DAY 1 OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CONTINUES 'ON FIRE'
Champions League: the best of Wednesday's matches (great goals, records, curiosities...)
Published:19/09/2024 - 07:52h
Updated:19/09/2024 - 07:59h
The first day of the UEFA Champions League continues and at FCBN we don't stop either, bringing you all the data from a date full of curiosities at a statistical and game level that will surely not leave anyone indifferent
The first day of the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 is under way and the day Wednesday presented a total of six meetings, with alone 13 annotations invoiced in total. Perhaps the meeting that called more the attention of this date was the clash between the Manchester City and the Inter of Milan, that finished in a disappointing 0-0. Another similar result gave in the crash between the Bolonia and the Shakhtar Donetsk (0-0), being these the less thrilling meetings of a day that offered us interesting moments, which will detail in FCBN.
Results of the day 1 of Champions League 2024/25–Wednesday 18 September
- Bolonia 0-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
- Sparta Prague 3-0 RB Salzburg
- Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 Girona
- Club Brugge 0-3 Borussia Dortmund
- Celtic 5-1 Slovan Bratislava
- Manchester City 0-0 Inter of Milan
Celtic debuts with a strong 'handful'
After a goal-filled Tuesday, goals were a bit scarcer on Wednesday. However, there was a team that, like Bayern Munich with their 9-2 victory over Dinamo Zagreb, set the tone in terms of the number of goals. This time, the top scorers of the day were Celtic Glasgow, who overwhelmed Slovan Bratislava with a convincing 5-1 victory at Celtic Park.
This match, besides being the second in the history of the Champions League in which a Scottish club scores five goals, also had the detail of being the first encounter in the history of the Champions League where two players of Japanese nationality score for the same team. Kyōgo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda scored in the 47th and 70th minutes respectively for the 'Celts'.
Bynoe-Gittens, the great 'MVP' of the day for Borussia Dortmund
In this Wednesday's match of the UEFA Champions League, arguably one of the best individual performances, if not the best, was that of the left winger of Borussia Dortmund, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. Why? Well, because the London-born forward was the key man who managed to unlock the duel against Club Brugge, a game that was very close until the final stretch.
The English winger scored two goals against the Belgians, one in the 76th minute, in a play that perhaps had some luck, as his shot hit a defender and after the deflection, it slipped into the goal, and another in the 86th minute, with a similar finish, but this time with a slightly cleaner right-footed shot, tipping the advantage in favor of the Germans. This led to the final score of 0-3 in favor of Borussia Dortmund, with another goal scored by Serhou Guirassy.
With this brace within a span of 10 minutes, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens became the fifth substitute for Borussia Dortmund to score a double in the Champions League, joining Michael Zorc, Adrián Ramos, Raphaël Guerreiro, and Erling Haaland.
The Eventful Debut of Girona in the UEFA Champions League
In this Wednesday's match of the UEFA Champions League, one of the clubs that definitely had a date with history was Girona. And how could it not be? The team led by Míchel Sánchez faced their first commitment in European competitions, and what a debut it was, nothing more and nothing less than against one of the favorites to achieve great things in this tournament: Paris Saint-Germain.
However, their debut was far from smooth, although it was very close to being so. Interestingly, the match was decided by an own goal. What's curious about this case? The own goal was courtesy of Paulo Gazzaniga, the goalkeeper of the Girona team, making this match the first and so far only one in the history of the Champions League where the only goal comes from a goalkeeper.
Cristhian Stuani and a Date with History
In the clash between the team from Girona and the Parisians, another historic milestone was also achieved in the UEFA Champions League, as Cristhian Stuani appeared in the starting lineup for Girona. At 37 years and 342 days, he became the oldest outfield player to debut as a starter in the entire history of this competition.
