Folarin Balogun earned a late penalty for Monaco to save them complete embarrassment on their trip to Croatia to face Dinamo Zagreb, while Christian Pulisic’s long goal-contribution streak for AC Milan finally came to an end in their lifeless loss at Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayer Leverkusen 1 – 0 AC Milan
Christian Pulisic lasted 80 minutes for Milan on Tuesday night, as their best efforts were thwarted by Bayer Leverkusen keeper Lukas Hradecky in a generally uninspiring loss in Germany.
Even in the loss, Pulisic was one of Milan’s better players, forcing one save with his only shot of the game, while setting up three chances and forcing the opposition into three fouls. His Milan and USMNT teammate Yunus Musah was in uniform and available, but was not one of the only two subs called upon by head coach Paolo Fonseca.
Bayer thought they had the lead in the 21st minute through a mid-air finish by Victor Okoh Boniface from six yards, however a VAR review found that Jeremy Frimpong was offside in the buildup, directly before he delivered the decisive cross.
Pulisic came close in the 39th minute, streaking up the middle following a fast restart and targeting the lower left corner, but Leverkusen keeper Lukas Hradecky was up to the task with a fairly routine save.
The Frimpong-to-Boniface combination did finally yield results for the hosts six minutes after the break, the former firing a shot from the left of the area that Milan keeper Mike Maignan could only block into the path of the latter for a straightforward finish from near the left post.
Five minutes later, Pulisic slipped a short pass to Tijjani Reijnders in the area, with space to operate. However, a crowd of Leverkusen defenders quickly converged, and the Dutchman’s shot was clawed away by Hradecky, despite a nice display of footwork prior to getting off his attempt.
With all 36 teams now having played two games, Milan are one of eight without any points so far in the League Phase, a troubling state for a team typically eyeing the later knockout stages in European competition. They play their final league game before the international break on Sunday at Fiorentina, and have their next Champions League outing at home on October 22 against Club Brugge.
PSV Eindhoven 1 – 1 Sporting CP
Malik Tillman put in a solid display for PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday night against Sporting CP, however the team will be disappointed to have only come away with a draw after carrying a lead through to late in the second half.
Fellow Americans Richard Ledezma and Ricardo Pepi also saw playing time in the draw, with the former playing the final 12 minutes of regulation in place of Guus Til, and the latter essentially seeing a few seconds of garbage time.
PSV took the lead inside of 15 minutes in spectacular fashion, Jerdy Schouten stealing a poorly-placed pass out of the back by a Sporting defender, and launching a shot from 25 yards that flew in just inside the left post for the 1-0 advantage.
Just past the 50-minute mark, Tillman served up a fine cross from the left flank towards Ismael Saibari in the middle, but the Moroccan international couldn’t get any power behind his header, giving keeper Franco Israel an was save.
In the 64th minute, Tillman left substitute Eduardo Quaresma rolling in pain just outside the Sporting area after a hard tackle, perhaps in retaliation for a similar action by the Sporting player ten minutes earlier, however unlike his opponent, Tillman was penalized with a yellow card.
Much to the disappointment of PSV, who looked to be headed to an important three points, the Portuguese side earned their share with seven minutes remaining in regulation, Daniel Braganza side-footing in a cross from Maximiliano Araujo in midair for the 1-1 equalizer.
With two points from two games, PSV are tied for 24th in the 36 team standings, with a visit from Sparta Rotterdam awaiting on Saturday, and a difficult visit to PSG in three weeks being their next in this competition.
Dinamo Zagreb 2 – 2 AS Monaco
After falling behind by a pair of goals, Folarin Balogun and AS Monaco were lucky to eke out a draw in Zagreb on Wednesday evening, with the American drawing the penalty on the critical last-second goal to earn the point.
Balogun returned to the bench and was a spectator when Dinamo netted their opener in the third minute of first-half added time. Dinamo midfielder Josip Misic collected a clearance deep in his half of the field following a corner, and delivered a long pass to Martin Baturina streaking up the left side. After advancing into Monaco’s half and cutting inwards, Baturina spotted Petar Sucic with space on the right, for a lob over the keeper and the halftime lead.
