Champions League, Matchday 2: Lille and Aston Villa surprise, Arsenal soar

The supersized Champions League continued this week, with all 36 teams back in action over 48 frenetic hours. Below, theScore’s soccer editors reflect on Matchday 2 in Europe’s premier club competition.

Key takeaway from Matchday 2 📝

Gordon Brunt: The hype about Nicolas Jover and Arsenal’s set pieces is legit. It’s how they tightened their grip in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over PSG. Along with shifting the momentum, Bukayo Saka’s goal off a relatively simple free-kick routine also spoiled PSG boss Luis Enrique’s pregame plans to snuff out Arsenal’s most effective path to the back of the net. Other coaches will suffer the same fate until they figure out how to stop the sport’s most lethal set-piece specialists.

Anthony Lopopolo: Losing back-to-back games in the Champions League isn’t as backbreaking as it used to be. Now that there are eight round-robin fixtures to play instead of six, the sense of jeopardy has diminished, and teams that start badly have enough time to recover. AC Milan are a perfect example. Despite losing their first two games against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, the Rossoneri still have a viable path to qualification, with games to come against lesser sides Club Brugge, Girona, and Slovan Bratislava.

Gianluca Nesci: Real Madrid haven’t clicked yet this season. Jude Bellingham’s slow start to the campaign is a big reason. Finding the right balance between Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe, who couldn’t turn the tide in Wednesday’s loss to Lille, remains Carlo Ancelotti’s primary task. But Bellingham, who’s yet to score this season and appears to be lacking sharpness, can help tide things over by rediscovering his form in front of goal. His incredible scoring rate last year was always unsustainable. Still, even a slight uptick from the English midfielder will go a long way as Madrid continue to work through some early-season hiccups.

Daniel Rouse: UEFA said more big-club clashes would boost competitiveness. However, the new format also sets up more meetings between less privileged sides and European giants, leading to Tuesday’s series of beatdowns – Barcelona thumping Young Boys, Borussia Dortmund dumping Celtic, Inter Milan crushing Crvena Zvezda, and Manchester City brushing aside Slovan Bratislava – accentuating the ugly gap between the richest and the rest. Those matches can be difficult to watch.

Player of the week 🌟

Brunt: Ryan Gravenberch. The Dutch international’s transformation into an elite midfielder has been one of the surprises of the season for Liverpool. After being labeled a flop last year, the 22-year-old has been crucial for Arne Slot’s dominant side to begin the 2024-25 campaign. Gravenberch produced another masterclass Wednesday, completing over 90% of his passes – amazingly, even passing to himself at one point – and retained the ball with ease while wreaking havoc against Bologna with his penetrating runs into dangerous areas.

Lopopolo: Victor Boniface. The 23-year-old finished calmly to give Leverkusen a 1-0 win over Milan in the latest chapter of his encouraging development. Boniface’s menacing aura makes him a striker worth serious consideration, as he tries to find the quickest route to goal every time he touches the ball. His finishing leaves nothing to the imagination, and while he sometimes straddles offside, as he did against Milan, he gets into scoring positions enough times to overcome such lapses in concentration.

Nesci: Dusan Vlahovic and Abdallah Sima both scored twice in huge wins for their teams, but Karim Adeyemi went one better. For a player criticized for lacking the cutting edge early in his young career, the German forward looked pretty damn clinical Tuesday against Celtic, scoring a first-half hat-trick with a trio of excellent finishes. His second goal, a vicious left-footed strike from a seemingly impossible angle, was reminiscent of a shot that would’ve come off the foot of Erling Haaland or any other top striker in the game.

Rouse: Adeyemi’s performance was the best, but Mehdi Taremi deserves a mention. The Iranian was relieved to score his first Inter goal from the penalty spot, but his two assists against Crvena Zvezda were mightily impressive. Taremi was fierce but fair when he looted Uros Spajic before setting up Marko Arnautovic. For his second assist, he anticipated a loose touch, picked himself up after being bundled over, and coolly slipped Lautaro Martinez through on goal.

