Splendid goal Lionel Messi in PSG draw; Juventus keeps hope after victory


Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 10:54 PM• Sam Vreeswijk

Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain have suffered their first loss of points of this Champions League season. The mutual meeting in Lisbon ended in 1-1. The opening goal was made by Lionel Messi, after which Danilo Benfica put Benfica next to the visitors with an own goal. Both teams are now in first and second place in Group H with seven points each. In the same group, Juventus recorded its first victory, beating Maccabi Haifa 3-1 at home.

Benfica – Paris Saint Germain 1-1
The team of coach Roger Schmidt started the game with the same starting line-up as the previous Champions League match, which was won 1-2 against Juventus. That also meant that former Ajax player David Neres was back on the field from the first whistle. At PSG there was one change from the previous game in the million-dollar game (1-3 win at Maccabi Haifa): Achraf Hakimi started as a right wing defender, which went short of Nordi Mukiele. Up front, the Parisians started off as familiar with Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Messi.

The first chances of the game were for the home side, but Gonçalo Ramos and Neres both saw their efforts stopped by Gianluigi Donnarumma. Halfway through the first half, it was on the other side of the field. After a quick combination with Mbappe and Neymar, Messi struck from the edge of the penalty area in one go, after which the ball landed beautifully in the far corner. It was for the Argentine his 127th goal in the Champions League. In the subsequent phase it was Benfica that again had the best chances, and just before half-time, the pay went to work. A cross from Enzo Fernández was just too high for striker Ramos, but PSG defender Danilo then unluckily worked the ball behind his own goalkeeper: 1-1.

The second half was only a few minutes old when Neymar almost gave the visitors the lead in a beautiful way. However, his bicycle kick hit the top of the bar. PSG increasingly took matters into their own hands in the subsequent phase. Mbappé, Neymar, Danilo, Hakimi all had chances to make it 1-2, but the well-keeping Odisseas Vlachodimos was always an obstacle. Benfica was also close to the lead a few times, via Nicolás Otamendi (header wide) and Rafa Silva (rescue Donnarumma). However, it remained at 1-1, which means that both teams are still unbeaten this Champions League season.

Juventus – Maccabi Haifa 3-1
At Juventus there was a base place for former FC Groningen player Filip Kostic, while ex-Ajacied Arkadiusz Milik started on the bench. The visitors started with Tjaronn Chery in midfield. Both teams had a handful of chances in the first half. The biggest opportunities were for Dusan Vlahovic, who first saw a shot turned by goalkeeper Josh Cohen and a few minutes later shot wide. Ten minutes before halftime, the home team did hit the mark: Ángel Di María sent Rabiot deep, after which the Frenchman shot the opening goal hard.

Juventus doubled the score early in the second half. La Vecchia Signora countered quickly, Di María gave a deep ball to Vlahovic and the Serb remained cool face to face with Cohen: 2-0. That same Vlahovic seemed to decide the match – again on Di María’s request – in the 64th minute, but his goal was disallowed for offside. A few minutes earlier, Omer Atzili had hit the post on the other side of the field. Maccabi Haifa made it exciting fifteen minutes before the end via Dean David. He was sent deep by Chery, outplayed Wojciech Szczesny and pushed the ball into the empty goal. Not much later, however, the margin was already two, when Rabiot headed in the 3-1 from a corner. With that, Juventus took its first win of this Champions League season.