Balogun entered after the half as a part of a double-switch by head coach Adolf Hütter and had a decent half of play, forcing one save with his only shot, setting up one additional chance, while drawing the decisive penalty.
However, Dinamo would first improve their position, with Baturina evading several Monaco defenders just outside the top of the area before picking out the left of goal, with his shot flying in just past Philipp Köhn’s fingertips in the 65th minute.
Monaco began mounting their comeback shortly before the 74-minute mark, Mohammed Salisu heading in Maghnes Akliouche’s inswinging corner to the left side of an empty net.
One minute following a headed goal-line clearance by Dinamo’s Raul Torrente to momentarily maintain his team’s lead in the 87th, Balogun was tripped up by Maxime Bernauer as he went for the ball just a few inches inside the area. Denis Zaharia took the spot kick, sending the keeper the wrong way as he nailed his shot to the upper left corner to secure the 2-2 draw.
Monaco have four points from their first two games in the Group Phase, and visit Rennes on Saturday in Ligue 1. On October 22, they host Red Star Belgrade in their third group game.
RB Leipzig 2 – 3 Juventus
Weston McKennie went the distance for Juve on Wednesday night, as their trip to Leipzig netted a surprise come-from-behind victory despite a pair of early, key injuries and a second-half sending off.
Tim Weah is still injured for Juventus, however considering his call-up to the USMNT for the October friendlies, his return to action for Juve’s weekend game is a likely scenario.
McKennie took one shot and set up one additional chance in his 90 minutes of play, while completing 39 out of 45 passes, nailing his one long-ball attempts out the back, winning two out of three tackles and intercepting the ball twice. He did only win three out of 11 duels and committed two fouls, however remained free of any yellow cards so far in the competition.
Juve already suffered a pair of blows within the first quarter hour, with injuries to Gleison Bremer and Nicolás González forcing Thiago Motta to burn two substitutes early on.
Taking advantage of the disarray, Leipzig took the lead just before the half-hour, Ikoma Lois Openda sending Benjamin Sesko in behind the defense on a breakaway, who took one touch to athletically control the ball and another to fire it off the underside of the crossbar and over the line for the 1-0 advantage.
Moments after Tuen Koopmeiners hit the right upright, Dusan Vlahovic equalised in the 50th minute when he streaked into the left of the area to redirect Andrea Cambiaso’s cross to the far side of goal.
However, just before the hour it looked like Il Gobbi were going to be in for a rough final 30 minutes when keeper Michele di Gregorio was sent off when a VAR review showed that he handled the ball outside of the area.
This was compounded moments later when another VAR decision awarded Leipzig a penalty on the ensuing free kick struck Douglas Luiz’s forearm on its way goalward. Sesko took the spot kick, beating emergency substitute Matt Perin with a powerful strike to the right side.
Nevertheless, ten-man Juve still kept on the pressure and quickly equalised through a looping strike by Vlahovic from just outside the area to the left side of goal. Then with eight minutes remaining in regulation, Chico Conceicao sealed the unlikely victory on a play triggered by a slick McKennie tackle to stop a Leipzig ccounter. The Portuguese attacker beat a pair of Leipzig defenders just to the right of goal, and his low shot across goal took a small deflection off of Castello Lukeba on its way into the lower left corner.
With a perfect six points from their first two games, the Bianconeri are sitting pretty ahead of hosting VfB Stuttgart in approximately three weeks. In the meantime, they next host Cagliari at lunchtime Sunday in Serie A action.
Notes
Auston Trusty had a hard introduction to life in Europe’s top competition with the Scottish champions, as Celtic were thrashed by a 7-1 margin in Dortmund on Tuesday night. The American played the full 90 minutes in central defense, in a game where none of the boys in green came out looking good. Cameron Carter-Vickers is out with a toe injury, and mercifully missed the drubbing. Gio Reyna is also recovering from injury for Dortmund and did not suit up.
