Even though on Tuesday we had a few examples, yesterday´s Champions League games clearly showed the importance of victory. There was not one draw in the eight games with an entertaining average of three goals per game. There were 21 goals in total shared by a range of inspired strikers. As usual, Wednesday evening once again brought a lot of action and we will now analyse some of the most intense games...

The beginning of the third week of the European Champions League (ECL) group stages yesterday evening led to some frightening moments for some of the ‘greats’. However in most cases they responded to neutralise any ‘surprises’. The reactions of Barcelona, Manchester United and in a lesser sense, Juventus and Galatasaray worked to even the playing field in games that began with an uphill struggle. Amongst those games was also Chelsea, who in the end was not able to succeed and was the surprise of the evening. Then Valencia with a definitive win, finally winning away and also wins by Spartak and Bayern. Another interesting detail yesterday was the number of own goals. Interesting mix of scorelines some of which we will analyse next...

Champions League second week has finished with 8 games that were played yesterday afternoon/evening. If we compare with Tuesday’s games with 24 goals in total, an average of three per game, yesterday’s figure was higher at 26 goals in total. That said, and relating to what was written yesterday in this website, there were three home victories, two draws and three away victories. Now let’s look at these games in more detail...

Five away wins, a draw in Turin and just two home wins, both in Group F on Tuesday, the first day of the Champions League second week. Most of the home teams found it hard to get results, just Bate Borisov with a win against Bayern following another win in Lille in the previous week, and Valencia who also beat the French side in Mestalla, were able to win at home. Chelsea had a comfortable win (0-4), Manchester United had a tough game (1-2) and Barcelona paid a price too high to get the 3 points from Benfica (0-2) as Puyol was injured and Sergio Busquets was sent off. Let’s analyse now in more detail all the games of the last night’s European matches...