pm ET, and NK Maribor vs Chelsea on Sportsnet World at 2:30 pm ET. || Also, watch these games at 2:30 pm ET online at Sportsnet World NOW: Sporting vs Schalke, Athletic Bilbao vs FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk vs BATE Borisov, Ajax vs Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain vs APOEL FC.
Goal of the day
Save of the day
Olympiakos’ goalkeeper Roberto made a fabulous diving stop on Arturo Vidal’s blistering penalty attempt deep into second-half injury time, deflecting the ball onto the post and out of danger.
Match of the day
Down 3-0 after 58 minutes, Anderlecht scored three consecutive goals—including an injury time equalizer—to earn a remarkable draw away to Arsenal. Incredible.
Six pack of stats
Andrea Pirlo made his 100th Champions League appearance on Tuesday, becoming the 23rd player and second Italian (after Paolo Maldini) to reach the milestone.
Before Tuesday, Liverpool’s bench (137) made more Champions League appearances than its starting XI (130).
Galatasaray has failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 19 away games in the Champions League since September, 2002.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema has scored five goals in his last four Champions League matches.
Arsenal has both scored and conceded at least three goals for the first time in a single Champions League game.
Anthony Vanden Borre is the sixth Belgian to score a brace in a Champions League game. No Belgian has ever managed a hat trick.
** Stats courtesy of Opta
Best moment of the day
He said it
“Our performance says everything. It was far from throwing in towel.” – Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers
Burning question
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3 stars
1) Anthony Vanden Borre: The central figure in Anderlecht’s amazing comeback, the defender scored two goals to spur the Belgian champions on.
2) Son Heung-Min: The South Korean striker bagged a brace for Bayer Leverkusen with a pair of sublime finishes.
3) Fernando Llorente: The Spaniard scored one goal and set up another, and was key to Juventus’ come-from-behind win.
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