England striker Harry Kane got Bayern Munich off to an impressive start in the new Champions League competition format. Bayern hosted Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb last night to kick off the league stage of the Champions League. In a show of absolute dominance, the Bavarian side put nine goals past their opponents despite having two goals disallowed while conceding only two. Kane found the net four times with Olise, Guerreiro, Sane and Goretzka.
Earlier yesterday, Aston Villa marked their return to Europe’s elite club competition with a convincing win over Swiss side Young Boys. Unai Emery’s men not only won by three goals away from home, but also came out with a clean sheet. Youri Tielemans opened the scoring in the 27th minute followed by a goal by Jacob Ramsey. Amadou Onana sealed the win with an 86th minute goal.
Aston Villa were not the only side to grab a win away and score three goals while at it. Liverpool humbled AC Milan at the San Siro with three goals after the Rossoneri scored in the 3rd minute to claim an early lead. Christian Pulisic’s goal only set up the Reds for a perfect comeback as Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Dominick Szoboszlai all scored to give Liverpool a 3-1 away win.
Italian side Juventus had better luck as they beat Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven with a comfortable 3-1 scoreline. Kenan Yıldız opened the scoring for the Turin giants in the 21st minute. Weston McKennie followed with another goal six minutes later before Nicolas Gonzales bagged a second-half goal. Ismael Saibari pulled one back for the visitors in the third minute of added time.
Defending champions Real Madrid broke the deadlock in the 46th minute after a difficult start against a solid VfB Stuttgart team. Kylian Mbappe’s opener didn’t take long for Stuttgart to cancel out with a 68th minute equalizer from Deniz Undav. More goals from Antonio Rudiger and Brazilian youngster Endrick sealed the win for the Los Blancos.
Meanwhile in Portugal, Sporting CP bested French side Lille by two goals to nothing with goals from Viktor Gyökeres and Deno Zebast.
Kayode Akinwumi
