LaLiga suffered worst Champions League matchday as Atleti, Barca knocked out
The fourth week of the UEFA Champions League is the worst among the LaLiga clubs, as matchday five fixtures saw them getting battered across the board.
With the dread of the Europa League looming large, the results showed a mere formality ahead of their final-day fixtures.
Leipzig snaps Madrid’s unbeaten start
Although their 1-1 draw away at Shakhtar Donetsk all but assured them of the spot in last sixteen, Real Madrid have been brought back to earth by RB Leipzig who reversed their defeat at the Bernabeu with a 3-2 win.
The defeat saw them end their unbeaten start to the season, in which they won all but two of their 14 matches.
Strikes by Josko Gvardiol and Christopher Nkunku put the Red Bulls 2-0 up in the first eighteen minutes of their Group F tie before Vinicius Junior halved the deficit before the break.
However, Timo Werner gave the hosts the maximum points with an 81st minute winner, which closed their gap between them and the Los Blancos to just a point despite Rodrygo’s late penalty.
The win by Leipzig was bad news for the Ukrainian champions, whose 1-1 draw away at Celtic saw them behind by three and would love to repeat over the German outfit on the final day.
Sevilla beat Copenhagen but it was not enough
Sevilla returned to their former stomping grounds in the Europa League despite a 3-0 win over Copenhagen that eliminated the Danish side from Europe.
Jorge Sampaoli’s side took a magnificent half-hour with strikes by Youssef En-Neysri, Isco and Gonzalo Montiel saw them move up to five points.
However, Borussia Dortmund sealed their fate in group G after picking up a goalless draw at home to Premier League champions Manchester City, in which the German outfit progress even if the Andalusians tie them on eight points by way of their head-to-head record.
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Carrasco miss penalty to send Atleti down
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Atletico Madrid were cruelly sent back to UEL after a crazy four-goal stalemate at home to Bayer Leverkusen in Group B action.
Diego Simeone’s men had to come from behind twice, with Yannick Carrasco and Rodrigo De Paul equalized after the visitors got them ahead through Moussa Diaby and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The Belgian caused further pain for the hosts in stoppage time, with Atleti having a great chance to win it from the spot after it was given by the VAR.
But Lukas Hradecky’s gloves stopped Carrasco from 12 yards out, as the result left the home side four points behind Porto in second place, with the Portuguese outfit joined Club Brugge into the last sixteen.
Bayern piled more misery to already ousted Barca
Perhaps the biggest news came in Catalonia, where FC Barcelona have been dumped out of Group C before being thrashed by a rampaging Bayern Munich side who put three without reply at the Nou Camp.
That is because Inter Milan thrashed Viktoria Plzen, 4-0 at the San Siro, with Xavi have to endure a second straight Europa League campaign.
What was a promising campaign by the Blaugrana after their beatdown of the Czech side turned out to be a nightmare, with only a point in their next four matches became the death sentence for the five-time European champions.
