The clashes in Champions League Group B saw two Canadian national team members appearing. Alphonso Davies started the game for Bayern Munich against Olympiacos Athens, while Milan Borjan and his Red Star Belgrade played against Tottenham Hotspurs.
Bayern defeated the Greek champions with 2-0, but it wasn’t the performance many expected to see. After a recent change at the head coach position and Niko Kovac’s departure, the Bavarian team was once again pale and unconvincing, although they routinely won this clash.
That was mostly because of the visitors, who were a bit stiff and frightened. They had several situations in which their offensive players couldn’t go all the way with counter-attacks, that often finished with some wide shot, or an inaccurate pass.
After the first 45 minutes, which saw no goals, the hosts woke up in the 69th minute when Lewandowski broke the ice, and one minute before the end of the regular part of the event, Ivan Perisic doubled the lead.
Davies began his fourth consecutive game in the starting lineup, and in 90 minutes he showed excellent composure in both ways but was a bit more defensive-minded than he should have been according to the reporters. Still, for him, this is a solid way to force his way into the regular lineup and to slowly become one of the cornerstones of Bayern’s future.
“Personally, I’m very happy with how I played, I think I defended well,” Davies said after the game. “As a team, we also played well and created lots of chances, we could have scored more.”
The interim head coach of the Bavarians, Hansi Flick, was also pleased with the way Davies played and praised his defensive efforts.
“Defensively, he was very good,” Flick told. “He has a lot of speed, that is his biggest advantage.”
In the second game of Group B, Canada’s national team goalkeeper, Milan Borjan, didn’t have such a nice experience as Davies. His Red Star was once again humiliated by the Tottenham Hotspurs, only this time it was in Belgrade, in front of the home crowd. The result was 0-4 for the visitors.
“It was a hard game,” Borjan said after the game. “We didn’t use our chances, and they punished us severely. I am proud of my teammates, we played hard, and those changes we haven’t used cost us dearly.”
With 0-0, Milan Pavkov had a golden opportunity to score, but he sent a shot from 7 yards straight into Gazzaniga. On the other side, the Spurs had 5 shots and four goals. Son posted two, Lo Celso and Eriksen, one each.
For Borjan, this night will be very important for one other reason. He became the goalkeeper with the most international appearances in Red Star’s jersey. It was one thing that cheered him up following this loss.
“It means a lot to me. Great goalkeepers played here, and that makes me feel honored and proud. I will do my best to continue like this and break more records.”
