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The UEFA Champions League is a synonym for top class individual and team performances which are meant to excite and delight all football fans alike.
The return of the Champions League group stage did the same with Messi, Liverpool and Lyon all doing brilliantly to show us the best of football.
There are two sides to everything, and for every star performer, there was someone who failed to entertain. We take a look at the flops from the first match day of the Champions League.
#1 Harry Kane
It looked like everything was going well for Harry Kane when he finally scored in August earlier this season. Things have changed dramatically since it looks like he has run into another dry spell.
Another disappointing performance at the home of Inter Milan will give rise to more suggestions of the striker being burnt out and out of sorts.
He has yet to score this month and has been dismal in the matches against Watford and Liverpool off late.
There was no dynamism from the English forward in Italy as well. Mauro Icardi, the opposition striker and captain clearly upstaged Kane in all departments, being more of a threat with and without the ball.
#2 Neymar Jr.
The Paris Saint Germain experiment has taken yet another turn for the worse for the Brazilian star. The build-up to the match was about his diving antics instead of his attacking threat, which might be considered harsh keeping his talent in mind.
The performance quickly made it clear why no one speaks about his on-pitch talent anymore. He did provide the assist for Mbappe's goal and had a few runs here and there but he seemed overwhelmed by the physical nature of the game and could not adapt to the intensity until the very end.
He offered no threat at all in a dismal showing and to add to that, his lack of defensive positioning gave Liverpool a constant out ball to young Alexander Arnold.
The injury at the end of last season, along with the bad World Cup has somehow affected him in the worst way possible.
The golden boy needs to realize that he isn't a boy anymore and has to step up if PSG is to do better.
#3 Dani Parejo
When your team is in the same group as the likes of Juventus and Manchester United you need all the help possible to get things going your way.
When Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off in what was a very debatable decision by the ref, Valencia and their captain seemed to have gotten the help they needed.
Parejo is a brilliant passer of the ball and an able leader of this new-look attacking Valencia side.
Instead of capitalizing on the circumstances he lead his team into producing a timid performance littered with mistakes.
He conceded the penalty to make it 1-0 to Juventus, was yellow carded, produced a really bad captain's performance and capped off the night with a missed penalty to top things off. He will have to improve if his team have to progress to the knockout stages.
