UEFA Champions League: Matchday 5 Review

Following another week of enthralling action in the UEFA Champions League, here we are going to take a look back at the matches from Week Five of the League Phase.

The League Phase of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League continued this week, in the fifth round of action in what has been an enthralling competition so far this season. 18 matches took place at many of European Football’s most iconic venues, and here we will be taking a look back at all of the matches that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday evening—particularly those that involved Premier League clubs.

Following this round of matches, three of the four English Clubs now find themselves in the top ten of the league table, with two in the top eight. Following a deserved statement 2 – 0 victory against Real Madrid at Anfield, Arne Slot’s Liverpool have remained sat at the summit of the standings with 15 points, and they are 2 points clear of Italian Heavyweights Inter Milan, who are currently in second place overall.

The other English team currently in the top eight is Arsenal, who recorded an emphatic 5 – 1 victory away in Lisbon, Portugal against Sporting CP that saw Mikel Arteta’s Gunners rise to 7th place now with 10 points to their name after five matchdays.

As for Aston Villa, they sit just outside of the top eight on goal difference in 9th place, also with 10 points from their 5 matches to date following a 0 – 0 draw with Juventus at Villa Park that brought with it some late controversy with Morgan Rogers’ disallowed goal. Meanwhile, Manchester City are in 17th with 8 points after their dramatic 3 – 3 draw against Dutch outfit Feyenoord at the Etihad.

Here, we will be reviewing all of the intense and enthralling action from Matchday Five of the League Phase in this season’s (2024/25) UEFA Champions League, with a particular focus on clubs from the Premier League.

Manchester City (England) 3 – 3 Feyenoord (Netherlands) – Etihad Stadium

We will be starting this review by looking back at what was a thrilling 3 – 3 draw between Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Dutch outfit Feyenoord, led by their Head Coach Brian Priske at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

Initially, it was very positive for the hosts City who went 3 – 0 up on the night thanks to goals from Erling Haaland (44’ – Penalty, 53’) and German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (50’). However, the Cityzens went on to surrender their advantage, with Anis Hadj Moussa (75’), Santiago Gimenez (82’), and David Hancko (89’) scoring for the visitors to complete the dramatic comeback.

Sporting CP (Portugal) 1 – 5 Arsenal (England) – Estadio Jose Alvalade

Next up in this review is a fixture involving Arsenal, with the Gunners looking to bounce back from a tight defeat last time out against Inter Milan at the San Siro with a win against Portuguese outfit Sporting CP at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.

And, they did so in emphatic fashion, beating the Portugal Giants 5 – 1 on the night, thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli (7’), Kai Havertz (22’), Gabriel (45+1’), Bukayo Saka (65’ – Penalty), and Leandro Trossard (82’). Meanwhile, Goncalo Inacio was the only goal scorer for the hosts on that night (47’).

It was the home team with more possession, with 52% of the ball compared with Arsenal’s 48%. With 19, the hosts also had the most attempts on goal compared with 13 for the Gunners, who were more clinical on the night in front of goal.

Liverpool (England) 2 – 0 Real Madrid (Spain) – Anfield

We now move on to a statement result for Arne Slot’s Liverpool, who followed up their emphatic 4- 0 dismantling of the reigning German Bundesliga Champions Bayer Leverkusen with another statement win at Anfield, this time against Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid on Tuesday night, who they were able to beat 2 – 0.

Following a goalless first half, the Reds took the lead through their Argentine attacking midfielder Alexis Mac Allister in the early stages of the second half, whilst it was the Dutch forward Cody Gakpo who then went on to double his side’s advantage to put the hosts 2 – 0 up in what turned out to be the deciding goal late on in the game (77’). There were also two missed penalties, with Mohamed Salah (70’) and Kylian Mbappe (61’) both missing spot kicks in the second half.

Liverpool had the most possession, 60%, while Los Blancos had 40% of the ball over the course of this contest on Merseyside. The hosts also had the most attempts on goal, 18, while Real Madrid had 9.

Aston Villa (England) 0 – 0 Juventus (Italy) – Villa Park

The final match that we are looking at in depth involving a club from the English Premier League club is the tie between Unai Emery’s Aston Villa and Thiago Motta’s Juventus at Villa Park on Wednesday night. Villa were looking to follow up their comfortable 2 – 0 success against fellow Italian outfit Bologna in the previous game, which also took place in B6.

