Manchester Metropolis have been held to a dramatic 2-2 draw by Monaco on the Stade Louis II as Eric Deer’s late penalty denied Pep Guardiola’s males a second successive Champions League win.
Premier League rivals Arsenal and Newcastle United have been each victorious on Wednesday, and Metropolis appeared to be on the right track to avenge their 2017 last-16 exit by the hands of Monaco till a late twist within the story.
Erling Haaland put Metropolis forward within the fifteenth minute when he latched onto Josko Gvardiol’s intelligent ball ahead and lifted over Philipp Kohn.
Jordan Eze’s beautiful strike from simply outdoors the world levelled issues for Monaco, but Metropolis continued to dominate within the opening interval.
Phil Foden hit the crossbar earlier than being denied by a positive reflex save from Kohn, who produced extra heroics to thwart Tijjani Reijnders earlier than Haaland’s sensible header into the bottom-left nook restored Metropolis’s lead.
The woodwork prevented Metropolis from stretching their lead within the second half as Reijnders smacked the crossbar, and the guests’ incapability to take advantage of these probabilities was punished in controversial vogue, Monaco awarded a spot-kick following a VAR evaluate after Nico Gonzalez’s boot caught Dier within the face as they defended a free-kick.
Fractious scenes because the referee consulted the pitchside monitor noticed pink playing cards proven to each benches, however Dier stored his composure to fit dwelling and drive Metropolis to accept a share of the spoils.
Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Athletic Bilbao
Dortmund have now scored in successive Champions League video games, however they made certain this one resulted in victory.
Quarter-finalists final season, Dortmund suffered a outstanding collapse in matchday one as they drew 4-4 with Juventus. But they made no mistake this time round in dispatching Athletic.
Daniel Svensson turned dwelling on the far publish within the twenty eighth minute to offer Dortmund the lead, earlier than Carney Chukwuemeka’s first European aim made it 2-0.
Gorka Guruzeta pulled one again 11 minutes later, however Serhou Guirassy and Julian Brandt made the factors protected for Dortmund.
The consequence was the worst of a troublesome night time for Spanish sides, with Barcelona losing 2-1 to Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal claiming a late level in opposition to Juventus in a 2-2 draw.
Georges Mikautadze put Villarreal forward within the 18th minute, however targets from Federico Gatti and Francisco Conceição appeared to have Juve on the right track for all three factors.
But Renato Veiga, who was on mortgage at Juve within the second half of final season, thumped dwelling a Ninetieth-minute header to earn a draw.
Napoli 2-1 Sporting Lisbon
Rasmus Hojlund took his tally for Napoli since leaving Manchester United on mortgage to a few targets with a decisive double for the Serie A champions.
Hojlund was teed up by former Manchester Metropolis star Kevin De Bruyne for each targets, latching onto the Belgian’s throughball to open the scoring within the thirty sixth minute.
Luis Suarez’s penalty levelled issues within the 63rd minute, however Hojlund headed dwelling a De Bruyne cross 11 minutes from time to clinch victory for Napoli.
Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen drew 1-1 with PSV Eindhoven and Azerbaijani facet Qarabag continued their beautiful begin, making it two wins from two by beating Copenhagen 2-0.
