An extremely strange round when many home teams were left empty-handed, many teams that opened the score lost, pushing their fate into an extremely precarious situation even though the Champions League group stage has only gone through the first two rounds.
Lens goalkeeper Brice Samba struggled to stop Arsenal strikers
Traveling to the Stade Bollaert-Delelis (France), Arsenal made a few changes to the starting lineup when coach Mikel Arteta brought Tomiyasu in at right-back while Leandro Trossard replaced Eddie Nketiah in the attack to support Gabriel Jesus. The visitors took the lead in the 14th minute when Bukayo Saka stole the ball from Adrien Thomasson and assisted Gabriel Jesus to score.
Gabriel Jesus scored the opening goal
In the 25th minute, Thomasson himself made amends when he received the ball from Elye Wahi and defeated Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya with a beautiful curling shot, leveling the score at 1-1. The game was balanced, but Arsenal suddenly lost a player when Saka was injured and had to leave the field, and everything then turned for the worse for the away team.
Adrien Thomasson equalizes...
Goalkeeper Brice Samba was the hero for Lens in the second half, stopping Leandro Trossard's shot in the 49th minute and then denying Tomiyasu's close-range volley in the 67th minute. The home side took the lead just two minutes later with Wahi's neat finish. 2-1 to Lens and the French side moved to the top of Group B with four points, while Sevilla and PSV drew 2-2 in the same match to share the bottom two spots.
... and Elye Wahi sealed victory for Lens against Arsenal
In Group C , the Napoli - Real Madrid match also ended with the "scenario" of the home team losing, the visitors successfully coming back with a total of 5 goals scored. Real Madrid took the field with a very strong squad, but the home team Napoli opened the score in the 19th minute when Ostigard took advantage of the goalkeeper's mistake to head the opening goal.
Rodrygo surrounded by Napoli players
Unfortunately, Napoli hurt themselves, first with Di Lorenzo's bad pass in the 27th minute, allowing Jude Bellingham to steal the ball and then assist Vinicius to score the equalizer 1-1. In the 34th minute, Bellingham scored with a solo run from midfield, entering the penalty area and finishing into the far corner to put Real Madrid up 2-1.
Jude Bellingham assisted and scored himself
In the 54th minute, center-back Nacho handled the ball while trying to block Victor Osimhen's pass and from the 11m mark, Piotr Zielinski scored past Kepa. Both sides "tit for tat" for the rest of the match until the 74th minute, Valverde fired a shot like a cannon, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced off goalkeeper Meret and flew into the Napoli net.
Federico Valverde seals 3-2 win for Real Madrid
Winning 3-2, Real Madrid took sole top spot in Group C after two matches while Napoli dropped to third place as Braga beat Union Berlin also with a score of 3-2 to move up to second place in the group in the same match.
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