UEFA Champions League: Chelsea shocked by Basel at the Bridge

Throughout the year, the Champions League anthem echos in cities across Europe, crescendoing with a final call of “the chaaaaaaaampions.” On Wednesday, that echo was real.

Of note: Napoli fans are mean for startling the dog.

Just another day in Europe’s biggest club competition. Here’s a recap of all the action from Wednesday:

Full match report here

As the half wore on, Celtic were able to garner more and more possession but this meant that Milan were now a danger on the break as Nocerino hit a wicked dipping volley from 25 yards that flew just inches over the bar.

At the start of the second period, Celtic were afforded their best opportunity so far as Samaras, quiet up until this point, went on a jinking solo run, his shot grazing the outside of the post.

The opening 15 minutes were a bit of a herky-jerky affair as the two sides combined some free flowing attacking play with a lot of ticky-tack fouls that forced the referee to break up the play with frequent whistles.

Gonzalo Higuaín was dangerous from the start though and nearly put Napoli in front in the 15th minute after he broke in behind the Dortmund back line. Neven Subotic made a lightning quick recovery, though, and dispossessed HIguain as he moved in on Roman Weidenfeller, making a superbly timed tackle.

FC Basel have pulled off the biggest upset of the Champions League thus far, impressively downing Chelsea, 2-1, at Stamford Bridge. The hosts took the lead in the first half, but were undone by the direct counter-attacking of the Swiss champions in the second half.

Chelsea dominated in the early going, though they struggled to find a breakthrough. Even though they picked a more attacking lineup than usual, starting two strikers and a pair of attack-minded midfielders in a 4-4-2 lineup, they began the game by defending deep with nine men behind the ball. The Blues controlled possession and generated some half-chances, but nothing concrete.

• Full coverage of the Champions League’s first matchday

• Shakhtar’s dream is La Real’s nightmare

Jürgen Klopp’s starting 11 is free of shocks as well with Robert Lewandowksi leading the attack. Klopp did decide to go with Jakub Blaszczykowski’s experience on the wing over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s youthful, goal scoring exuberance. Depending on how things good, there’s a good chance you’ll see PEA off the bench.

Borussia Dortmund starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Roman Weidenfeller, Kevin Großkreutz, Neven Subotic, Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer; Sven Bender, Nuri Sahin; Jakub Blaszczykowski, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus; Robert Lewandowski.

There are no great surprises in either lineup, with Marseille leaving out veteran midfielder Souleymane Diawara. He was suffering with a thigh injury in the run-up to this game, and hasn’t been declared fit enough for either the bench or a starting spot. Instead, Alaixys Romao and Giannelli Imbula make up their holding pivot.

• Full coverage of the Champions League’s first matchday

• Full coverage of the Champions League’s first matchday

• Shakhtar’s dream is La Real’s nightmare

They may no longer be the dominant force in French football, though Marseille still boast an impressive squad, and one that the Gunners shouldn’t underestimate. Having added both talented youth and experience in the summer -- including attacking midfielder Florian Thauvin and winger Dimitri Payet from Lille -- Élie Baup’s team should be the best of the rest behind the big-spending Paris-Saint Germain and Monaco in Ligue 1 this season.

Marseille injuries and suspensions

Unfortunately for the Blaugrana, they can’t stake their claim to a Bayern challenger or fight off the speculation that their domestic reign will end on Wednesday. Such is the nature of playing Ajax.

Ajax, as historical and wonderful a team as they may be with an attractive style and a seemingly endless supply of skillful players ready to play for the biggest clubs in the world, are not an especially good team. They play in a league that is just barely among Europe’s top 10 and haven’t made it out of the group stage since 2006, when they beat out Sparta Prague and Thun.

Galatasaray actually had Madrid on the back foot in the early going as they slowly built into the attack and exploited a Merengues midfield that took nearly a half hour to get into the match. But once Madrid found their footing, it was all over.

Isco gave the visitors a lead in the 33rd minute as he got the ball on the counterattack and nearly single-handedly undid the Galatasaray defense. He turned them inside out before cutting to the center and firing off the post and in for a 1-0 lead.

It took only four minutes for Bayern to open the scoring, when Alaba curled a long-range free-kick beyond a less-than-impressive Igor Akinfeev. The Russian goalkeeper should have done better with what looked to be a saveable set-piece, having gotten a hand to the ball but failed to keep it out.

Bayern immediately streamed forward, smelling blood. Inside five minutes Akinfeev made amends for his initial error, making a good save on a close-range effort from Mario Mandžukić. The hosts continued to pepper their opposition’s goal with crosses, with Mandžukić going close with a header just short of 15 minutes in.

