European football: Bayern hold on to win as Leverkusen waste two-goal lead

  • Bayern Munich beat Augsburg 3-2 after leading 3-0

  • Bayer Leverkusen held 3-3 at Werder Bremen

Bayern Munich almost imploded in their 3-2 Bundesliga victory at Augsburg , conceding two goals for the second consecutive match after going 3-0 up soon after the break.

Bayern’s back line looked vulnerable, just as it had in Wednesday’s German Cup first round win over third-tier Wehen Wiesbaden in which they conceded two goals and needed a stoppage-time winner to advance.

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Chelsea 2-0 Fulham: Premier League – as it happened

Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernandez scored to give Chelsea the points but Fulham were furious about two VAR interventions

5 min Fulham try to play out from the back and lose the ball. Joao Pedro rakes a left-foot drive from 25 yards that is held to his left by Leno.

2 min Fulham have started with a back three/five, so this is their revised line-up.

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Championship roundup: Rubén Sellés admits job on line as Sheffield United lose again

  • Fans turn on Sellés as Blades slump to fourth defeat

  • Ipswich rescue point in 16th minute of stoppage time

Rubén Sellés admitted his future as Sheffield United manager is out of his hands as Blades fans called for the Spaniard to be sacked after just four league games in charge.

Sellés’ nightmare start to life in charge of United continued as they went down 1-0 at table-topping Middlesbrough, leaving the Blades bottom and without a point going into the first international break. The away fans at the Riverside turned on Sellés and chanted the name of former manager Chris Wilder after Tommy Conway sealed a fourth straight win for Boro with a fine second-half strike.

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Leicester 2-0 Birmingham: Championship – as it happened

Abdul Fatawu’s opener and a Ricardo goal created by 16-year-old Jeremy Monga took the midlands spoils

1 min: Off we go. Some empty seats? And a stray cone left on the field delayed the kick-off. A guilty coach had to run on and remove it. It’s high press and high energy already.

Some loud Kasbabian – thankfully not their awful Sky Premier League anthem – is ringing out. Here we go in the greatest league in the whole bloody world. The teams come out to applause for the last game of August.

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Abdul Fatawu screamer sets up Leicester’s impressive win over Birmingham

Abdul Fatawu’s stunning early goal and Ricardo Pereira’s late effort gave Leicester record a hard-fought but deserved victory over Birmingham in the Championship. Fatawu’s brilliant finish lit up a game of precious few chances, as these two Midlands rivals slugged it out under the lights at the KP Stadium.

Chris Davies’s side, who came into the contest unbeaten in the second tier, improved as the contest between two of the league’s most fancied clubs wore on. But with Jay Stansfield ruled out they struggled to create enough to trouble Martí Cifuentes’s side, before the Leicester substitute pounced following 16-year-old Jeremy Monga’s memorable assist.

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No excuses for Arteta and Arsenal with new signings set for Liverpool trip | Barney Ronay

Three seasons of work from the head coach on the same host body have led in a straight line to Anfield where Arteta can shape his destiny

After tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches.

This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination.

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Blockbuster Champions League draw is intriguing but ultimately irrelevant | Jonathan Wilson

Fans will continue to lap up massive games but perhaps the teams involved will conclude they are not that important

Liverpool v Real Madrid! Arsenal v Bayern! Chelsea v Napoli! Madrid v Manchester City! Bayern v Chelsea! Newcastle v Barcelona! Inter v Liverpool! PSG v Bayern! City v Napoli! Madrid v Juventus! Chelsea v Barcelona! It can’t be denied that the Champions League draw threw up some ties that look like massive games.

These are games that have massive teams in them. They are happening in a massive competition. There will be famous players in famous kits in famous stadiums. There will be Champions League branding. They will play the Champions League theme tune. They will use the Champions League ball, taking its cues this season from the night sky and featuring hand-drawn zodiac signs in gold that symbolise heroic deeds and heavenly destiny. It will all look like something really important.

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Grimsby beat Manchester United, Club Brugge thrash Rangers, and more: Champions League and Carabao Cup – as it happened

Fresh humiliation for Manchester United as Grimsby knock them out of the Carabao Cup after an epic shootout, while Rangers are thrashed in Bruges

And that is surely curtains for Rangers! It’s a splendid cross from the left, and Nicolo Tresoldi stoops at the near post to power in the header!

Rangers will have to learn how to deal a bit better with the pace of Carlos Forbs on the right of the Brugge attack, because scything him down in full flight is not a long-term solution. They give away a free-kick, which is curled out of play.

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Club Brugge pulverise 10-man Rangers to heap misery on Russell Martin

The Old Firm derby on Sunday will have Europa League teams. If Celtic have deep regrets over misfires in Kazakhstan, Rangers endured a night of near-historic shame in Belgium, utterly incapable of recovering from the first‑leg performance. By contrast to this horror show, that night of blunder was a creditable showing. Russell Martin’s team made it so simple for an admittedly high-class Brugge side.

On Martin the jury is out, his winless start to the domestic season followed by this nightmare. The former Southampton manager’s stewardship is in grave danger after 10 games in charge. The response of the club’s new 49ers ownership, for whom Martin was the first managerial appointment, is keenly awaited. The depths to which Rangers plunged, particularly in the first half, made a mockery of his continued self-belief, his proclamations that his is the only way forward.

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Chelsea close in on deal for Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho

  • United ready to accept £35m-£40m for winger

  • Garnacho out of favour with Ruben Amorim

Chelsea are close to an agreement to sign Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho in a deal likely to be worth between £35m and £40m.

Talks are yet to conclude but there is an expectation United will lower their £50m asking price and reach a compromise that will allow the winger to move to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea are waiting to hear back from United and are confident the deal will go ahead. Garnacho has no future under Ruben Amorim but Chelsea regard the Argentinian as a top talent and believe they can get his career back on track.

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