A great night of football
The Champions League group stage continued on Wednesday night, with brilliant clashes including Paris Saint-Germain vs Real Madrid and Atletico vs Juventus.
After some entertaining games on Tuesday, there was a brilliant line-up on Wednesday.
Starting with PSG vs Real Madrid, it was the French side who came out on top.
Angel Di Maria scored two goals against his former club, before Thomas Meunier secured a 3-0 win.
Meanwhile, Juventus were held against Atletico Madrid after a late Héctor Herrera goal.
Juan Cuadrado’s brilliant finish initially put Juve ahead.
Manchester City also got their campaign underway, winning 3-0 against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Riyad Mahrez scored the first goal for Pep Guardiola’s City after some brilliant work from İlkay Gündoğan, before the German scored a goal of his own.
Gabriel Jesus then made sure of all three points.
Elsewhere, Bayern Munich opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Crvena zvezda, while Dinamo Zagreb beat Atalanta 4-0 and Lokomotiv Moscow bested Bayer Leverkusen.
Now, we’ve looked at three key points from Wednesday’s games.
Courtois hasn’t kept a clean sheet since February
Thibaut Courtois just can’t catch a break, can he?
The Belgian was brilliant for Chelsea during his time in the Premier League and much was expected of him when he joined Real Madrid.
Needing a world-class goalkeeper, Madrid pushed through a deal for Courtois but based on his performances since joining, they may regret choosing him.
Thibaut Courtois hasn’t kept a clean sheet for Real Madrid since February. pic.twitter.com/PrD5Krinz1
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 18, 2019
That’s because in the 40 games since he joined Los Blancos, Courtois has now conceded a whopping 57 goals after facing Paris Saint-Germain.
Angel Di Maria’s double and Meunier’s goal also means that the Belgian hasn’t kept a clean sheet since back in February.
What made it even worse is that Di Maria’s first goal beat Courtois at the near post, which has been a regular occurrence since the Belgian joined Real Madrid.
For his sake, he needs to turn it around and soon.
BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 28: Arturo Vidal of Barcelona scores his sides fifth goal past Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid during the La Liga match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF at Camp Nou on October 28, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Di Maria loves facing his former clubs
Angel Di Maria loves going up against one of his former employers.
It was just last season when the Argentine put in a man of the match performance against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
He seemingly relished the chance to play the pantomime villain, and it was a similar case against Real Madrid.
The Argentine featured in 190 games for Los Blancos, and came up against his former club on Wednesday evening.
As he did when facing Manchester United, Di Maria showed up and produced a brilliant performance.
The Argentine beat Courtois at his near post for the first goal, before a stunning finish into the bottom corner for his second.
He will no doubt be looking forward to the second leg at the Bernabeu.
Fernandinho is Man City’s emergency centre-back
Manchester City’s defensive woes have been well documented in recent weeks.
Aymeric Laporte was ruled out of action until 2020 recently, meaning that City had just John Stones and Nicolás Otamendi as their fit senior central defenders.
That was until John Stones picked up an injury in training, leading to a reported five-week injury lay-off.
That meant that only Nicolás Otamendi remains.
With all eyes on the Manchester City line-up, it was Fernadinho who was chosen as Pep Guardiola’s emergency central defender.
Incredibly, the Brazillian didn’t look out of place in the slightest.
With Man City’s defensive problems, it certainly looks as though Fernandinho will be used in the Premier League over the next month or so until John Stones returns.
Safe to say, teams will certainly be looking to exploit that.
See also: Three key talking points from Man City’s win over Shakhtar Donetsk
