Tuesday night was jam-packed with action as the Champions League group stages took another step toward completion.
Real Madrid beat Galatasaray 0-1 at the Turk Telekom Stadium and Dybala's brace in 2mins inspires comeback win for Juventus in Lokomotiv clash. Another six games followed and to help catch you up with the best of the action, here is a round-up of what you may have missed from the 8 pm kick-offs.
1. Courtois' stunning display between the sticks
Thibaut Courtois was crowned “The Best” shortly after joining Real Madrid, mostly for his excellent displays at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Since then, however, he has been more like “The Worst”. Courtois has been genuinely poor in the Spanish capital but he began tonight’s match, by all accounts a must-win match away at a hostile ground, in supreme form.
It’s easy to forget because the game ended as such a lopsided affair where Madrid had enough shots to shame the NRA, but for a good 20 minutes things were very difficult for Los Blancos and the only reason they didn’t collapse was not Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos (who grew into the game) but Courtois flinging himself around in goal, using every inch of his considerable height, to palm away Galatasaray shots. It was an epic display from the Belgian and a clean sheet well earned.
2. Aguero at the double
Speaking of climbing the ladder, Sergio Aguero has been busy chasing down some records himself.
The Argentine sensation stepped up with a double for Manchester City on Tuesday as Pep Guardiola’s men fought from a goal down to beat Atalanta 5-1 at the Etihad.
In doing so, he took himself to a total of 34 Champions League goals for City – the third-highest number of any player for an English club.
Next in Aguero’s sites are Van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry on 35, then the ultimate big-game player, Didier Drogba on 36. Don’t be surprised if Aguero is the record-holder himself by the end of the group stages.
A special mention must also go to Raheem Sterling for his fantastic hat-trick on the night – the 24-year-old is the first Englishman to achieve that feat in the Champions League for Man City.
3. Magical minutes from Dybala
The hosts struggled to create many clear cut chances in the game but with the introduction of Gonzalo Higuain at half-time, Dybala switched to a deeper position that allowed him to become more involved with play.
As the game progressed he started to find little pockets of space and began to threaten the Lokomotiv defensive unit. The highlight came in the two minutes between the 77th and 79th where Dybala scored a scorcher from outside the box to bring his team level and scored his second following up on a shot taken from a distance by Alex Sandro and parried into his path by the goalkeeper.
They were both sublime finishes in different ways, but for the first time in a long time, Dybala has shown his ability to take a game by the scruff of its neck and drag his team across the line.
4. King Kylian
Remember Kylian Mbappe? He recently went four games without a goal, so we just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten the name.
Well, just in case, the French sensation reminded us all just how disgustingly talented he is by adding to his goal and assist in a seven-minute cameo against Nice at the weekend by adding another goal and another assist less than 10 minutes after coming on from the bench as PSG dismantled Club Brugge. That equates to two goals and two assists in just 18 minutes of football for Mbappe. Quite ridiculous.
Oh, and then there was just the small matter of that goal making him the youngest player to score 15 Champions League goals (20 years, 302 days), beating a certain Lionel Messi (21 years, 289 days) in the process…
…before rounding off a solid night’s work by completing his hat-trick, becoming the youngest substitute to do so in competition history. Stop it, Kylian!
5. Quality of Son and Kane supersedes club issues
With Tottenham in freefall going into this fixture, predictions ranged from a 5-0 win to a 3-0 defeat. In the end, they were on the right end of the thumping, mostly thanks to the undoubted attacking quality Spurs possess.
Even when in turmoil, Pochettino can always turn to the class of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son. The pair were in irresistible form here, bagging a brace each and constantly threatening to add more. Son was particularly electric in the early stages, outpacing his marker at every opportunity and finishing clinically.
Kane came into own in the second half. His passing was stunning and continues to develop into one of his most valuable traits. Fittingly, he essentially passed the ball into the bottom corner for the fifth goal to ensure the fans could forget about the club’s troubles, at least for now.
6. Lewandowski climbs the ladder
Robert Lewandowski is really, really good at scoring goals.
OK, we all knew that already. But on Tuesday, he bagged another brace in Bayern Munich’s entertaining 3-2 win over Olympiakos and it turned out to be quite a significant one for the Poland international.
His latest strikes took Lewandowski to 58 in the Champions League, moving him above Ruud van Nistelrooy and into the top-five all-time goalscorers in competition history.
While there’s very little chance he’ll be catching the ridiculous benchmarks set by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there’s every chance Lewandowski can overtake Real Madrid icons Karim Benzema and Raul in the near future.
