Category: Football (Soccer)

This week’s action saw Vincent Kompany’s men roll on, surprise results and a brilliant performance from a Liverpool defender

• Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich. They rule supreme in Germany and are on a 16-match winning streak. Beating the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, on Tuesday was further proof of Bayern’s credentials. Luís Diaz, whose combativeness is sorely missed by Liverpool, scored two, but he took the aggression too far when his challenge on Achraf Hakimi led to a first-half red card. That meant the second half became a test of defensive credentials that Bayern passed. “I also want us to enjoy it when we have to defend,” said Kompany. He was by no means his club’s first-choice as coach in the summer of 2024 – relegation from the Premier League with Burnley had damaged his reputation. But in Bavaria, the noise from the boardroom has been quelled – for now – by the brilliance of his team’s play.

• Inter maintain perfect start with win over Kairat Almaty

• Pafos beat Villarreal to earn first Champions League win

Barcelona had to settle for a share of the spoils at Club Brugge after a thrilling 3-3 draw but were fortunate the English referee Anthony Taylor ruled out Romeo Vermant’s stoppage-time effort for a foul on the Barça goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

In a thriller at Brugge’s Jan Breydel Stadium, the home side opened the scoring through Nicolò Tresoldi in the sixth minute. But Barcelona hit back with Ferran Torres scoring from close range two minutes later only for Brugge to regainthe lead in the 17th minute through Carlos Forbs after another quick counter.

• Foden scores twice in 4-1 win over Borussia Dortmund

• ‘No one in the world doesn’t know about his quality’

Pep Guardiola said that “no one in the world” does not appreciate Phil Foden’s quality and urged Manchester City’s playmaker to push himself to be recalled by Thomas Tuchel for England after he scored twice in the 4-1 home Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.

Foden’s sumptuous strikes, on 22 and 57 minutes, were complemented by a rasping first-half finish from Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki’s late goal. Waldemar Anton netted a consolation for the visitors as City moved into fourth in the 36-team league phase table with to 10 points from four matches.

Manchester City and Newcastle United eased their opponents aside, while Brugge and Barcelona shared six goals in a wild affair in Belgium

Teams are emerging from tunnels all across Europe. Zadok the Priest (Version) blaring out hither and yon. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!

Going into the 8pm kick-offs, here’s how the league phase currently looks. When it’s all completed after eight games, the top eight will go through to the round of 16, positions nine to 16 will be seeded in the knockout stage and be drawn against positions 17 to 24, and everyone below will go home. So that’s a pretty big defeat for Villarreal in Cyprus tonight … and Chelsea now have a job on if they want to grab one of those top-eight spots, because they host Barcelona next, and still have to travel to Atalanta and Napoli.

If Phil Foden performs so, too, do Manchester City. This was reiterated by his two-goal show that helped to sweep Pep Guardiola’s improving team to 10 points from four games at the league stage’s halfway juncture.

Factor in Erling Haaland, who decorated his captaincy for the night with a 27th goal (for club and country), and Waldemar Anton’s 72nd-minute jab home was solely an irritation.

Alejandro Garnacho scored off the bench as Chelsea escaped from Azerbaijan with a point after being given a scare

1 min: No Caicedo or Enzo in midfield for Chelsea, and that’s going to be a test of Romeo Lavia and Andrey Santos. The young visitors get booed on every touch. Boos are very much in fashion in football, as Trent Alexander-Arnold will tell you.

Here we go in Baku, the teams are out, the jewel of the Land of Fire take on west London’s finest. The weather looks much the same as London today, though the pitch looks decidedly soggy.