Round 2 of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League (UCL) season brought us more mouth-watering fixtures. From high-scoring one-sided affairs, cagey draws, to last-minute drama—it had everything.
Tuesday night’s fixtures saw the likes of Brest, Dortmund, Inter Milan, Barça, and Man City all register big wins, while the likes of Stuttgart, Sparta Praha, PSV, and Sporting all fought hard but each came away with just a point.
In our marquee fixtures for this Gameweek, Arsenal won their clash against PSG at the Emirates, while German champions Bayer Leverkusen got the better of seven-time UCL winners AC Milan at home.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the fixtures from Gameweek 2 of the 2024/25 UCL season.
FC Red Bull Salzburg 0-4 Stade Brestois 29
Abdallah Sima scored twice as Brest maintained their perfect Champions League start by thrashing Salzburg 4-0 at the Red Bull Arena. They kicked off their first-ever European campaign with a 2-1 home win over Sturm Graz two weeks ago and built on that victory with a clinical counter-attacking performance in Salzburg.
Salzburg spurned chances in the first half, and in the second half they were completely opened up by the visitors. A long clearance from Brest goalkeeper Marco Bizot in the 66th minute ended in Mahdi Camara doubling Brest’s lead with a superb strike. Four minutes later, Sima pounced on a rebound for his second.
Things got worse for the home side with 15 minutes remaining when Mathias Pereira Lage struck from outside the box to complete the rout, leaving Salzburg still waiting for their first point of the campaign.
VfB Stuttgart 1-1 AC Sparta Praha
Last season’s Bundesliga runners-up took a seventh-minute lead against the run of play through Enzo Millot, who headed home from an excellent lofted cross from Maximilian Mittelstädt.
Sparta continued to press high up the pitch, however, and Martin Vitík hit the post shortly after before Kaan Kairinen levelled for the visitors after the half-hour mark by expertly firing a free kick into the top-right corner.
Sparta midfielder Veljko Birmancevic had chances to put his side in front either side of the break, while Stuttgart had the upper hand throughout most of the second half, yet neither side could seal the three points.
PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Sporting CP
The home side took charge early on as Jerdy Schouten gave them the lead in the 15th minute, netting with a stunning shot from distance inside the left post for his first European goal. Peter Bosz’ men continued to control the encounter after the break and Luuk de Jong, brilliant on the night, should have doubled the lead in the 55th minute.
Sporting, who are making their third appearance in the Champions League in four seasons, looked helpless against the confident PSV side and struggled to create clear chances, but Daniel Bragança levelled against the run of play in the 84th minute, sending an excellent volley into the roof of the net after he was set up by Maximiliano Araújo. Bosz and Co just didn’t have the clinical edge to get the win.
Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic FC
Last season’s runners-up had not lost in 12 UCL games at home coming into this match. There was cautious optimism for the Scottish side after starting the season with nine straight victories across all competitions, but they could not cope with the threat the German Bundesliga side came with on the night as simple mistakes further proved costly for the Bhoys.
BVB captain Emre Can converted from the penalty spot after Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel brought down Jamie Gittens. Daizen Maeda hit back almost instantly, but Karim Adeyemi netted a double and Serhou Guirassy made it four from the penalty spot after Arne Engels caught Adeyemi in the box.
The winger wrapped up his hattrick before the break as Guirassy fired in his second and Dortmund’s sixth in the second half. Felix Nmecha later came off the bench to add to the Scottish champions’ woes with a seventh.
FC Internazionale Milano 4-0 FK Crvena zvezda
Inter’s Mehdi Taremi scored his first goal for his new club and provided two assists to help them secure a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade in their Champions League clash at San Siro.
Hakan Çalhanoglu opened the scoring for Inter with a superb first-half free kick before Taremi’s tenacity set up further goals for Marko Arnautovic and Lautaro Martínez, feeding off errors in defence from the visitors.
The 32-year-old Iran international, who joined as a free agent in July after leaving Porto, then converted a penalty late on to seal a superb night as Inter added to the point they earned in their UCL opener against Man City.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1-0 AC Milan
Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface netted a second-half goal to earn his side a 1-0 home win over Milan, giving them a perfect start to their campaign and leaving the Italians still without a point.
The only goal at the BayArena came six minutes after the break when Boniface fired home a rebound after Milan keeper Mike Maignan parried a shot from Jeremie Frimpong. It was no more than the home side deserved after an opening half in which they had the majority of possession and chances but could not find a way past Maignan, while Milan struggled to get a foothold in the game.
The German Bundesliga champions are now on six points, having beaten Feyenoord 4-0 in their opening game, while Milan lost 3-1 at home to Liverpool in their UCL opener.
ŠK Slovan Bratislava 0-4 Manchester City FC
Man City never needed to get out of first gear as they cruised to a commanding 4-0 victory against Slovan Bratislava, marking their first win of the UCL season.