With the result well in hand, City got a bit more conservative for the final 30 minutes of the match. Aguero had a couple more chances and Tomas Horava hit the crossbar for Plzen late, but there would be no more goals after Aguero’s.

Viktoria Plzen: Kazacik, Limbersky, Prochazka, Hejda (Hubnik 67’), Rajtoral, Horvath, Horava, Kovarik, Kolar (Duris 61’), Petrzela, Bakos (Tecil 84’)

United were still on top, and seemed sure to go 2-0 up when Toprak slipped at the edge of the Bayer box. In a flash, Rooney was onto the ball, eschewing the opportunity to pass to van Persie, instead rounding Leno and setting up at two versus zero. At that point, Rooney squared across the face of goal -- but to everyone’s horror van Persie had given up on the play and couldn’t convert.

Considering the utter lack of punch Bayer had demonstrated until that point, the miss seemed more annoying than truly dangerous, but as is so often the case that mistake came back to haunt them. Neung-Min Son laid the ball out to Rolfes 25 yards out, and the midfielder produced a magnificent curling strike that swerved back inside the post and left David de Gea both motionless and marveling at the strike.

Congratulations Galatasaray fans, you win the day.

In case you missed the amazing display, here’s a video of the entire production:

It didn’t even take 30 minutes for the first spectacular goal of this season’s UEFA Champions League group stages to be scored.

Enjoy!

The move to leave the record signing on the bench is no huge surprise as the Welshman hasn’t played much football due to injury and his transfer saga this pre-season, and Angel Di Maria should be more than a capable replacement.

CSKA Moscow have picked a very attacking lineup, apparently unfazed by the weapons Bayern is going to be throwing at them. Their midfielders, wingers and forwards are very interchangeable and haven’t been put in set roles so far this season, so guessing their exact formation and the way their attackers will be aligned isn’t easy. Don’t be shocked if Ahmed Musa is actually playing center forward, with Vitinho playing wide. CSKA has played both players in both positions this season,.

• Full coverage of the Champions League’s first matchday

Viktoria Plzen starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Matus Kazacik; David Limbersky, Vaclav Prochazka, Lukas Hejda, Frantisek Rajtoral; Pavel Horvath, Tomas Horava; Jan Kovarik, Daniel Kolar, Milan Petrzela; Marek Bakos.

Substitutes from: Petr Bolek, Roman Hubnik, Martin Pospisil, Zdenek Koukal, Stanislav Tecl, Michal Duris, Tomas Wagner.

Bayer, meanwhile, line up with Emre Can and Simon Rolfes in a solid-looking base, with Son Heung-Min the playmaker just ahead. Stefan Kiessling leads the line up front on his own.

Bayer Leverkusen starting line-up: Bernd Leno, Emir Spahic, Sebastian Boenisch, Omer Toprak, Giulio Donati, Stefan Reinartz, Simon Rolfes, Emre Can, Sidnei Sam, Son Heung-Min, Stefan Kiessling

Real Madrid start their Champions League campaign away in Istanbul, where they meet Galatasaray once again. The Turkish champions gave Los Merengues a scare with a 3-2 home victory in last season’s quarter-finals, though José Mourinho’s side still progressed on aggregate. This time, and with Real under new management, things shouldn’t be so close.

Galatasaray injuries and suspensions

Sami Hyypiä‘s team have picked up 12 points from their opening five matches, currently sitting third in the Bundesliga. United will be their toughest test yet, though they certainly have the potential to take points from Moyes’ team in their first trip to Old Trafford since 2002.

Bayer Leverkusen have Niklas Lomb and Dominik Kohr both unavailable, though their real concerns are the doubtful midfielders Lars Bender and Gonzalo Castro. Both are instrumental parts of Hyypiä‘s starting 11, though could miss out on this game through injury.

Bayern Munich are still unbeaten in competitive matches under Pep Guardiola and should maintain their impressive start at home to CSKA Moscow on Tuesday. The Bavarians are expected to start their defence of the Champions League with a victory at home to the Russian champions, even though CSKA are currently top of the Russian Premier League after an impressive start.

CSKA Moscow boast some excellent talent, including Russian international goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, highly sought-after Japanese international Keisuke Honda and young playmaker Alan Dzagoev. However, it’d still be surprising if they manage to come away from the Allianz Arena with any points against a team who can claim to be the strongest in the world at the moment.

The peril of a club outside Europe’s elite doing well domestically and qualifying for Champions League football in the process is that the talent that got them there is so often snapped up by those above them.

It is a testament though to their work in the transfer window that they have managed to find able replacements, who will play a key role in this intriguing Champions League tie.