Category: UEFA Competitions

The latest round of Champions League games are in the books. We run through the standouts, surprises and disappointments, grading all 32 teams

Editor’s note: these grades are for teams’ performances in this week’s round of matches rather than their chances of winning the competition as a whole.

• Danes draw 0-0 in Munich; PSV beat Sevilla to reach last 16
• Sánchez completes Inter’s three-goal comeback at Benfica

Copenhagen ground out a 0-0 draw at Bayern Munich in Champions League Group A to end their opponents’ 17-game winning run in group-stage matches and give themselves a great chance of reaching the last 16.

Copenhagen had an early chance when Roony Bardghji’s 27th-minute shot sailed narrowly wide and Thomas Müller’s close-range header for Bayern was saved by Kamil Grabara. The visitors, whose solid backline has been key to their success this season, defended well and came close again two minutes after the restart through Diogo Goncalves’ curled shot.

Kai Havertz opened the scoring as Arsenal scored five times in the first half to romp into the last 16

That PSV result does put a bit of pressure on Arsenal, though it puts far more on Lens. If they lose tonight, they’re out. Arsenal have two chances.

This is how Group B looks after that mighty victory for PSV Eindhoven, who were 2-0 down when Sevilla’s Lucas Ocampos was sent off in the 66th minute.

Arsenal P4 Pts9

PSV P5 Pts8

Lens P4 Pts5

Sevilla P5 Pts 2

Champions League voyage has mixed occasional high-class elements with moments of startling incompetence

Football clubs like to talk about culture, about DNA, about a coherent top-down philosophy. Well, there you have it. Welcome to Manchester United, a club in a state of chaos, that has at least found its authentic self in these midweek adventures. Not so much the steady accumulators of the league programme, but the drunken pirate ship of the Champions League campaign, a vessel of chaos that was present again in a thrilling, occasionally high class performance in Istanbul, albeit one shot through with moments of startling incompetence.

A 3-3 draw with Galatasaray means United no longer “control their own destiny” in Group A. Albeit this does feel like the wrong cliche. When has this United team ever given the impression of controlling its destiny, or indeed controlling anything at all during this mildly hallucinogenic group‑stage campaign?

Manchester United threw away a two-goal lead not once, but twice in an absoliutely sensational white-knuckle ride in Istanbul

• Read Will Unwin’s match report from the Ram Stadium

Referee: Jose Sanchez Marintez

Assistant referees: Inigo Lopez and Raul Martinez

Fourth official: Guillermo Fernandez

VAR: Ricardo De Burgos Bengoetxea

Assistant VAR: Juan Martínez Munuera

Union Berlin’s interim joint assistant manager will break new ground when the German side travel to Braga on Wednesday

When Marie-Louise Eta takes her seat in the away dugout at Braga on Wednesday night women across the world will have reason to cheer long and loud. In her capacity as interim joint assistant manager at Union Berlin, Eta is set to become the first senior female coach to be actively involved in a men’s Champions League group stage game.

There was a time, not so long ago, when such a scenario seemed impossible. Indeed the inherent challenges involved dictate that Eta’s achievement still feels almost akin to a human walking on the moon. At elite levels of the men’s game gender diversity often remains a vague aspiration rather than anything approaching reality, so quite a watershed was achieved when, on Saturday, Eta helped choreograph Union Berlin to a 1-1 home draw with Augsburg. In the process she became the first female assistant manager in Bundesliga history.

The 17-year-old from County Durham starred on the game’s biggest stage and local hero provided green shoots of joy

Power finds a way. Albeit for Paris Saint-Germain, the road to redemption here would consist of a scandalous late penalty, a midfield made of sugar syrup and some of the worst distance shooting seen this side of a Soccer AM Crossbar Challenge. At full time the Parc des Princes roared with relief, heaved and exhaled, not with conviction but with the begrudging acceptance of something stolen, not earned.

And this really was tough on Newcastle, who were 97 minutes in to perhaps their greatest away win in Europe. Annihilated by injuries and with about three grown adults on their bench, they weathered everything the world’s richest club and the world’s greatest forward could throw at them: a home crowd, chances saved and blocked and thwarted, the sort of pressure that makes the Montpelliers and Lyons of this world crumble on a weekly basis.

• Barça beat Porto 2-1 at home to earn last-16 spot
• Borussia Dortmund win in Milan; Atlético eliminate Feyenoord

João Cancelo and João Félix scored in each half to earn Barcelona a 2-1 comeback win at home against Porto that booked their spot in the Champions League knockout rounds for the first time in three seasons.

The visitors wasted several chances before Pepe put them in front in the 30th minute with a close-range strike from a rebound. But Barça hit back quickly with a fine curling shot into the top corner by Cancelo two minutes later.

Pep Guardiola was proud of his players’ fight when transforming what appeared certain defeat when Manchester City trailed 2-0 at half-time into a late victory. He was less enamoured of the actual display.

In introducing Julián Álvarez and Jérémy Doku early in the second half, Guardiola performed a masterstroke. Each was pivotal, the former finding the winner from a move that was decorated by Doku’s mastery of the ball before Phil Foden set Álvarez up.

Brendan Rodgers bemoaned a lack of quality after Celtic’s interest in Europe ended with a 2-0 defeat in the Champions League by Lazio in Rome.

The Scottish champions went into the make-or-break game with one point from four Group E matches but were undone with two late goals from the home side’s classy substitute Ciro Immobile.

Newcastle’s destiny is no longer in their own hands after Kylian Mbappe cancelled out Alexander Isak’s opener with a contentious, late penalty

• Read David Hytner’s match report from Parc des Princes

Elsewhere in Group F: AC Milan host Group leaders Borussia Dortmund at the San Siro. If the Italian side win and Newcastle lose, Eddie Howe’s men will be out of the Champions League and unable to achieve the third place finish that would see them drop into the Europa League knockout stages.

That Newcastle line-up: Suffering from whatever the polar opposite of a selection headache is, Eddie Howe has named the exact same team that started against Chelsea on Saturday. Allowed to name nine substitutes in the Champions League, he has picked just seven players for his bench. Two of them are goalkeepers and four of the remaining five are teenagers. Three of those youngsters – James Huntley, Michael Ndiweni and Ben Parkinson – have just two senior appearances between them for the club. Not one of Newcastle’s substitutes is an attacker.

• Manchester United face key game in Istanbul on Wednesday
• ‘You have to stay calm in your head and don’t get too emotional’

Erik ten Hag is clear that Manchester United have to remain cool-headed to handle the hostile atmosphere at Galatasaray in their crucial Champions League group game on Wednesday.

Ten Hag’s side are bottom of Group A on three points, one behind the Turkish champions and, in second place, Copenhagen, with the leaders, Bayern Munich, on 12.