Real Madrid blasts through Liverpool at Anfield, Napoli continue playing well, Leipzig and City share the spoils, while Lukaku puts Inter ahead. This week, the second batch of matches have been played for the 1st leg of the round of 16 matches of the UEFA Champions League!
 | Liverpool | 2 |  | Real Madrid | 5 |
| D. Núñez 4′ Mohamed Salah 14′ | Vinícius Júnior 21′ Vinícius Júnior 36′ Éder Militão 47′ K. Benzema 55′ K. Benzema 67′ |
Location: Anfield, Liverpool
Referee: Istvan Kovacs, Romania
Liverpool
Manager: J. Klopp
Starting 11: Alisson, T. Alexander-Arnold, J. Gomez, V. van Dijk, A. Robertson, J. Henderson, Fabinho, Stefan Bajčetić, Mohamed Salah, C. Gakpo, D. Núñez
Subs: Roberto Firmino 64′, Diogo Jota 64′, J. Matip 73′, J. Milner 73′, H. Elliott 85′
Real Madrid
Manager: C. Ancelotti
Starting 11: T. Courtois, Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, A. Rüdiger, D. Alaba, F. Valverde, E. Camavinga, L. Modrić, Rodrygo, K. Benzema, Vinícius Júnior
Subs: Nacho 27′, Dani Ceballos 81′, Marco Asensio 87′, T. Kroos 87′
Liverpool started off the match amazingly at Anfield Road, as Nunez scored a spectacular backheel goal in the 4th minute, after a Salah pass. To pour even more misery on Real Madrid, Courtois made a huge mistake to give Salah a second. What happened after this will shock you though…
First it was Vinicius Junior to score a nice curling shot from the edge of the box, then the same Brazilian winger made it 2-2, after a Courtois(Karius)-esque Alisson blunder. The momentum shifted and it was only Real Madrid who dominated the game in the second half. First it was Eder Militao with a header, then Benzema added two more, 1 assist each from Real’s two Brazilian wingers. It is going to be borderline impossible for Klopp and Pool to come back at the Bernabeu, but miracles do happen in football.
 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 0 |  | Napoli | 2 |
| V. Osimhen 40′ G. Di Lorenzo 65′ |
Location: Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt am Main
Referee: Artur Soares Dias, Portugal
Eintracht Frankfurt
Manager: O. Glasner
Starting 11: K. Trapp, Tuta, K. Jakić, E. Ndicka, Aurélio Buta, D. Kamada, D. Sow, P. Max, J. Lindstrøm, M. Götze, R. Kolo Muani
Subs: R. Borré 69′, A. Knauff 69′, F. Alidou 81′, C. Lenz 90′
Napoli
Manager: L. Spalletti
Starting 11: A. Meret, G. Di Lorenzo, A. Rrahmani, Kim Min-Jae, M. Olivera, A. Zambo Anguissa, S. Lobotka, P. Zieliński, H. Lozano, V. Osimhen, K. Kvaratskhelia
Subs: T. Ndombélé 80′, E. Elmas 80′, G. Simeone 84′, M. Politano 84′
Napoli visited Frankfurt not only as Serie A leaders, but as one of the most in-form teams in Europe. Despite Eintracht starting the game with quite a lot of energy and Georgian starlet, Kvaratskhelia missing a penalty, it was all Napoli after one point. Lozano set Osimhen up for a nice goal in the 40th minute, banging another right after, only for it to be disallowed for offside. Napoli added another one in the second half and to pile up even more bad news for Frankfurt, their star man, Kolo Muani got sent off. He will miss the second leg and it will be very hard for the Germans.
 | RB Leipzig | 1 |  | Manchester City | 1 |
| J. Gvardiol 70′ | R. Mahrez 27′ |
Location: Red Bull Arena, Leipzig
Referee: Serdar Gozubuyuk, Netherlands
RB Leipzig
Manager: M. Rose
Starting 11: Janis Blaswich, Lukas Klostermann, Willi Orbán, Joško Gvardiol, Marcel Halstenberg, Konrad Laimer, Xaver Schlager, Dominik Szoboszlai, Emil Forsberg, Timo Werner, André Silva
Subs: B. Henrichs 46′, C. Nkunku 66′, Y. Poulsen 82′, A. Haidara 82′, D. Raum 89′
Manchester City
Manager: Pep Guardiola
Starting 11: Ederson, Manuel Akanji, Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez, İlkay Gündoğan, Jack Grealish, Erling Haaland
Subs: Huh?
No, it is not an error from us, Pep Guardiola decided not to make any substitutions. He could be excused by those who saw only the first half, as the Citizens dominated the play in the first 45 minutes, even scoring through Mahrez. It was a weird goal, Schlager and Gvardiol both made mistakes leading up to it.
The second half was an entirely different story though, as Marco Roses men were playing much better, going forward at times. Their goal came after a corner, when the same Gvardiol towered over Ruben Dias and scored a nice goal. Anybody’s game at the Etihad, however City have been particularly strong at home recently.
 | Inter | 1 |  | FC Porto | 0 |
| R. Lukaku 86′ |
Location: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milano
Referee: Srdan Jovanovic, Serbia
Inter
Manager: S. Inzaghi
Starting 11: André Onana, Milan Škriniar, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni, Matteo Darmian, Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Federico Dimarco, Lautaro Martínez, Edin Džeko
Subs: R. Gosens 58′, R. Lukaku 58′, M. Brozović 72′, D. Dumfries 81′,
FC Porto
Manager: Sérgio Conceição
Starting 11: Diogo Costa, João Mário, Pepe, Iván Marcano, Zaidu Sanusi, Marko Grujić, Mateus Uribe, Pepê, Otávio, Wenderson Galeno, Mehdi Taremi
Subs: Evanilson 51′, Wendell 83′, Gonçalo Borges 90′
Lukaku is back and he is making opposition teams pay for it! After scoring in the weekend, the Belgian giant scored again, in the 86th minute. Truth to be told, Inter were the better side for most of the match and if it wasn’t for Diogo Costa’s heroic, the Italians could have won by a wider margin. Still, it is a fragile lead and it is everyone’s guess who will go through.