The game between these two sides did end up being a goalless draw on the night. It did though look like Aston Villa had secured victory very late into stoppage time through Morgan Rogers after the ball fell to him following a free-kick. However, this was controversially disallowed for a foul on Juventus Goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio (90+4’).

Juve had the most possession with 52%, whilst Aston Villa had 48% of the ball over the course of the 90 minutes and stoppage time. The home team also had 11 attempts on goal – the most in the game – with visitors Juventus having 8.

Other Matches

Below, you can take a look at the other results from the fifth matchday in the crucial League Phase of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League:

• Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) 2 – 3 AC Milan (Italy), Tigran Barseghyan (24’) & Nino Marcelli (88’); Christian Pulisic (21’), Rafael Leao (68’) & Tammy Abraham (71’) – Tehelné
• Sparta Praha (Czech Republic) 0 – 6 Atletico Madrid (Spain), Julian Alvarez (15’, 59’), Marcos Llorente (43’), Antoine Griezmann (70’) & Angel Correa (85’, 89’) – Stadion Letná.
• Bayern Munich (Germany) 1 – 0 Paris Saint Germain (France), Minjae Kim (38’) – Allianz Arena.
• Inter Milan (Italy) 1 – 0 RB Leipzig (Germany), Castello Lukeba Own Goal (27’).
• FC Barcelona (Spain) 3 – 0 Brest (France), Robert Lewandowski (10’ – Penalty, 90+2’) & Dani Olmo (66’).
• Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) 5 – 0 RB Salzburg (Austria), Florian Wirtz (8’ – Penalty, 30’), Alejandro Grimaldo (11’), Patrik Schick (61’) & Aleix Garcia (72’) – BayArena.
• BSC Young Boys (Switzerland) 1 – 6 Atalanta (Italy), Silvere Ganvoula (11’); Mateo Retegui (9’, 39’), Charles De Ketelaere (28’, 56’), Sead Kolasinac (32’) & Lazar Samardzic (90’) – Stadion Wankdorf.
• Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) 5 – 1 Stuttgart (Germany), Silas (12’), Rade Krunić (31’), Mirko Ivanić (65’) & Nemanja Radonjić (69’, 88’); Ermedin Demirović (5’) – Stadion Rajko Mitić.
• Sturm Graz (Austria) 1 – 0 Girona (Spain), Mika Biereth (59’) – Wöthersee Stadion.
• PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 3 – 2 Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Malik Tillman (87’, 90’); Ricardo Pepi (90+5’); Danylo Sikan (8’) & Oleksandr Zubkov (37’) – Philips Stadion.
• Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 0 – 3 Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Jamie Gittens (41’), Ramy Bensebaini (56’) & Serhou Guirassy (90’) – Stadion Maksimir.
• Celtic (Scotland) 1 – 1 Club Brugge (Belgium), Daizen Maeda (60’); Cameron Carter-Vickers OG (26’) – Celtic Park.
• AS Monaco (France) 2 – 3 Benfica (Portugal), Eliesse Ben Seghir (13’) & Soungoutou Magassa (67’); Vangelis Pavlidis (48’), Arthur Cabral (84’) & Zeki Amdouni (88’) – Stade Louis II.
• Bologna (Italy) 1 – 2 Lille (France), Jhon Lucumi (63’); Ngal’ayel Mukau (44’, 66’) – Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.

Next Up for the Premier League Clubs

Below are the matches involving English Premier League Clubs on Matchday Six of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase, which gets underway on Tuesday 10^th December:

• Girona (Spain) vs. Liverpool (England) – Estadi Montilivi, Tuesday 10^th December 2024, 20:00 KO.
• RB Leipzig (Germany) vs. Aston Villa (England) – RB Arena, Tuesday 10^th December 2024, 20:00 KO.
• Juventus (Italy) vs. Manchester City (England) – Allianz Stadium, Wednesday 11^th December 2024, 20:00 KO.
• Arsenal (England) vs. AS Monaco (France) – Emirates Stadium, Wednesday 11^th December 2024, 20:00 KO.

Excitement and anticipation are already building ahead of matchday 6 of the League Phase in the 2024/25 edition of the UEFA Champions League.

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