UEFA Champions League 2018-19: 3 talking points from Group G's final day matches (Real Madrid, Roma, Viktoria Plzen, CSKA Moscow)
The Match Day 6 action in the UEFA Champions League 2018-19 season saw three-time defending champions Real Madrid face off against CSKA Moscow at the Santiago Bernabeu. Roma, who had also qualified, faced off against Czech side Viktoria Plzen.
The primary battle in Group G was for the Europa League third-place spot between CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen.
Let's look at the 3 major talking points from Match Day 6 of the UEFA Champions League Group G matches:
#1 Real Madrid suffer historic home defeat to CSKA Moscow, but still top group:
Real Madrid had already suffered a 1-0 away defeat to CSKA Moscow earlier in their Champions League campaign. Despite that loss, Madrid were assured of a top spot in Group G already before the start of this match.
Several of the regular starters were rested in favour of the academy players and the result was not what Santiago Solari would have expected. Chalov and Schennikov scored before halftime to hand CSKA Moscow a two-goal advantage before Siggurdson added a third to pile more misery on to a hapless Madrid defence.
The result was a historic defeat for Real Madrid as they had not lost twice to the same team in the group stage of the Champions League since they were beaten home and away by Juventus in 2008-09.
Solari accepted responsibility for the loss: "I did not like the second half. I must take responsibility for the team that I fielded and the game I am proposing, with many young guys"."It has helped us to give them experience and they need it: young players, players who need rest and those who come back from injury. It is not a path of roses". "We do not like the result. We had confidence in a victory."