Ilkay Gündogan’s eighth-minute volley from the edge of the area gave City an early lead, followed by Phil Foden scoring through a curled effort to double his side’s advantage after 15 minutes.
The second half began much like the first, and the Cityzens finally scored their third goal when Erling Haaland rounded the opposition keeper and slotted it home 13 minutes after the resumption. James McAtee secured the fourth of the evening after an intricate piece of play, marking his first goal for his boyhood club.
Arsenal FC 2-0 Paris Saint-Germain FC
Arsenal produced a professional display to beat a youthful PSG side 2-0 at the Emirates and claim their first UCL win of the season.
The Gunners opened the scoring in the first half when Kai Havertz ghosted between two defenders to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to Leandro Trossard’s teasing cross with a towering header. Arsenal further doubled their lead with Bukayo Saka as his near-post delivery from wide on the right bounced through a crowd of bodies to outfox Donnarumma and fly straight in.
Arsenal had chances to add to their lead, with Trossard denied by Donnarumma from close range soon after the second goal and Gabriel Martinelli twice shooting too close to the PSG goalkeeper following the break.
Luis Enrique’s new-look side, shorn of the departed Kylian Mbappé and having an average age of 23, created openings too, with Nuno Mendes clipping the post from distance in the first half and João Neves later striking the bar from a corner, but that was just about it, as the Gunners won the game comfortably.
FC Barcelona 5-0 BSC Young Boys
Hansi Flick would have challenged his side to produce a positive response after his decision to rotate his squad backfired in Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to Osasuna.
And Flick’s charges rose to the task, as Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring before Raphinha and Iñigo Martínez grabbed a goal apiece from dead-ball situations.
Young Boys ultimately failed to learn from their mistakes as Lewandowski made full use of another set piece to score his second and Barcelona’s fourth in the opening stages of the second half. The visitors did their utmost to limit the damage, but Mohamed Camara’s own goal allowed the hosts to celebrate a fifth in the 81st minute.
After a difficult evening, the travelling contingent thought they had earned a late consolation only to see Jöel Monteiro’s effort ruled out for offside.
Also read: UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Sponsors
FC Shakhtar Donetsk 0-3 Atalanta BC
This was a game so thoroughly dominated by Atalanta that it didn’t feel like they were playing away from home. The Bergamaschi attacked from the word go, with Ademola Lookman in threatening form. Their opening goal came from a set-piece situation when a free kick was flicked on by Éderson, ending into a fine finish from defender Berat Djimsiti in the 21st minute.
Atalanta’s second goal came from Lookman, who had earlier been denied by the crossbar but didn’t falter a few minutes later when he finished off a move in the 44th minute, his relentless attacking play duly rewarded.
The second half saw Shakhtar miss a glorious opportunity few minutes after the restart, but Atalanta made them pay minutes later when Lookman played the ball out wide to Davide Zappacosta, whose cross into the box was headed home by Raoul Bellanova for Atalanta’s third goal, which killed the game.
Girona FC 2-3 Feyenoord Rotterdam
This turned out to be one of the most entertaining end-to-end games of the UCL so far with chances galore, penalty misses from both teams, and Feyenoord just managing to edge out 3-2 winners.
Girona opened the scoring from a set-piece opportunity when David López reacted first at the far post to slot in his side’s first-ever goal in the UCL. Feyenoord responded within three minutes as Igor Paixão’s free kick landed in the six-yard box only to hit the chest of Girona defender Yangel Herrera and end up in goal, restoring parity. Feyenoord then grabbed the lead as 19-year-old Antoni Milambo collected a pass from Paixão to finish. The visitors missed a superb chance to go 3-1 up soon afterwards as Ayase Ueda’s spot kick was saved by Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
The second half saw another penalty being saved when Feyenoord goalie Timon Wellenreuther saved Bojan Miovski’s shot after fouling the Girona forward in the box, but the Spanish side managed to draw level when Donny van de Beek tapped home in the 73rd minute.
Just when Girona thought they had rescued a point, Ladislav Krejcí turned Dávid Hancko’s low cross into his own net to re-establish Feyenoord’s lead 11 minutes from time, which they managed to hold on to and pick up their first win of the UCL campaign.
Liverpool FC 2-0 Bologna FC 1909
Champions League nights returned to the famous old ground after a season and Liverpool started with authority as they always do at Anfield, but it was Bologna who scored first only to be denied by the offside flag. The home team then scored the opener in the 11th minute when a Mo Salah pass found Alexis Mac Allister in the box for an easy tap-in.
However, Bologna started to assert themselves in the game and had a few decent chances as one of their shots hitting the woodwork, making Alisson Becker pull of some crucial saves. Liverpool went into the break with a narrow 1-0 lead.
The second half saw a mighty tussle, with the visitors attacking with intent but failing to restore parity. Liverpool’s second goal came through Salah, who took matters into his own hands and grabbed a Dominik Szoboszlai pass in the 75th minute to curl a stunner into the top-left corner to make it 2-0. Even though it looked comfortable in the end, Liverpool were tested massively by an impressive Bologna side.
