Chelsea dominant against Barca, City lose

AP:

ON A night of changes, blunders and a glorious individual goal by 18-year-old Estevão, defensive lapses cost Manchester City and Barcelona dearly as both teams slumped to notable losses in the Champions League yesterday.

In Pep Guardiola’s 100th Champions League game as City coach, his team struggled to cope with Bayer Leverkusen’s quick transitions in a 2-0 defeat, while Barcelona had an own goal and a red card in their 3-0 loss at Chelsea.

Guardiola made 10 changes to his starting line-up following Saturday’s loss to Newcastle in the Premier League, with Erling Haaland among those on the bench, but it didn’t have the desired effect.

Alejandro Grimaldo fired home Leverkusen’s first goal with a low shot into the far corner in the 23rd and Patrik Schick headed in a second in the 54th.

“It feels wonderful, and we gave everything till the last second,” Schick told broadcaster DAZN.

Chelsea comfortably beat 10-man Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge to earn their third league-phase win and move closer to the top.

It was the second loss for Barcelona, who went down a man after defender Ronald Araújo was shown a second yellow card just before halftime for a forceful tackle on Marc Cucurella.

Jules Koundé’s own goal handed Chelsea the lead in the 27th as Barcelona defenders got tangled up in the goalmouth.

The hosts stretched their advantage with a fine individual goal by Estevão in the 55th as he held off two defenders, and a close-range shot by Liam Delap in the 73rd.

Barcelona’s fourth loss in 10 games in all competitions could mean more criticism of coach Hansi Flick’s approach.

City would have moved atop the table with a win, but the night ended with the top three unchanged. Bayern Munich, Arsenal, and Inter Milan all play today.

Borussia Dortmund rose to fourth and Chelsea are fifth after both won to join City on 10 points while Barcelona are down in 15th and Juventus improved to 21st with a win as the Italian club tries to turn around its campaign.

While Guardiola had an unexpected loss, his old foe, José Mourinho, picked up his first Champions League win with his new club, Benfica, as left back Samuel Dahl’s early goal set the stage for a 2-0 win over troubled Ajax. It was number-36 versus number-35 in the pre-game standings as the two winless teams met in Amsterdam.

Dahl scored an unstoppable volley in the sixth, and Leandro Barreiro added a second goal in the 90th. Ajax have lost all five of their Champions League games and won only one of their last 10 in all competitions.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in four minutes early in the second half to turn the game around for Marseille in a 2-1 win over Newcastle.

Yesterday’s Results

Ajax 0-2 Benfica

Galatasaray 0-1 Union Saint-Gilloise

Bodø/Glimt 2-3 Juventus

Napoli 2-0 Qarabag FK

Marseille 2-1 Newcastle

Dortmund 4-0 Villareal

Chelsea 3-0 Barcelona

Man City 0-2 Leverkusen

Slavia Praha 0-0 Athletic Club