UEFA Competitions
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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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 …
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...Ten years ago Arsenal were thrashed by the Bavarian giants – now Mikel Arteta’s men are rated the best side in Europe
November 2015. The Allianz Arena, Munich. A decade ago, yet a lifetime away for Arsenal in the Champions League.
That night Arsène Wenger’s team were so shredded in a 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich that my Guardian colleague David Hytner likened them to “the chicken feed from the lower reaches of the Bundesliga that Bayern routinely gobble up”. It was Arsenal’s joint‑worst result in Europe. And to rub it in, Bayern repeated the trick the following season. Twice: 5-1 at home, then 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
Continue reading...Forward fit to face Chelsea after shaking off cold
Barça manager is happy to have England player
Hansi Flick has said that joining Barcelona on loan from Manchester United and experiencing life in a new country has put the smile back on Marcus Rashford’s face.
The forward was out of favour at United last season but he has found fresh momentum since moving to Spain. Rashford has made a positive impression for Barça, scoring six times in all competitions this season, and Flick is relieved that the England international is fit to face Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday night after missing his side’s win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday with a cold.
Continue reading...When Chelsea host Barcelona, fans can assess two 18-year-olds who are equally tipped as future Ballon d’Or winners
Comparisons mean little to Estêvão Willian. The Brazil winger did not even take kindly to being nicknamed Messinho – “Little Messi” – earlier in his career. He called the nickname “disruptive” and made clear that he had no interest in trying to be someone else. “I don’t like comparisons,” the 18-year-old told ESPN Brasil last year. “For those who don’t know how to deal with it, it’s quite disruptive. Me being Estêvão is very good.”
Chelsea no doubt agree. After all, opposition defenders aside, who could possibly complain about Estêvão just being Estêvão? Not for nothing is he widely tipped to win the Ballon d’Or one day. The teenager’s talent is outrageous, his start to life in England has been better than expected and, although the obvious risk with heaping too much praise on a young prospect is that it makes them take their eye off the ball, it is telling that those who know Estêvão say one of the qualities that set him apart is his character.
Continue reading...Tottenham manager can afford a midweek defeat in Paris, but the same does not apply to Fulham’s visit on Saturday
Welcome, then, to another of those Spurs weeks, where the executives are deeply concerned and it is impossible to ignore the sense of foreboding. The 4-1 derby humiliation at Arsenal on Sunday ensured the club are playing a game of crisis-baton hot potato with Liverpool and surely the last thing that the manager, Thomas Frank, needs is a Champions League trip to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.
This is not the real fear because it is just about possible to paint the game against the European champions as a free hit. Even in the best of times, nobody would have expected much from Tottenham there and, with two wins and two draws from four matches in the competition, they can afford to lose this one.
Continue reading...Europa League prices last season praised as ‘sensible’
Trust asks Tottenham to make ticketing fair
The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) has said “unaffordable” ticket prices are behind the declining atmosphere at the club’s stadium.
Spurs have won three of 20 home Premier League games in 2025 in their 62,850-seat ground. Although the venue came alive during last season’s successful Europa League campaign, the club’s return to the Champions League has resulted in crowds of 54,755 and 49,565 for home fixtures against Villarreal and Copenhagen.
Continue reading...Incidents alleged to have happened in two matches
‘Such behaviour is contrary to the club’s values’
The Ligue 1 club Lille will pursue legal action against some of their fans after incidents of hate speech and racist insults in the visitors’ stands during their matches at Red Star Belgrade and Strasbourg last week.
“LOSC strongly condemns the unacceptable behaviour observed, as well as the hateful comments and racist insults made by certain individuals in the visitors’ section during trips to Belgrade and Strasbourg last Thursday and Sunday,” the club said in a statement.
Continue reading...There was admirable efficiency about the way Roma dealt with this trip to Glasgow. Minimum of fuss. The team from Italy’s capital did, nonetheless, meet favourable opposition when placing their Europa League bid back on track. There was a glaring gulf in quality between Roma and a Rangers side which has now lost a club record seven European games in a row.
To their credit, Rangers at least huffed and puffed during a second half when capitulation felt the more likely option. However, the game was settled as a contest by then. Rangers remain rooted to the bottom of the Europa League, which should constitute an embarrassment to a club of this standing. Roma have eyes once more on making proper impact. Their only regret here was in not delivering a scoreline appropriately depicting men against boys.
Continue reading...Martin O’Neill’s side leak three first-half goals in 3-1 defeat
Gibbs-White misses penalty as Forest held by Sturm Graz
Celtic’s revival under Martin O’Neill came juddering to a halt in Jutland after they were beaten 3-1 by Midtjylland. The Hoops’ hopes of prolonging their Europa League campaign into the knockout stages suffered a major blow as the Danes hammered in three goals in eight first-half minutes.
The teenage substitute Callum Osmand won a late penalty which Reo Hatate converted, but the 19-year-old was then taken off on a stretcher in tears after suffering what appeared to be a hamstring injury on a horrible evening for the Scottish champions.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...The Scottish midfielder on the constant battle to keep his place, the ‘stigma’ of employing a home chef, and why he believes Aston Villa will win a big trophy soon
John McGinn has spent the best part of half an hour reflecting on his journey to this point, his next appearance for Aston Villa his 300th for the club, when he volunteers something of a confession. Asked whether he has lasered in on nutrition to maximise performance, perhaps inspired by Erling Haaland revealing his penchant for raw milk and honey, the Villa captain smiles a little sheepishly. “Yeah, I have, which makes me feel quite uncomfortable because I’m from a very humble part of the world,” he says, referring to his roots in Clydebank, a few miles north-west of Glasgow.
“They will all laugh at me and wind me up for it but I do have a chef at home. I think there is a stigma towards it: ‘Who do you think you are?’ Which I get, because it used to be me thinking that. I was more nervous about telling my siblings and my mum and dad about the idea of having a chef than actually having one. My mum and dad were always running us about to training and if my dad was cooking it was always whatever is left in the fridge.
Continue reading...