Team that impressed you most 😍

Brunt: Lille. It doesn’t get much better these days than beating Champions League holders Real Madrid. Lille came out of nowhere to pull off the upset of the week, winning 1-0 to end Madrid’s 36-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. Even after going in front, Lille bravely pressed for another goal. At the other end of the pitch, they did extremely well to limit space and opportunities during Madrid’s many advances into the final third.

Lopopolo: Benfica. The Portuguese side has two wins out of two after dismantling Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. The 4-0 defeat looked as bad as any under Diego Simeone, exposing an alarming lack of courage and spunk in a side that prides itself on its fighting spirit. Kerem Akturkoglu kicked off the rout with his fourth goal in five matches and is looking like a bargain after signing from Galatasaray for just €12 million.

Nesci: Juventus. It would’ve been easy for the Italians to capitulate Wednesday in Leipzig. Juve lost defensive stalwart Gleison Bremer and attacker Nico Gonzalez to injury within the first 12 minutes, had goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio sent off before the hour mark, twice fell behind to Benjamin Sesko goals, and felt aggrieved by some refereeing decisions. But powered by two excellent finishes from Vlahovic, Francisco Conceicao’s trickery, and some heroic defending, Juve, who pressed high even down a man, came away with a statement 3-2 win. Thiago Motta has transformed this team.

Rouse: Aston Villa. Unless you’re a Bayern Munich fan, it was impossible not to be moved by the color and noise at Villa Park. The 1-0 win – a repeat scoreline of Villa’s famous 1982 European Cup final victory over the same opponents – perfectly marked the first Champions League match at the famous venue. Unai Emery can’t rely on Jhon Duran scoring worldies off the bench or Emiliano Martinez’s remarkable athleticism each game, but his side truly embraced playing on the big stage.

Who should hit the panic button? 😬

Brunt: Celtic. From being the underdog many thought could snatch a surprise spot in the knockout round to looking totally out of place after a mortifying defeat, Celtic are already in need of a morale-boosting performance. The club’s European hopes crashed back to earth with a humbling 7-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund, exactly what Brendan Rodgers’ side would’ve wanted to avoid after its encouraging win in Matchday 1.

Lopopolo: Rafael Leao. Now 25, Leao has to decide what kind of player he wants to be: a luxury forward who turns up every once in a while or a world-class winger with match-winning credentials. Currently, he’s somewhere in between. Leao often shoots wide, and his crossing misses the mark, but he’s irresistible in one-on-one situations. Most disappointing of all is his European record. With just three Champions League goals in 22 career starts, Leao has allowed people to question his ability to perform.

Nesci: Luis Enrique. Paris Saint-Germain would still be winless if not for a last-second howler by Girona ‘keeper Paulo Gazzaniga on Matchday 1. The French side looked totally overmatched against Arsenal and only made an imprint after going behind 2-0. With just three points in tow, PSG still have to play Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City. PSV and Stuttgart won’t be pushovers, either. For a club so desperate to win this competition, PSG are in real danger of an early exit.

Rouse: Red Bull Salzburg. The 4-0 home defeat to Brest doesn’t accurately reflect how the game played out: the first two goals were against the run of play, and Salzburg outshot the visitors. Still, after that lopsided scoreline and a deserved 3-0 loss at Sparta Prague, Pep Lijnders’ side is already in trouble. Matches against Dinamo Zagreb, Feyenoord, Bayer Leverkusen, PSG, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid round out Salzburg’s league phase fixtures.

Where we stand 👀

Here’s the complete league phase table after Matchday 2 (We’re still not used to this, either). Remember: The top eight teams advance directly to the last 16, and the sides that finish ninth to 24th head to the new knockout phase playoffs, two-legged ties that determine who joins the top eight seeds in the round of 16. The bottom 12 clubs are eliminated from the Champions League.