Revenge is a dish best served cold. The old saying is perfectly in place for the Shakhtar Donetsk and Leipzig game in the Group F of the Champions League. Almost two months ago, the German club was in the middle of a terrible crisis, with only one win in six matches in Bundesliga, and then came the first game of the Champions League – a home duel with Shakhtar. The Ukrainians surprised Leipzig with more than a convincing 4-1 win, effectively ending Domenico Tedesco’s tenure as a head coach. But Leipzig bounced back under Marco Rose, won all other games in Europe (apart from a duel in Madrid against Real) and tonight, they thrashed Shakhtar in their temporary home in Poland 4-0 and eliminated them to the Europa League.Four @ChampionsLeague wins in a row! 📈🔴⚪ #WeAreLeipzig #UCL pic.twitter.com/sRR2uLEbx1— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) November 2, 2022 The Ukrainians needed only a win against Leipzig in order to progress, but they failed to show up tonight. Marco Rose’s men took the ball from the first minute and they hardly let it go. They had a total of 12 shots, eight of which were on target and 4 ended up behind home keeper Trubin. On the other hand, Christopher Nkunku was the one who started the scoring spree after just 10 minutes. The Frenchman has scored in his last three matches in all competitions, and has 13 goals this season, and tonight he only improved his record. He was Leipzig’s all-time top scorer in the Champions League together with Emil Forsberg, but he surpassed his teammate with his 11th goal.The Ukrainians looked like a totally different team than two months ago, in fact they looked like Leipzig from September. Even the new rising star Mykhaylo Mudryk was totally shut down and managed only one shot – off the target. Even the forgotten striker Andre Silva scored against Shakhtar, after a defensive blunder and bad reaction from Trubin. Dominik Szoboszlai added the third with a fine finish to the brilliant Nkunku’s pass, before substitute Dani Olmo scored a sensational fourth goal for the total humiliation.Group F of the Champions League with Real Madrid, Red Bull Leipzig, Shakhtar and Celtic was one of two Champions League groups with unsettled accounts in the matter of placing in the knockout stage. The Royal Club had only one task, to secure the first place in the group with a victory at the Santiago Bernabeu against the Scottish outsider, and it did as expected from the defending champions of Europe, with five goals in Celtic’s net – 5:1. The biggest misconception, which probably no one believed, was that Celtic, with no chance of being in the Europa League at all, is capable of remaining undefeated in Madrid. The Whites didn’t win so many Champions League trophies by going on the field when it mattered and disappointing. Carlo Ancelotti’s goals disarmed the team from Glasgow already by the middle of the first half, but the Spanish machine kept grinding until the very end. CHAMPIONS LEAGUEGroup stage – Round 6TuesdayLeverkusen – Club Brugge 0-0Porto – Atletico 2-1 (2-0)/Taremi 5, Eustaqio 24 – Marcano 90+5/Bayern – Inter 2-0 (1-0)/Pavard 32, Choupo-Moting 72//Liverpool – Napoli 2-0 (0-0)/Salah 85, Nunez 90+8/Olympique de Marseille – Tottenham 1-2 (1-0)/Mbemba 45+2 – Lenglet 54, Hojbjerg 90+5/Plzen – Barcelona 2-4 (0-2)/Chory 50 pen, 63 – Alonso 6, Torres 45, 54, Torre 75/Rangers – Ajax 1-3 (0-2)/Tavernier 86 pen – Berghuis 4, Kudus 29, 56, Conceicao 89/Sporting CP – Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 (1-0)/Gomes 39 – Kamada 62 pen, Kolo Muani 72/WednesdayReal Madrid – Celtic 5-1 (2-0)/Modric 6 pen, Rodrygo 21 pen, Asensio 51, Vinicius 67, Valverde 71 – Jota 84/Shakhtar – RB Leipzig 0-4 (0-1)/Nkunku 10, Silva 50, Szoboszlai 62, Olmo 68/23:00: (1.58) Milan (4.30) Salzburg (6.75)23:00: (1.38) Chelsea (5.50) Dinamo Zagreb (9.50)23:00: (4.90) Copenhagen (3.60) Dortmund (1.79)23:00: (1.28) Man.City (7.00) Sevilla (12.0)23:00: (5.10) Juventus (3.70) PSG (1.73)23:00: (5.20) Maccabi Haifa (3.80) Benfica (1.79)***odds are subject to change**
