The fifth round of the UEFA Champions League presented fans with vivid emotions, historic achievements and unexpected results. Here are the game day highlights.
The 5th round of the Champions League was opened by "Slovan" from Bratislava, represented by our compatriot Danylo Ignatenko, and "Milan" from Italy.
In the middle of the first half, thanks to Christian Pulisic's goal from Tammy Abraham's pass, Milan opened the scoring. "Slovan" managed to equalize the score in three minutes. The goal for the Slovak club was scored by Tigran Barseghyan.
In the 68th minute, Rafael Leao, who came on as a substitute at the beginning of the second half, put Milan ahead with a pass from Yusuf Fofan - 2:1. In the 71st minute, Abraham scored Milan's third goal after a mistake by the defenders. Thanks to Nino Marcelli's goal in the 88th minute, "Slovan" managed to reduce the deficit. The final whistle recorded the victory of "Milan" - 3:2.
Danylo Ignatenko entered the field in the 66th minute with the score 1:1. During this time, he made three tackles and received a rating of 6.5.
In another match, the Lisbon "Sporting" and the London "Arsenal" played for Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko, who started the match on the bench.
"Arsenal" made the game already in the first half - in the 7th minute, Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring from a pass from Jurjen Timber, in the 22nd minute, Kai Havertz from a pass from Bakayo Saka doubled his team's lead, and already at the end of the half, defender Gabriel, scoring with a header from a corner, brought the score to a crushing 3:0.
At the beginning of the second half, "Sporting" managed to score - Inacio did it from Trinkau's pass. In the 65th minute, Bakayo Saka scored the 4th goal for his team from the penalty spot, and Leandro Trossard put the finishing touches on the match, scoring the 5th goal from a pass from Mikel Merino.
The Ukrainian defender of "Arsenal" Oleksandr Zinchenko appeared on the field in the 78th minute instead of Riccardo Calafiori. In 13 minutes, the Ukrainian was not distinguished by productive actions. The football player has 8 touches of the ball, 7 accurate passes out of 8 (88%) and 1 loss of the ball. Zinchenko received a rating of 6.1 points.
Pep Guardiola's English "Manchester City", which has not won 5 matches in a row, and the Dutch "Feyenoord" met in a parallel match.
Thanks to a goal from the penalty spot in the 44th minute, "Mancity" took the lead - the punishment was executed by Erling Holland. In the 50th minute, Ilkay Gundogan doubled his team's advantage, and in another 3 minutes, Holland brought the score to a crushing 3:0. The end of the match was a real disaster for Mancity.
First, Anis Moussa scored the first goal for his team in the 75th minute, after 7 minutes Santiago Jimenez reduced the deficit, and in the 89th minute, Feyenoord equalized with a goal scored by David Ganzko.
"Manchester City" has not won in 6 matches in a row, which has already become an anti-record for Pep Guardiola. The last time the "townsmen" won was at the end of October, beating "Southampton" - 1:0. During the match, the directors of the broadcast recorded Guardiola with a scratched face.
Yes, I did it with my finger, my nail. I want to hurt myself, yes
In another match, Leverkusen "Bayer" and Austrian "Salzburg" met, which eliminated Kyiv "Dynamo" from the Champions League. By the 30th minute, "Bayer" was already leading - 3:0. In the 8th minute, Florian Wirtz scored from the penalty spot, in 3 minutes Alejandro Grimaldo doubled the advantage, and in the 30th minute, Wirtz made a double. In the 61st minute, Patrick Schick scored 4 goals, and 10 minutes later, Aleix Garcia made the final score - 5:0.
In the 73rd minute, Ukrainian Artem Stepanov replaced Shyk, who became the youngest Ukrainian (17 years, 3 months) to make his debut in the Champions League, surpassing the record of Dmytro Chygrinsky (18 years, 1 month). During his time on the field, the 17-year-old striker touched the ball twice, made 2 accurate passes out of 2 (100%) and fouled once.
Gru Stepanov was rated by two statistical portals: WhoScored – at 6.0, Sofascore – at 6.5. The native of Lutsk is a pupil of Shakhtar Donetsk academy. In the summer of 2022, he moved to Bayer Leverkusen, where he started playing for the U-17 team. In January of this year, he signed a contract with the club, the term of which is calculated until June 30, 2027.
They will remember this game in the future. They got their chance today and it's important to give them a good feeling when they step on the pitch for the first time
In another match on Tuesday, the Catalan "Barcelona" and the French "Brest" met.
"Barcelona" managed to score in the 10th minute of the match - Robert Lewandowski converted the penalty. In the 66th minute, Dani Olmo doubled the advantage of the "Catalans", and at the end of the match, Lewandowski made a double, scoring the 100th and 101st goals in the Champions League.
The Polish forward took the 3rd place among the best scorers of the Champions League. Only Lionel Messi - 129 goals and Cristiano Ronaldo - 140 goals are ahead.
I am very satisfied, I never believed that I would achieve such figures in the Champions League. Now I am in the company of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Our goal is to win every game. At times we played too slowly, but thanks to patience we managed to score
