Easily the most shocking result of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League playoff matches was Kazakhstani side Shakhter Karagandy’s 2-0 home win over Scottish powerhouse Celtic FC. Elsewhere, Real Sociedad defeated Lyon in France, and Zenit St. Petersburg scored its first goal (and win) in the competition in Portugal.
Shakhter Karagandy 2-0 Celtic
In the early kickoff, Andrei Finonchenko and Sergei Khizhnichenko scored for the home side to record the upset of the playoff round so far. Kazakhstan has never had a team in the Champions League group stage, but holding a two-goal advantage in Glasgow will be difficult, especially against a team that knows something about upsets, having defeated FC Barcelona in last year’s edition of the competition.
Paços de Ferreira 1-4 Zenit St. Petersburg
Russian international Roman Shirokov recorded a hat trick for Zenit to beat Paços 4-1. The away team never took its foot off the gas, but it never really got out of third gear in an easy victory. Andrey Arshavin and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk played only small roles, coming off the bench, and the Russian powerhouse left Hulk at home.
Viktoria Plzeň 3-1 NK Maribor
Marián Čišovský scored in the eighth minute for Plzeň, tying him for the goalscoring lead in the 2013 tournament with Shirokov, who scored a hat trick on the same day. The home team went up 2-0 before Maribor’s Aleš Mejač pulled one back, leaving the result in doubt until Michal Ďuriš sealed it in the 89th minute for the Czechs.
Olympique Lyonnais 0-2 Real Sociedad
Haris Seferović and Antoine Griezmann produced Goal of the Year candidates within the same 90 minutes to sink Lyon. Griezmann hit a stunning overhead kick from the top of the penalty area in the 17th minute, and Seferović followed up with a thunderous volley on a bouncing ball from the left flank in the 50th. (Watch the full video highlights here.)
PSV Eindhoven 1-1 AC Milan
In the most evenly contested game of the evening, Stephan El Shaarawy headed Milan in front in the first quarter of an hour, but Tim Matavž evened it up on the hour mark to make the second leg in Italy next week more interesting. The home side had more opportunities to score, but AC Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati was equal to the task to keep his team in the match.
Wednesday’s games (all 2:45 p.m. ET kickoffs): Dinamo Zagreb vs. Austria Wien, Schalke vs. PAOK, Ludogorets Razgrad vs. FC Basel, Steaua Bucharest vs. Legia Warsaw, Fenerbahçe vs. Arsenal
