Goals dry up as Man City held scoreless
Where did all the goals go?
The 0-0 draws between Manchester City and Inter Milan in their rematch of the 2023 final, after Bologna and Shakhtar Donetsk also could not find a goal, capped an untypically goal-shy evening for the Champions League yesterday.
Just 13 were scored in six games one day after 28 were fired in on Wednesday, including nine by German giants Bayern Munich alone.
How unusual was this? Two 0-0 draws after just 12 of 144 games to be played in the new league phase is already halfway to the total of four in 96 games one year ago in the group-stage format that is now abolished. The entire competition averaged three goals per game last season.
Paris Saint-Germain and Girona also were heading for a blank until a horrible 90th-minute error by the Spanish debutant’s goalkeeper, Paulo Gazzaniga – spilling a cross by Nuno Mendes through his own legs – gifted a 1-0 win.
“We won’t get to where we want to overnight,’’ Girona coach Míchel said. “It requires hard work.”
Borussia Dortmund needed late goals from substitutes Jamie Gittens, twice, and Serhou Guirassy with a stoppage-time penalty to win 3-0 at Club Brugge.
The new format has welcomed new faces and long-absent friends in European soccer’s marquee competition. Sparta Prague rose to the challenge of their first game for 19 years at this stage of the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-0.
Bologna waited 60 years to return and deserved more for their attacking ambition against Champions League veteran Shakhtar. The Ukrainian champions had a penalty saved in the fourth minute by
Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.
Slovan Bratislava were overmatched in their first game since 1992-93, the first season of the Champions League rebrand from the old European Cup, and with Georgia defender Guram Kashia making his competition debut at age 37.
They could not keep out Celtic, which won 5-1 in Glasgow. Ireland internationals Liam Scales and Adam Idah, Japan forwards Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda, and Arne Engels of Belgium scored for the champions of Scotland.
“The quality of the goals was sensational,” Celtic coach Brendan Rodgers said after just a fourth win in 33 Champions
League games for the 1967 European Cup winners.
There was nothing to separate the champions of England and Italy, 15 months after Man City beat Inter 1-0 in Istanbul to lift the European Cup trophy for the first time. Ilkay Gundogan wasted two late chances for manager Pep Guardiola’s team, failing to convert two headed chances.
It was the first time City had failed to score at home in Europe’s elite tournament since being held to 0-0 by Sporting Lisbon in March 2022, and just the second time at home in all competitions since. The other was a 0-0 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League in March.
But the result saw City extend their sixyear unbeaten home run in European games to 32, dating to a 2-1 loss to Lyon.
“I’m pleased with our performance, I liked everything,” Guardiola said.
Dortmund’s defence had a Champions League-best six clean sheets last season on its way to the final, where Real Madrid found two late goals to take the title.
Somehow, goalkeeper Gregor Kobel kept out Brugge despite 18 goal attempts, including a close-range shot by Hugo Vetlesen that rattled the cross bar in the 12th minute. His effort ended a manic series of four shots in a matter of seconds from a corner, including a diving save by Kobel.
The Switzerland keeper’s five saves meant Dortmund did not pay for their own wastefulness in front of goal until taking the lead in the 76th from a Gittens shot that deflected off two defenders before looping past Simon Mignolet into the Brugge net.
Few clubs will play more international games this season than Salzburg, under new coach Pep Lijnders, the former longtime assistant to Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Salzburg had to advance through two Champions League qualifying rounds in August – because their 10-year title run in Austria was ended by Sturm Graz – and will play at least three more games in June at the Club World Cup in the United States.
Salzburg qualified among 12 European teams going to the relaunched FIFA club event because of their consistent results in the past four Champions League seasons, but were upstaged in Prague.
“A few of our players were playing their first game for the club,’’ Lijnders said.
Sparta came through three qualifying rounds, and six games already, to reach this stage and made a sharp start, scoring within two minutes to set the tone for an easy 3-0 win over Salzburg yesterday.