Wednesday 20th October 2021
Werner injured in Chelsea win
Ronaldo turns Old Trafford into a madhouse
Chelsea FC wins clearly, but has to cope with the injuries of its two top strikers. Atalanta Bergamo annoys Manchester United, but Champions League record scorer Cristiano Ronaldo causes late cheers for the Red Devils.
With a remarkable comeback, Manchester United has taken the lead in the preliminary round group F of the Champions League. Despite a two-goal deficit, the Red Devils won 3-2 (0-2) against Atalanta Bergamo. Mario Pasalic (15th minute) and Merih Demiral (29th) had put Bergamo in the lead in the first half and seemed to exacerbate the earnings crisis at the English record champions. After the break, however, Marcus Rashford (53rd) first shortened, captain Harry Maguire (75th) then equalized before Cristiano Ronaldo (81st) delighted the legendary Old Trafford with his 137th goal in the European premier football class.
Bergamo, which has to do without the injured German international Robin Gosens, remains with four points, lost the top position in the group due to the defeat and slipped to third place behind Villarreal CF with the same number of points. Thanks to a strong final phase, the reigning Europa League champion won 4-1 at Young Boys Bern, who, with three points, are bottom of this still tight group.
Havertz scores for Chelsea
Meanwhile, defending champion FC Chelsea solved his task in the Champions League confidently, but lost his star strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner. In the 4-0 (2-0) win against Malmö FF, the Belgian international Lukaku had to go down after 23 minutes due to an injury. Shortly before the break, Werner couldn’t go on either. The goals for the Londoners, trained by Thomas Tuchel, were scored by the former Gladbacher Andreas Christensen (9th), the Italian European champion Jorginho twice with a penalty (21st / 57th) and Kai Havertz, who came on for Lukaku (48th).
In the second game of Group H, Juventus celebrated. Dejan Kulusevski scored the late winning goal at 1-0 (0-0) at Zenit St. Petersburg (86th). Thus, the Italians are still at the top with nine points. Chelsea also have their eye on the round of 16, three points behind.
In Lille there were no hits between OSC and Sevilla FC. The French champions are third behind the Andalusians. First in Group G is RB Salzburg, who won 3: 1 (1: 1) against VfL Wolfsburg, who are now bottom of the table.