Champions League kicks off with night of one-sided games
LONDON: As the Champions League opened with a series of one-sided games, Jose Mourinho was blunt. For the Manchester United manager, it wasn’t the Champions League at all.
“For the Real Madrids, Barcelonas and Bayerns, the Champions League starts in February. Now is just the warming up,” Mourinho said after a routine win for his Manchester United team over Swiss club Basel. “Let’s qualify, let’s make the points to qualify for the knockout phase. When we do that, let’s enjoy playing against the big guys.”
United, Chelsea, Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich all cruised to easy wins on Tuesday, scoring 17 goals between them and conceding none.
Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Juventus was something of an exception, if only because the Italian champions — last season’s defeated finalists — had been expected to put up more of a fight.