ABU DHABI, September 15th / WAM / With a “imaginary” goal by Norwegian Erling Haaland and another “historic” by Argentine Lionel Messi, the curtain came down on the second round of the group stage matches of the European Football Championship.
The tournament continued the “records” and historical game through the matches of this round yesterday evening, Wednesday, which witnessed the success of 5 teams in achieving the second victory in a row, bringing the number of teams that achieved two consecutive victories in the group stage so far to 8 teams.
Real Madrid, the defending champion, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica and Napoli achieved their second victory in a row yesterday evening, Wednesday, and the matches of this round sparked the struggle for the lead in several groups.
Norwegian striker Erling Halland, Manchester City striker, grabbed a huge amount of attention following his very exciting goal once morest his former team, Borussia Dortmund, which crowned his team’s return in the match to win 2-1 following being late with a clean goal.
Halland raised his score to 3 goals in two matches with his current team, Manchester City, in the Champions League, in addition to 10 goals he scored for the team in the English Premier League this season.
And through this victory, Manchester City equaled a record for Chelsea, as it maintained its unbeaten record in 21 consecutive matches at its home in the Champions League.
In the other match in Group G, Copenhagen tied with its guest Sevilla 0-0, and kept a clean sheet for the fourth consecutive match in its stadium at the level of the matches it played in the group stage of the European Champions League.
Real Madrid, the defending champion, did not present the expected offer once morest its guest, Leipzig, but beat it 2-0 to achieve the second consecutive victory in the defense of the European title. .
Argentine Lionel Messi continued his hobby in setting records, scoring the first goal for his team Paris Saint-Germain in yesterday’s match, which witnessed the team’s 3-1 victory over Maccabi Haifa, becoming the first player to score in 18 consecutive seasons in the Champions League, surpassing French striker Karim Benzema. Real Madrid, who scored in 17 consecutive seasons.
Messi raised his score with Saint-Germain in the Champions League to 6 goals over the past and current seasons and reduced the difference with his stubborn Portuguese rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United striker, where Messi scored yesterday his 126th goal in the tournament, while Ronaldo tops the list of the tournament’s leading scorers in history with 140 goals. .
In the second match of Group H, Benfica achieved its first European victory on Italian stadiums in a quarter of a century, and beat Juventus 2-1 to double the Italian team’s plight in the competition following suffering the second consecutive defeat in the group, while Benfica competes with Saint-Germain for the lead with 6 points. For both of them.
The last previous win for Benfica on the Italian stadiums in the European Championship was when they beat Fiorentina in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, according to the European Union for the game (UEFA).
In the fifth group, Milan regained the tone of victories in the Champions League and achieved its first victory in the tournament in 9 years by defeating Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 to be the leader of the group with 4 points, while Chelsea tied with Red Bull Salzburg 1-1 to make Chelsea their first point in competition this season.
And Napoli doubled the difficulty of the competition in the first group with a big 3-0 victory over its host Rangers, to raise its score to 6 points in the lead, while Liverpool and Ajax are racing for second place with 3 points each.