The Champions League kicked off over three days for its “exclusive week”, with Sergiño Dest being the highlight of the American contingent as he scored his first goal in the competition as PSV chalked up a point.
PSV 1-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
PSV came through to secure a point against Shakhtar Donetsk at Philips Stadion to put itself in 19th place in the standings.
Sergiño Dest played the entire 90 minutes for the Dutch champions, completing 91 percent of his passes, winning seven duels, and making seven defensive contributions. Ricardo Pepi had a quiet outing in his 83 minutes of play.
The Ukrainian champions broke the scoreless deadlock in first-half stoppage time under controversy. Dest went down on a rough challenge that warranted a PSV free kick, but the referee allowed play to continue, with Gleiker Mendoza firing his shot into the goal.
Dest dusted himself off and scored the equalizer for the hosts three minutes into the second half. A pass to Armando Obispo on the left side of the 18-yard box saw the center-back send a low cross into the path of the onrushing American right-back to blast it home.
Both sides had chances for more goals, but had to settle for a point each.
PSV will head to Germany to face RB Leipzig on October 13.
Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Villarreal
The German side’s Champions League campaign started positively as they claimed all three points against Villarreal at Signal Iduna Park.
Alex Freeman played the entire second half for the Spanish side, completing 89 percent of his passes and winning five duels. On the other side, Mathis Albert was on the bench for Dortmund.
The goals came in the second half, with Villarreal putting the ball in their own net in the 53rd minute. However, they leveled the score 13 minutes later from a corner kick.
The hosts restored the lead in the 80th minute and added an insurance goal five minutes later.
Dortmund made the game close when they scored an own goal in the third minute of stoppage time, but they were able to hold on until the final whistle.
Villarreal will play host to Napoli on October 13, while BVB will head up to frigid Norway on October 14 to face Bodo/Glimt.
Notes
In other Champions League action, George Bello went the distance, while Samuel Adeniran remained sidelined with a broken cheekbone as LASK suffered a 1-0 defeat to AEK Athens.
Johnny Cardoso was an unused substitute in Atletico Madrid’s 2-1 loss to Liverpool.
Goalkeeper Giorgio de Marzi was on the bench for AS Roma in their 1-1 tie against Fenerbahce.
