The second round of the 2026/27 Champions League group stage took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a few Yanks participating in some of the games. Cardoso was the center of attention this week for USMNT fans thanks to his impressive performance against the Red Devils.
Atlético Madrid 2-0 Manchester United
The Spanish club won their first three points of the European season after losing to Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield.
Johnny Cardoso played the full 90 minutes, completing 91 % of his passes, winning three duels, and making three defensive contributions.
Pablo Barrios scored very early into the game to give Simeone’s men the lead. In the second half, after Leny Yoro’s red card, Ademola Lookman scored the second and final goal of the match.
With this result, Atlético Madrid climb to the 15th spot and will face Stuttgart away next week, right after their league game against RCD Espanyol.
RB Leipzig 1-0 PSV
Sergiño Dest‘s PSV suffered their first European loss of the season against German club Leipzig after drawing to Shakhtar Donetsk on matchday 1, in which Dest scored his team’s goal.
The Dutch-American full-back played the entire game and made five defensive contributions, won seven of his duels, but received a yellow card in the 43rd minute.
Brajan Gruda scored the only goal of the game in the 75th minute to clinch the three points for Leipzig.
Ricardo Pepi was out injured for the game. PSV sit 26th and have to travel to Porto next week.
Notes
Samuel Adeniran played 71 minutes in LASK’s crazy game against Liverpool, in which they lost 3-6. The striker had a quiet game with no shots on target. The Austrians remain pointless and will travel to Lisbon to play against Sporting next week. George Bello was out injured.
Alex Freeman was subbed on in the 63rd minute in Villarreal’s 3-1 win at home against Napoli. The Yellow Submarine won their first points and will visit Anfield to play Liverpool next Tuesday.
Mathis Albert was an unused substitute in Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 defeat to Bodø/Glimt away. BVB will travel to Azerbaijan to face off against Sabah FK.
Italian-American goalkeeper Giorgio De Marzi was the third-choice goalkeeper in Roma’s entertaining yet painful 3-4 defeat to European giants Real Madrid. Slovan Bratislava at home is next for Gasperini’s side.
