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Good morning, Fear the Wall.
The second match-day of the Champions League group stage is underway. Borussia Dortmund will face Zenit St. Petersburg in the Champions League later today. If you haven’t already, check out our match preview here. While that’s going on, RB Leipzig will face Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The two other Bundesliga teams in the Champions League, Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach, both had their matches last night. Let’s see how they went:
Borussia Mönchengladbach Choke Lead (Again)
It’s happened again, it’s happened agaaaaaain...
Yes, you read that right. For the second match-day in a row, Borussia Mönchengladbach have bottled a lead in the final moments of a match. Last week, it was a 2-1 lead against Inter Milan. Yesterday, it was even worse. They outran, outplayed, and outfought Real Madrid for the first 85 minutes of the match and were deservedly up 2-0, but a pair of scrappy goals in the middle of the box from Karim Benzema and Casemiro brought Los Blancos level. Gladbach looked completely exhausted in the final 10 minutes or so, and even though they had plenty of opportunities to put the game away, they couldn’t.
Despite going into stoppage time while leading in two separate matches, Mönchengladbach only have two points to show for their efforts. They’re arguably in this year’s “group of death” with Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, and Borussia Mönchengladbach, so they need every possible point in order to advance. That’s now four points that they’ve effectively allowed to slip away. If they don’t make the round of 16, I guarantee they’re going to regret letting these leads slip away.
Bayern Munich Manage Shaky Victory Over Lokomotiv Moscow
The Bavarians continued their winning ways in the Champions League with a 2-1 victory over Lokomotiv Moscow, even if it wasn’t as convincing as some of their other results this season.
As they do so often, Bayern struck first in the opening 15 minutes of the match. It was a brilliant goal: Corentin Tolisso launched a lobbed through ball down the edge of the box to Benjamin Pavard, who volleyed first-time a cross toward a cutting Leon Goretzka, who finished an easy header and put Bayern up by one.
At that point I basically assumed that Bayern would proceed to rip Moscow to shreds on the counter, but surprisingly the Russians put up a heck of a fight. They managed several quality chances and eventually drew level. They took advantage of Bayern’s high line and broke along the right side, Ze Luis fed Anton Miranchuk who skillfully slotted a finish past Manuel Neuer.
Unfortunately for Lokomotiv, their success was not to last. Only minutes later, Bayern went ahead on a brilliant individual effort from Joshua Kimmich. Kimmich received a pass with his back to the goal. His touch caused the ball to loop into the air, and as it fell back to the ground, Kimmich spun and volleyed it perfectly into the net from way outside the box. From there, Lokomotiv looked finished and never looked like equalizing.
The Daily Buzz
What are your thoughts on yesterday’s Champions League matches? Leave your thoughts below.