Champions League winners and losers from Matchday 7: Barcelona and Feyenoord win improbably

I know some people hate the new Champions League format, but I’m liking how each round features at least one match between European powerhouses and even has some of them in serious trouble. Let’s recap the extensive action from the penultimate games of the league phase.

Champions League winners from Matchday 7

Barcelona

With 15 minutes left in Lisbon, they were 4-2 down. At the final whistle, they had beaten Benfica 5-4 in a totally insane game to assure themselves of a bye to the knockout stages. More information is below.

Vangelis Pavlidis

Who bet on him to score a hat trick in the first half hour against Barcelona? If you said yes, you are either a liar or a lot richer right now. The journeyman Greek striker who joined Benfica this season from AZ Alkmaar enjoyed the greatest game of his career, and he did not deserve to be on the losing team.

Feyenoord

In the upset of the round, the Rotterdam pluggers with the proud history crushed Bayern Munich in the rain at home. Mexican striker Santiago Giménez scored two against the German giants, while Japanese forward Ayase Ueda salted the game away with his breakaway goal, and keeper Justin Bijlow made a number of acrobatic stops to keep his scoresheetclean. For a team that’s struggling just to make the top three in the Eredivisie, it was a glorious night.

Julián Álvarez

It was a typical game at the Wanda Metropolitano, with both sides getting red cards and the fans screaming for blood. Amid the chaos, the Atlético Madrid striker provided a great display of skill and bloody-minded determination as he dribbled through numerous fouls by Bayer Leverkusen’s defense to level the score. He topped that off with the match-winner in stoppage time. Once again, why did Manchester City let this guy go?

Lautaro Martínez

How on Earth did he even get that shot on frame, let alone off the crossbar and in? His goal scored from almost a 90-degree angle was the difference in Inter Milan’s 1-0 win over Sparta Prague.

Viktor Gyökeres

The Sporting Lisbon striker scored again in a loss to Red Bull Leipzig. That’s six goals in seven matches. Whether he’s just in a zone or having a true late-career renaissance, the big Swede’s Champions League goals are sure to get him a big money move in this transfer window from clubs that could use his power and speed.

Liverpool

This new Champions League format is easy peasy for the Reds, who kept up their perfect record after brushing aside Lille. Kostas Tsimikas’ assist on Mohamed Salah’s goal was a thing of beauty, too.

Atalanta

The third-place side in Serie A needed a pick-me-up after their demoralizing defeat to league-leading Napoli over the weekend, and Sturm Graz were only too happy to oblige. The team from Bergamo pounded five goals past the Austrian club and can dream of a bye to the knockout phase.

Shakhtar Donetsk

The Ukrainians in orange haven’t played a real home game since the Russians invaded, but they just keep making trouble at the top level. At their temporary home stadium in Lviv, they put on a dominant display in a 2-0 win against Stade Brestois, keeping themselves mathematically (heavy emphasis on “mathematically”) alive in the league phase.

Radosław Majecki

The Polish goalkeeper was AS Monaco’s best player in their win over Aston Villa, saving goalbound efforts from Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins. Les Monégasques’ whole defense did well to limit the chances for a potent Villa attack.

Luuk de Jong

Two training-ground headers scored in PSV Eindhoven’s win over Red Star Belgrade (see the losers section). It’s fun when the opposing defense gives you so much room to operate.

Jamie Leweling

Two goals against Slovan Bratislava may not be the greatest Champions League feat, but the German attacker’s brace was the difference in Stuttgart’s routine win over the Slovak Super Liga leaders, which kept his team alive in the Champions League.

Arsenal

A comfortable win over Dinamo Zagreb is just what they needed after the capitulation at home to Aston Villa.

Champions League losers from Matchday 7

Nuri Şahin

A few days ago, this site ran a feature about how the Borussia Dortmund coach could save his job. Losing to Bologna was not among the recommended measures. The German side seemed to be in cruise control until a series of bewildering defensive errors handed the rossoblú their first-ever Champions League win. With BVB flailing in mid-table in the Bundesliga, the Turk may not be in charge much longer of the team where he was such a great player.

Manchester City

In the battle of teams swimming in Emirati money, City turned a 2-0 second-half lead into a 4-2 loss to Paris St.-Germain on a rainy night in the City of Lights. We should give props to PSG for not giving up when they were down at home, but Pep Guardiola’s teams of old never would have crumbled like this. If City could be eliminated from the Champions League, which would be really funny.

Red Star Belgrade

Or Crvena Zvezda, if you want to show off your Serbo-Croatian. Three goals conceded, all of them off corner kicks. At least we know what the problem is. Something tells me there’s going to be an opening for a set-piece coach soon in the Serbian capital.

Benfica’s defense

Goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin saw his clearance ricochet off the head of Raphina and into his own net, while the defenders in front of him committed two penalties that gave Róbert Lewandowski a brace. It was great fun, but you don’t deserve to win a Champions League match playing like that. In addition, there may be further discipline after their players brawled with the opposition in the tunnel after the farcical loss.

Wojciech Szczęsny

Trying to outdo the opposing defenders for ineptitude, Barcelona’s goalkeeper crashed into his own defender to gift Pavlidis his second, then fouled Kerem Aktürktoǧlu in the box, which allowed Pavlidis to complete his hat trick from the penalty spot. Barça’s fans must be cursing the season-ending injury suffered by regular goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen and/or scanning the transfer market for another netminder to see out the season.

Aïssa Mandi

The Lille defender was sent off against Liverpool, and the Champions League leaders promptly scored the match-winner afterwards. With the game so close on the scoreboard, Lille fans must wonder what might have happened if the Algerian had stayed on the pitch.

Piero Hincapié

The Ecuadorian left-back scored for Bayer Leverkusen with his team a man up, but then he handed the advantage right back by picking up his second yellow card, reducing his team to 10 players. Restored to even strength, Atlético came back to win the match. 

Kyōgo Furuhashi

Celtic’s Japanese forward put the ball in the net three times against Young Boys of Bern (insert obligatory joke about the team name here). All three goals were called back, two for offside and one for a foul his teammate committed to steal the ball. Good thing his team pulled out a win anyway to ensure their Champions League survival, or else he’d be really frustrated.

Bologna, Sparta Prague, Red Bull Leipzig, Girona, Red Star Belgrade, Sturm Graz, Red Bull Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava, and Young Boys of Bern

Yeah, you guys are all eliminated from advancing. Thanks for coming. Good luck in your domestic leagues. See you next season, maybe.