2015-16 Champions League Matchday One Recap

The Champions League has started again ! The greatest yearly continental competition enters a new season, more specifically its 24th season since the name change from 1992.

FC Barcelona will certainly try to retain their title (No team has ever retain their title since the re-modeling of the competition), while other teams, including last year's runner-ups Juventus Turin, will try to conquer the "coupe aux grandes oreilles" as we say in France (meaning "the cup with the big ears", referring to the handles of said cup).

The first matchday of the 2015-16 season has been pretty good, with at least two records being broken, and welcoming one new country into the participants of this competition.
FC Astana is the complete newcomer to the Champions League, being the first club from Kazakhstan to ever qualify. KAA Gent from Belgium is also a rookie. Both clubs did pretty well on their first game.
Astana is the designated loser in their group (opponents like SL Benfica, Galatasaray SK or Atlético de Madrid should beat the newbie) and indeed they lost to their Portuguese hosts of the night, but only with a score of 2-0.
KAA Gent, on the other end, received French side Olympique Lyonnais, and they managed a 1-1 draw, while being down to 9 men. And Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette (most proficient striker last season in Ligue 1) missed a penalty in the last minutes of the game.

Speaking of penalties. As far as I know, it is a record in the competition, as 10 penalties were awarded in a single matchday. 3 or them were given in a single match (Sevilla - Mönchengladbach) ! Kévin Gameiro from Sevilla, Lyon's Lacazette and Chelsea's Eden Hazard missed their shot from the spot, whereas Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (twice), Sevilla's Kevin Gameiro (he missed the second) and Ever Banega, Hakan Çalhanoğlu from Bayer 04 Leverkusen, and Thomas Müller from Bayern Munich scored, as well as Chelsea's Oscar. 10 penalties given, three penalties missed, not bad for a first game day.

Cristiano Ronaldo, as has just been said, scored twice from the spot, and scored another goal during the opening game of Real Madrid against Shaktar Donetsk, making him the one and only top-scorer of the Champions League with 80 goals. Given the current form of the Portuguese offensive midfielder (I'm sorry, but I'm still not considering CR7 as a "striker", even if he scores as much or even more than some "pure blood number 9"), we can already assume that he will remain the top-scorer for this season. Lionel Messi, his biggest rival and closest follower from FC Barcelona, didn't score in the opening game of the title-holders in Rome, stalling him at 77 goals in the Königsklasse (that's how the Germans say it).
Since all the other goal-scorers from the top-ten are retired, the battle between Leo and Cristiano is far from over, considering that they both have 3 to 5 years of top-level football.

Goals galore! 48 goals during this first matchday, that's also quite a lot. An some were delightful to the eyes ! Alessandro Florenzi, from AS Roma, scored the nicest of the day, with a screamer from 55 meters out. Marc-André ter Stegen wasn't expecting such a strike, and was helpless and hopeless: standing a bit too far from his goal line, he only watched the ball entering his goal on the top corner. Thomas Müller's goal was also interesting: He actually missed his cross for Robert Lewandowski, and the ball ended up in goal. Lucky for him. Olympiakos' goalkeeper Roberto was laughing after conceding the goal, probably thinking that was unbelievable.
Other wonder strikes : the first of Antoine Griezmann for Atlético Madrid in Istanbul. It seems easy, and maybe the goalkeeper wasn't ready enough, but that was a nice shot. Hulk's second goal for Zenit St. Petersburg is also pretty good. No chance for the keeper. Diego Costa easily converted a volley from a nice cross given by Cesc Fàbregas, and PSG's South-Americans Ángel di María and Edinson Cavani scored nice goals: the first on a world class solo action, while the second netted a nice header after a genius pass from Zlatan Ibrahimović.

For my favourite club, Arsenal, it was a night to forget in Zagreb. First an own-goal from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, then Olivier Giroud's sending off after two yellow cards... Thanks to Theo Walcott for scoring the 2-1 goal. But playing like this is not the way to qualify at the end of the group stage.

On another note, I hope that Luke Shaw from Manchester United will heal well and come back soon enough. Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny (Arsenal - loaned to AS Roma) also suffered an injury, but his hand should heal faster than a broken leg.

I might write again in two week's time after Match-Day 2 !