RB Leipzig 2-3 Juventus FC
The German outfit lost to a 10-men Juventus in what could be dubbed as the game of the week. Despite Suffering from early injuries and having their goalkeeper sent off, Juventus showed great powers of recovery to beat Leipzig 3-2.
Leipzig started brightly when a quick counter-attack saw Loïs Openda find Slovenian forward Benjamin Šeško, whose emphatic finish saw the home side take the lead. Soon after the restart, however, Dušan Vlahovic restored parity when he flicked in from an Andrea Cambiaso cross just minutes after Teun Koopmeiners had hit the post for the visitors.
Leipzig were really unlucky as they were denied by the woodwork twice but took the lead through a Šeško spot kick when the Juventus shot-stopper, Michele Di Gregario, was sent off for handling the ball outside the six-yard box. The Old Lady had a mountain to climb, but a spirited comeback saw them first equalise through Vlahovic in the 68th minute before Francisco Conceição found the winner for the side from Turin in the 83rd minute.
SL Benfica 4-0 Atlético Madrid
Benfica put a clueless Atleti side to the sword at the Estádio da Luz. Buoyed on by a packed stadium, the Portuguese team’s front line looked in fine form every time they surged forward.
Benfica’s first goal came from an Atleti defensive error, which saw Fredrik Aursnes latch on to a loose ball and pass it to Kerem Aktürkoglu in the box, who scored the opener in the 13th minute. Benfica took further control of the game and doubled their advantage in the second half through a spot kick from Ángel Di Maria after a foul by defender Nahuel Molina. As Águias‘ third goal came from a corner kick when an unmarked Alexander Bah found the net in the 75th minute.
The rout was completed by Orkun Kökçü from the spot-kick when substitute Zeki Amdouni was fouled in the box by Reinildo Mandava. It was a woeful performance from Los Colchoneros, one they would want to put behind as soon possible.
LOSC Lille 1-0 Real Madrid CF
Lille upset the apple cart with a win against the defending champions, who looked lacklustre for most of the game. The visitors did start on a positive note, though, and the first real chance fell to the Galácticos when Vinícius Júnior’s low shot was scuffed in the sixth minute before Endrick’s close-range effort was saved by Lucas Chevalier.
Lille got close to scoring an opener after 26 minutes, but an incredible double save by Real Madrid goalie Andriy Lunin denied Jonathan David twice, first from a header and then from the follow-up shot. Lille finally found an opener when a free kick was handled in the box by Eduardo Camavinga just before the break. The on-field referee consulted with VAR, pointed to the spot, and David converted the penalty.
The second half also saw Lille in the ascendancy, as Real Madrid hardly got a chance to equalise, with Antonio Rüdiger the only one coming close in the 86th minute with a header that went wide off the post. It was the first meeting between the two teams, which saw Lille end the Galacticos‘ unbeaten run.
Aston Villa FC 1-0 FC Bayern Munich
Champions League action returned to Villa Park after four decades and, in front of a raucous home crowd, Aston Villa produced an upset for the ages.
The Villans scored first through Pau Torres in the 23rd minute only to be denied by offside. Bayern Munich, with all their attacking threat, were rendered helpless and without too many big chances, though Emi Martínez did have to make a brilliant save from a long-range shot by Michael Olise.
In the 78th minute, super-sub Jhon Durán’s audacious chip over Manuel Neuer, who was a long way off his line, gave Villa the much-needed breakthrough. Bayern did have decent chances afterwards through Serge Gnabry and Alphonso Davies but failed to capitalise on them as Unai Emery and Co ended their unbeaten run this season with a great tactical performance.
GNK Dinamo Zagreb 2-2 AS Monaco
After the humiliation at the Allianz Arena in Gameweek 1, Dinamo were looking to make amends at home. With the rain beating down at the Maksimir Stadium, they opened the scoring just before the break when Petar Sucic sent a delightful lob over the Monaco keeper. The second goal from Dinamo came in the 66th minute when Martin Baturina scored a scorcher from outside the box.
Just when Dinamo thought they had a comfortable lead, however, an inspired Monaco comeback came about as Mohammed Salisu headed home from a corner in the 74th minute before Denis Zakaria converted a late penalty to rescue a point for his side.
SK Sturm Graz 0-1 Club Brugge KV
With both sides looking for their first win of the competition, it was the away side that scored the opener through a fantastic Christos Tzolis shot in the far-right corner in the 23rd minute. The Greece international’s strike turned out to be the decisive blow in what was a tight game.
The visitors almost took the lead after the break, but Sturm Graz goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen came to the hosts’ rescue with a series of decent saves. Buoyed on by the home fans, Christian Ilzer’s team went in search for an equaliser but couldn’t force the issue in the end.
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