Champions League Wednesday: Prince William watches Aston Villa, Real Madrid suffers a surprising defeat

CNN
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A famous victory celebrated by the Kings, a surprise defeat for the reigning champions and a brilliant goal from Mohamed Salah were among the standout moments of a thrilling evening of European football on Wednesday.

The second round of the Champions League season has come to an end. Seven teams have a perfect record and some pre-competition favorites are in a more precarious position.

Here you will find a summary of the latest actions across Europe.

Aston Villa fan Prince William was in the stands to celebrate his team's memorable win against Bayern Munich.

Jhon Durán's exquisite second-half lob gave Villa a 1-0 win, playing their first home game in Europe's elite club competition in 41 years. This led to comparisons with Villa's victory over Bayern by the same result in the 1982 European Cup final, which remains one of the greatest days in the club's history.

The German giants controlled much of the game with 70% possession, but ultimately lacked penetration at lively Villa Park.

After Pau Torres' first-half goal was ruled out for offside, the hosts had to wait until the 79th minute to score the decisive goal, when substitute Durán fired a shot over Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer lap.

More heroics followed for Villa as Emi Martínez made two excellent saves in stoppage time to deny Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane.

“I am very happy that our fans and everyone at Aston Villa – coaches, owners, fans, workers – share days like this, playing and winning at this level in the Champions League against Bayern Munich,” said Villa manager Unai Emery.

“The most important thing is how we competed and how we prepared the game plan, how we passed on our energy to the fans and their energy to us.”

The surprise result means Villa have picked up two wins in their first two Champions League games, while Bayern were treated to a reality check after an emphatic 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb two weeks ago.

A night after some of the competition's biggest names – including Manchester City, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund – scored freely, it was a timely reminder that the Champions League can still produce drama and upsets and that it may still be too early , which is to say that the redesigned tournament is no longer as good as it used to be.

And it wasn't just Bayern who lost on Wednesday. 15-time Champions League winners Real Madrid suffered their first defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss to Lille, an early setback in the team's European Cup title defense.

Eduardo Camavinga's handball at the end of the first half allowed Jonathan David to convert a penalty shortly after he was denied by a brilliant double save from reserve goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.

Madrid's best chances came in the second half when Tiago Santos cleared Antonio Rüdiger's header off the line before Lucas Chevalier parried Jude Bellingham's follow-up shot.

As the game progressed, the goalkeeper parried headers from Rüdiger and the Turkish prodigy Arda Güler Les Dogueswho were beaten twice in the French Ligue 1 this season and lost 2-0 to Sporting CP in their first Champions League game, achieved a remarkable victory.

“We struggled to get into the game and into the duels,” said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“We might have let the game draw and had chances at the end, but we didn't deserve to win. We have to learn and know what we need to improve, just like we did in the last defeat. I don’t think it’s too difficult.”

Less surprising was Liverpool's 2-0 win over Bologna, the Reds' second win in the competition against Italian opponents, having beaten AC Milan 3-1 in the first game week.

Two minutes after Bologna had an early goal ruled out for offside, Alexis Mac Allister gave Liverpool the lead with his first goal of the season when he flicked Salah's dangerous ball into the box.

Dan Ndoye saw his shot deflected onto the crossbar as the visitors looked for an equalizer in an open first half, and the striker hit the post a few minutes later.

However, the highlight of the game was Salah's brilliant goal in the second half, where he cut inside with his left foot and fired a shot into the top corner.

Salah became the first player in the club's history to extend his scoring streak at home in the Champions League to five games.

Arne Slot, meanwhile, became the first Liverpool manager to win eight of his first nine games in charge in all competitions.

“It wasn't easy, but that's normal when you play in the Champions League. There is always a lot of resistance and a lot of good teams play in the Champions League – and Bologna is one of them,” Slot told reporters after the game.

“You could also see the (other) results tonight where we may have seen some surprising results. It was nice to win, a clean sheet, some good individual performances, so overall positive.”

In perhaps the most entertaining game of the evening, Juventus came from behind to beat RB Leipzig 3-2, despite goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio being sent off in the second half.

Dušan Vlahović equalized for Juve after Benjamin Šeško opened the scoring, but the game seemed to be turning in Leipzig's favor when Di Gregorio was shown a red card for playing the ball outside the penalty area.

Another handball decision – this time when Douglas Luiz blocked a free kick – allowed Šeško to score his second shot from the penalty spot, and from then on it looked like the home team would take the win.

But that Vecchia SignoraUndeterred by the reduction to 10 players, he defended himself brilliantly, first when Vlahović fired an excellent shot from outside the penalty area, then when Francisco Conceição completed the comeback with a great individual effort, evading David Raum's challenge and the Ball into the penalty area shot into the net.

“We showed that we can become a team, we fought together as the coach asked of us, we deserved to win even though we had to fight against being outnumbered,” Vlahović said afterwards. “It was a great performance. These victories and these games, we have to get used to this level. We have to continue with even more conviction.”

Home vs. Away (winners in bold)

RB Salzburg 0-4 Brest

Stuttgart 1:1 Sparta Prague

arsenal 2-0 Paris Saint Germain

Barcelona 5:0 Young Boys

Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 AC Milan

Borussia Dortmund 7:1 Celtic

International 4-0 Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade)

PSV 1-1 Sporting Clube de Portugal

Slovan Bratislava 0-4 Manchester City

Shakhtar Donetsk 0-3 Atalanta

Girona 2-3 Feyenoord

Benfica 4-0 Atletico Madrid

Liverpool 2-0 Bologna

RB Leipzig 2-3 Juventus

Lille 1-0 Real Madrid

SK Sturm Graz 0-1 Club Brugge

Aston Villa 1-0 Bayern Munich

Dinamo Zagreb – AS Monaco 2:2