A jam-packed night of Champions League play-off action started with Newcastle United putting six past a beleaguered Qarabag side and ended with 19 goals being scored across four first-leg games.
Bodo/Glimt stunned last season’s finalists Inter in the Arctic Circle, Atletico Madrid were held to a 3-3 draw by a valiant Club Brugge and Olympiacos fell to a 2-0 defeat by Bayer Leverkusen in a game dominated by a nasty collision between team-mates in the first half.
Here, Stuart James analyses the key talking points.
Who was right in Gordon-Trippier argument?
It was a curious sight, to say the least.
With Newcastle leading 5-0 against Qarabag at half-time, Dan Burn had to step between their captain Kieran Trippier and their leading goalscorer in Anthony Gordon to defuse an argument as the players walked towards the dressing room.
The disagreement started a few minutes earlier, when Newcastle were awarded their second penalty of the night after Gordon had been brought down by the Qarabag goalkeeper. Gordon had already scored a hat-trick by that stage, including a goal from the spot, prompting Trippier to intervene.
As Gordon held the ball in his hands, Trippier appeared to suggest the Newcastle forward should let someone else have a chance to score, which is not a situation you expect to find during the first half of a two-legged Champions League play-off tie to reach the knockout stage.
Gordon refused and kept hold of the ball, leaving Trippier with no option but to retreat. The penalty was duly dispatched and that should have been that. Except it wasn’t.
Anthony Gordon dispatches his penalty for Newcastle’s fifth (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Trippier and Gordon’s beef continued, leading to Burn playing the role of peacemaker as they left the pitch at half time. Anthony Elanga put his arm around Gordon, and Joe Willock did likewise with Trippier. Joelinton, one of the substitutes, also got involved.
Everyone will have their own view on this kind of thing. But why should Gordon, the club’s designated penalty taker — who has scored eight from the spot for Newcastle this season — hand over the ball because he already has a hat-trick and Qarabag are playing like the Dog & Duck in the Sunday morning pub league? He is a forward, so logically he wants to score goals.
At least they could both laugh about it later. The pair embraced when Gordon was withdrawn midway through the second half, and later gave a post-match interview together to TNT Sports.
“Gordy had scored a hat-trick and I think the players are (wondering) why he needs to take a penalty. But also, he’s our penalty taker so he wants to score goals, as everybody else does,” Trippier said.
“Emotions do get high,” Gordon added. “But he (Trippier) is one of my closest team-mates, and he has been since I joined the club.”
“Boxing gloves in training!” said Trippier with a smile.
Where are Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer when you need them?
Dramatic collision between Olympiacos team-mates
It was a sickening clash of heads that made you wince. The Olympiacos captain Panagiotis Retsos and his team-mate Lorenzo Pirola ended up accidentally running into one another after challenging for the same ball in the first half of their play-off tie against Bayer Leverkusen in Greece.
Retsos made contact with the ball first but collided with Pirola a split second later, leading to the referee and players from both teams urgently calling for medical attention.
Although Pirola sat up, he had a bad gash on his forehead and blood was seen spilling down his face. Retsos clearly in a lot of pain as medical staff used a sponge to wipe away the blood that was coming from his chin.
The game was held up for nearly six minutes before both players returned — something that seemed remarkable in the circumstances. The medical staff must have been satisfied that neither Retsos nor Pirola were suffering from concussion, but there was still something uneasy and uncomfortable about seeing the pair back on the pitch so soon after that collision.
Retsos, who had to change his shirt because it was covered in blood, had a plaster right the way across his jaw. As for Pirola, he had a dressing on his forehead with a bandage to hold it in place — albeit that turned out to be little more than a temporary solution.
Lorenzo Pirola’s bandage proved to be only a temporary solution (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
Three minutes after play resumed, Pirola was in difficulties again, with blood streaming through the dressing. As he sat and waited for more medical attention, one of his team-mates pushed him back onto the floor, forcing him to lie down.
Another hold-up followed, with some of the Leverkusen players now becoming frustrated by the delay and what felt like a clear need to make a substitution. The referee encouraged the Olympiacos medical staff to take Pirola off the pitch — something they seemed reluctant to do initially, despite Giulian Biancone preparing to come on and replace him on the sidelines.
Strangely, that substitution was not made and Olympiacos scored with Pirola off the pitch. The goal by Ayoub El Kaabi was eventually disallowed for offside after the intervention of VAR. But, incredibly, Pirola came back on again and immediately headed the ball from the free-kick that followed.
Although Pirola did not re-emerge for the second half, Retsos completed the game, which Leverkusen won 2-0 after scoring twice in three minutes in the second half.
Brilliant Bodo/Glimt, comical Qarabag and the two sides to the play-offs
Sometimes less is more. The expanded Champions League format, which was introduced last season, means the new league phase features 36 teams and 144 matches. Do we really need a play-off round on top of that, which includes another eight ties and an additional 16 games before the knockout stage proper?
That felt like a valid question to ask after watching Newcastle’s embarrassingly one-sided first half against Qarabag, when the Premier League club racked up five goals without reply. Yet by the end of the night it was impossible to ignore the level of drama and entertainment served up across these play-off first legs.
The eight matches delivered an astonishing 34 goals, including a couple of huge upsets, starting with Galatasaray beating Juventus 5-2 on Tuesday evening and finishing with Norwegians Bodo/Glimt writing another chapter in their fairytale story by beating Inter, the Serie A leaders and runners-up in the competition last season, 3-1 at home.
With snow banked up behind the advertisement hoardings at Bodo/Glimt’s home ground, and the all-weather artificial pitch not the sort of surface elite footballers will ever enjoy playing on, all the ingredients were there for an upset before a ball has been kicked. But that should not detract from the quality of football played by Kjetil Knutsen’s team.
Bodo/Glimt have now beaten three European heavyweights in a row (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Their third goal against Inter, selflessly set up by Ole Didrik Blomberg and converted by Kasper Waarts Hogh, was a joy to watch and epitomised what they are all about. Hogh, pictured above, has now scored four goals and registered two assists in his past three matches. The opponents? Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter. Bodo/Glimt have beaten them all.
With that in mind, it is hard to argue against the merits of a format that gives a team who in 23rd place in the 36-team league phase — as was the case with Bodo/Glimt — another shot at Champions League glory.
How Qarabag somehow managed to finish in 22nd place, meanwhile, is a question for another time.