Category: Football (Soccer)

Arsenal rout Bayern to stake a claim as Europe’s best, Liverpool spiral again, Benfica revive under Mourinho, and Estevão dazzles on a crowded week of stars

• Bayern Munich’s unbeaten run and claim to be the best team in European football were both punctured at the Emirates. Arsenalwere rampant against an opponent who have handed them so much pain in the past. The Gunners opened the scoring through their habitual set-piece goal, Jurriën Timber fulfilling the role of the absent Gabriel Magalhães. Lennart Karl, the 17-year-old, showed off his chops with a fine goal; from within Bayern have found the player they desired when they were thwarted in moving for Florian Wirtz. After that, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze took control in midfield, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli scoring the goals, the latter a humiliation of Manuel Neuer’s sweeper-keeper stylings. Amid the fug of the extended Champions League group-stage format, where matches between elite clubs are routine rather than novelty, this was still a statement victory. “I think they had an incredible match against, in my opinion, the best team in Europe,” Mikel Arteta said of his players. That status surely now lies with his team: Arsenal top the group-stage table with a 100% record.

New players have come in, too many of them, and that has meant a dilution of the collective will instilled by Klopp

Before this game Arne Slot had announced that he was “almost confused”. Which does at least raise some tantalising questions. Mainly, what is this Liverpool team going to look like when he gets there, when a state of full confusion is finally attained, when even Slot’s confusion stops being confusing and reveals its diamond-cut final form.

• Real Madrid edge home 4-3 in Greece

• Giménez heads home in injury time for Atlético

Kylian Mbappé scored the second-fastest hat-trick in the Champions League as he helped himself to all four goals in Real Madrid’s 4-3 win at Olympiacos. The La Liga leaders were trailing to Chiquinho’s early strike at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis before he intervened with a seven-minute treble after 22, 24 and 29 minutes.

Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who achieved the same feat in six minutes and 12 seconds against Rangers in October 2022, is ahead of him in the all-time list.

Vitinha was the star of an eight-goal thriller in Paris, while Liverpool’s abysmal run of form continued as PSV routed them at Anfield

All across the continent, teams line up to hear Zadok the Priest get his usual Uefa-sanctioned kicking. Poor Zadok’s a-cold! All of which is a roundabout way to say that we’ll be off in a minute. Big night coming up.

TNT have a quick word with Thomas Frank before kick-off. “There is one game in front of us, that’s PSG … if you look too much in the past you forget to look forward and do everything you can to perform now … that is all about performing tonight … make sure we compete … are brave … we are playing against a very mobile team … we have to match that … be aggressive … we need mobile, front-footed midfielders … a big night for us … we need to put a fight in.”

• Serhou Guirassy scores twice in 4-0 victory

• Juventus off the mark with winner at Bodø/Glimt

Borussia Dortmund ended a three-match winless run with a decisive 4-0 triumph against 10-man Villarreal, powered by a double from Serhou Guirassy.

The Guinean striker broke the deadlock in stoppage time before the break, heading home from a corner, and he made it 2-0 early in the second half.

You had to go back to September 2018 for the last time Manchester City lost a Champions League group match at home, when Pep Guardiola was in the stands because of a ban, and Nabil Fekir’s winner gave Lyon a 2-1 victory.

Guardiola stood down all but one of the XI that lost at Newcastle United and witnessed Bayer Leverkusen end a 23-match run in the type of off‑colour display reminiscent of last season.

Estêvão was the star of the show as Chelsea thoroughly dominated ten-man Barcelona

4 min: … there’s a scramble in the Chelsea box. Fofana chests down on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box and cuts back for Fernandez, who slams home from close range. But the flag immediately pops up for handball. Chest then ball. There’s not much in it, but the on-field decision stands. Barcelona couldn’t have complained too much had that stood.

3 min: It’s loud in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham tonight. Louder still when Estêvão wins the first corner of the evening down the right. From which …

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice to beat Newcastle while Leverkusen stunned a much-changed Manchester City

Full time: Ajax 0-2 Benfica

Jose Mourinho has won his first Champions League game Before Covid, 26 November 2019 to be precise. Ajax stay bottom with five defeats from five.

• ‘We are not there yet,’ Mikel Arteta said on club’s standing

• Bayern visit Arsenal in Champions League on Wednesday

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal remain in a “different universe” to European heavyweights such as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich given they have yet to win the Champions League.

The Premier League leaders head into their meeting with Bayern at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday having won all four matches so far in the league phase and are the only team yet to concede a goal.