With so many German teams involved in Europe’s elite club competitions, it’s hard to track -and nearly impossible- to watch all of them. That’s why Jack Grimse put together a guide to how Bundesliga teams fared on Matchday 2 of the Champions League and Europa League.
Champions League
Bayer 04 Leverkusen were thwarted on the last kick of the match by a spectacular Kamil Glik strike at the Stade Louis II Stadium on Tuesday. Here’s Jack Grimse’s full recap of the 1-1 draw with AS Monaco. Had Bayer held out, they would have sat atop Group E. Now, Roger Schmidt’s side is in third. They host Tottenham Hotspur next.
Hosting Real Madrid is always tough, but Borussia Dortmund were able to claw back a point at the Signal Iduna Park. BVB’s 18-year-old American Christian Pulisic assisted an 87th minute André Schürrle strike to level the score. Read Kishan Vaghela’s full report of the 2-2 draw. A third of the way through Group F, Dortmund and Real are level with four points apiece, but BVB lead on goal difference +6 to +1. Big, big point earned for Thomas Tuchel’s side.
Thorgan Hazard opened the scoring for Borussia Mönchengladbach on Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough for André Schubert’s side to get a result against a Messi-less Barcelona. Arda Turan knotted it up in the 65th minute, and ten minutes later Gerard Piqué gave Barça a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The 1-2 loss was the first defeat suffered by the Foals at Borussia-Park since 23 January against Dortmund. Gladbach are without a point after two Group C matchdays, as Celtic managed to get their first in a draw against Manchester City yesterday. Barcelona lead.
Bayern Munich suffered the same exact result away to Atlético Madrid as they did five months and a day prior to the date; a 0-1 defeat. Last time, it was a goal from Saúl, this time their nemesis was Yannick Carrasco, again in the first half. Carlo Ancelotti suffered his first loss as Munich boss, and it could have been worse. With the win, Atléti maintain their perfect record and lead Group D. Bayern are second with three points, two ahead of both PSV Eindhoven and Rostov, who are separated by goal difference.
Europa League
Mainz 05 had to travel to Azerbaijan, and faced an early kickoff against Qabala. Yoshinori Muto gave the Zero-Fivers the lead near the end of the first half, but around the hour mark Qabala struck twice within five minutes. Jhon Córdoba leveled it on 68, and Levin Öztunali netted ten minutes later to give the German side a 3-2 victory. RSC Anderlecht lead Group C with four points, ahead of Mainz on goal difference. AS St. Etienne have two points following a late goal that gave them a draw, and Qabala are bottom, empty-handed.
Football is a funny game. Without a point in five Bundesliga games, Schalke 04 won for the second time in two tries on Thursday in the Europa League. Facing former boss Ralf Rangnick’s RB Salzburg in Austria, Leon Goretzka and Benedikt Höwedes scored, and an own goal between those two made it 3-1. Salzburg added a consolation with just over a quarter of an hour to go. In Group I, Die Königsblauen are level for the lead on six points with Kuban Krasnodar, but trail on differential by a goal. Those two sides meet next matchday in Russia, then the reverse fixture at the Veltins Arena is the following game.
