The two advanced games of the fourth day of the Champions League began with a surprise. Juventus lost resoundingly against Maccabi Haifa in Israel (2-0) and is on the verge of elimination. For its part, a Manchester City that played for more than an hour with one less player could not confirm their classification by drawing goalless against Copenhagen on Danish soil.
Without personality, predictable, inoperative and ineffective, Juventus succumbed this Tuesday in the Champions League against the Israeli Maccabi Haifa and left their sentence signed, since they are now forced to beat Benfica and PSG to qualify for the round of 16 of the competition, something that with the level shown at this start of the campaign and, in particular, in this match, it seems more than complicated.
‘Juve’ continues in free fall. With a 4-4-2 that makes water on all sides, entrusted to meaningless lateral centers and with an isolated Vlahovic as an attacking reference, Allegri’s men could not stop a Maccabi for whom a great first half was enough , and a gloomy one from his rival, to finish off the Turin team, which Atzili sentenced with a double.
For their part, PSG and Benfica neutralized each other in the Parc des Princes, in a flat match that was resolved with two penalties and in which all eyes were on Kylian Mbappé after it was leaked that he wants to leave the club of the French capital.
After the defeat of Juventus Turin against Maccabi, the victory placed the winner of the match in the round of 16, but neither of them was able to do it, although both are in an enviable position to achieve it in the two remaining days . The duel, lacking in volume, was resolved with a goal from the disgruntled Mbappé and another from Joao Mario, both from penalties, given the small number of chances they had.
Chelsea took advantage of the numerical superiority they had from the 18th minute to rise to the top of the group after beating Milan (0-2) at the Giuseppe Meazza who, weakened by Tomori’s expulsion, could not react and finished third , still with options to get the ticket to the round of 16 thanks to the tie between Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb (1-1). Jorginho, from a penalty, and Aubameyang were the authors of the goals.
The tie between Dortmund and Sevilla allowed Manchester City to mathematically qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. It is the first team to achieve it. Without Erling Haaland, the goalless draw in Copenhagen was largely due to the fact that Pep Guardiola’s men played with ten players for an hour due to Sergio Gómez being sent off.
In Real Madrid’s other group match, which drew in extremis against Shakhtar in Warsaw, RB Leipzig’s victory tightened the top of the group. Two club classics from the popular energy drink like Werner and Forsberg were worth three points (0-2).
