Several posters of the 1st day will be worth the detour, with the exits of Manchester City in Seville, Real Madrid in Celtic Glasgow or AC Milan in Salzburg this Tuesday evening.
FC Sevilla – Manchester City: Haaland in the starting blocks
In Seville, all the spotlight will be on Erling Haaland, 22, whose debut with the Citizen is breathtaking: 10 goals in six Premier League days, with two hat-tricks. On an ordinary day such as Saturday, the Norwegian bomber scored “only” one goal on the field of Aston Villa (1-1). For his first steps on the European scene with his new team, Haaland will want to strike straight away, as he had done with his previous teams in the same context.
With Salzburg, he scored a hat-trick in Genk (6-2) in his very first European match in September 2019. With Dortmund, he scored twice (2-1) against PSG in 1/ Round of 16 first leg in February 2020 (PSG qualified 1-2, 2-0). As for the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville, Haaland already has his marks there. He scored Dortmund’s two goals there in the round of 16 first leg of the 2020-2021 edition (2-3), before doing it again in the return match (2-2)… “I like that he want to score three goals in every game, but that won’t happen, ”said in The Guardian Pep Guardiola, the Mancunian coach, more focused on the final victory which has been fleeing him since his arrival in 2016.
Celtic Glasgow – Real Madrid: Benzema and his family already ready
The lights are largely green at Real before the visit to Celtic, which has not taken part in the premier competition since the 2017-2018 season. The Merengues remain on a victory over Betis Sevilla 2-1 on Saturday and now sit alone at the top of La Liga. A victory acquired thanks to his Brazilians, Vinicius and Rodrygo, both scorers on Saturday. Karim Benzema, already three goals and an assist in four days, remained silent this time, despite an opportunity at the start of the second half. The rest of the French colony was also there: Ferland Mendy, Camavinga and Tchouaméni whose performance was once again hailed. The only confrontation between Celtic and Real dates back to the quarter-finals of the C1 in 1979-1980: the green and white won 2-0 at home before losing 3-0 in Spain.
RB Salzburg – AC Milan: Maignan and Giroud in verve
AC Milan travel to Austria on the strength of their 3-2 win over Inter in the Milan derby. Mike Maignan, the goalkeeper of the Rossoneri, was particularly highlighted by releasing three magnificent parades at the end of the game. In front, Olivier Giroud also shone. Entered the hearts of the tifosi with his double during his first Milan derby last February (2-1), the tricolor striker scored again, the second goal for Milan, with a cross recovery without control on the center in withdrawal of the young Portuguese Leao (54th). A way to draw attention to the tifosi but also to RedBird, the new owner of the Milanese club. Even vis-à-vis coach Didier Deschamps…
Dinamo Zagreb – Chelsea: Edouard Mendy in search of redemption
The European debut of the Blues in Zagreb may be an opportunity to revive for Edouard Mendy. Stunning upon his arrival at Chelsea and the following months (25 clean sheets in 45 games), the Senegalese goalkeeper, winner of the 2021 edition, experienced a delicate start to the season with the Blues, who made a fairly ordinary start to the Premier League. (6th). Saturday against West Ham (2-1), the former Rennes goalkeeper was guilty of a new blunder, at the origin of the opposing equalizer at the hour mark. Then, in additional time, he was only saved from the draw by a favorable VAR decision, following a goal by Maxwell Cornet for the Hammers.