As much as Manchester City’s first half explosion has highlighted Tuesday’s first half, it’s the lack of goals in Paris and Plzen that stand out.
Bayern Munich, expected to roll to a record-tying win, have been help off the scoresheet by a Viktoria side they beat 5-0 two weeks ago. And at the Parc de Princes, Belgian champions Anderlect have managed to take Paris Saint-Germain to intermission nil-nil, the Purple-Whites 45 minutes away from their first points of the tournament.
But the eye-catcher is in Manchester. A take-down of David Silva in the third minute allowed Sergio Agüero to open the scoring from the spot. The Argentine striker took his second in the 20th minute, a right-footed finish into the lower-right corner doubling City’s lead. Álvaro Negredo’s goal on the half-hour pushed the lead to three, but with Seydou Doumbia breaking through for CSKA just before the whistle, the over-matched and out-worked Russians have slim hopes of staying in knockout round contention.
An Arturo Vidal penalty conversion has a dominant Juventus up in Turin, while early goals in Denmark and Greece have also given home teams a halftime edge. Four games, however, go to halftime as they started, with an entertaining affair in Donetsk somehow failing to produce a goal.
Here are all the halftime numbers, courtesy of Opta and WhoScored.com:
| Group | Home-Road | Score | Shots | Shots on Goal |
Possession |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Real Sociedad-Manchester United | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-1 | 44-56 |
| A | Shakhtar Donetsk-Bayer Leverkusen | 0-0 | 2-10 | 1-5 | 42-58 |
| B | Juventus-Real Madrid | 1-0 | 15-5 | 6-1 | 52-48 |
| B | Copenhagen-Galatasaray | 1-0 | 8-7 | 2-3 | 48-52 |
| C | Paris Saint-Germain-Anderlecht | 0-0 | 5-5 | 0-2 | 65-35 |
| C | Olympiacos-Benfica | 1-0 | 4-5 | 2-3 | 39-61 |
| D | Manchester City-CSKA Moscow | 3-1 | 9-7 | 4-2 | 64-36 |
| D | Viktoria Plzen-Bayern Munich | 0-0 | 8-10 | 0-5 | 29-71 |