UEFA Competitions
Arsenal scored four times in 14 minutes to turn a previously tight game into a rout
2 min: Arsenal start the evening as they presumably intend to go on, stroking the ball around patiently. Koke gets fed up and clips Zubimendi on the shin, and probably should go into the book, but it’s early and you know how referees roll. A couple of statements of intent there, perhaps.
Arsenal get the ball rolling. Noise bounces around the Emirates.
Continue reading...Government claims game weaponised to stoke fear
Villa say only fans with booking history can get tickets
The UK government has said it is “deeply saddened” by Maccabi Tel Aviv’s decision to decline any tickets offered to their fans for the Europa League match at Villa Park.
The local safety advisory group opted last week to block visiting fans from attending the tie against Aston Villa on 6 November after a risk assessment by West Midlands police, a decision that drew criticism from politicians including the prime minister, Keir Starmer.
Continue reading...Premier League leaders yet to concede in Europe
Arteta: ‘We acknowledge the importance of defending’
Mikel Arteta says he is happy if his Arsenal team stir memories of George Graham’s famously miserly champion vintage at the club as he prepared to face another defensive master – Diego Simeone, who brings Atlético Madrid to the Emirates Stadium in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Arteta’s players are fresh from their 1-0 win at Fulham on Saturday, a result that has left them three points clear at the top of the Premier League with an eye-catching defensive record. After eight games in the competition, they have let in three goals and not conceded in two Champions League ties and one Carabao Cup game this season.
Continue reading...Portuguese has a long-held affinity with the north-east club following his time working with Sir Bobby Robson at Barcelona
To José Mourinho, Newcastle United represents a road never taken. Whenever Mourinho visits St James’ Park he takes time to stand by the statue of Sir Bobby Robson outside the Milburn Stand and spend a few minutes paying silent tribute to the memory of his mentor.
In 1999 Robson wanted the Portuguese to join him at Newcastle as an assistant manager with a view to eventually taking the top job but Mourinho, who returns to north‑east England for a Champions League engagement with Benfica on Tuesday night, declined.
Continue reading...Emi Buendía also on target in 2-0 win at Feyenoord
Rangers lose 2-1 at Sturm Graz; Celtic beaten by Braga
Emi Buendía and John McGinn struck second-half goals as Aston Villa beat Feyenoord 2-0 in Rotterdam to make it back-to-back Europa League wins.
Villa, who beat Bologna 1-0 in their opening game last week, held their nerve at De Kuip after coming under heavy first-half pressure, with Buendía and then McGinn scoring for Unai Emery’s side.
Continue reading...There was a compelling clash of heavyweights in Catalonia, some unhappy rumblings at Real and a legend of Azerbaijani football roared
• The viewers. Barcelona v Paris Saint-Germain was the final many wanted last season. Wednesday’s group-stage meeting showed why. The fixture did not disappoint, even if, with red tape delaying the opening of the renovated Camp Nou, it was played in the less atmospheric Lluís Companys Stadium. Luis Enrique’s young Parisians staged a comeback in Catalonia, thanks to their coach’s expert use of his squad. Senny Mayulu, 19, upstaged Lamine Yamal by scoring the equaliser – Wednesday was the first match this season Yamal had failed to either score or contribute to a goal. Instead, the resurgent Marcus Rashford set up Ferran Torres’s opener for Barça. PSG were shorn of Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the forward line that claimed last season’s crown. No matter: 23-year-old Bradley Barcola stepped up as the senior forward and ravaged Hansi Flick’s high-line, high-wire defence. The youngsters kept coming for PSG: 17-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye was replaced by another teenager, Quentin Ndjantou, to play alongside the lively Lee Kang-in. In the end, Achraf Hakimi supplied the assist for Gonçalo Ramos, another sub, to score the 90th minute winner and inflict Barcelona’s first loss this season. “If you’re the best team, you have to show it on the pitch, and not talk,” said Ramos, who habitually scores late goals off the bench. “We are the champions of Europe.”
Continue reading...Goals from Gabriel Martinelli and late on from Bukayo Saka landed a second group-stage win for the Gunners
Charles Antaki gets in touch: “Yes, no rush. Arsenal fans remember starlets who looked terrific and got the pulses going, only for the sparkle to fade (Charlie Patino) or injuries to rub it out (Krystian Bielik), or just regression to the mean to take over (many, many others). Nwaneri and Dowman’s prospects will be all the firmer for being eased into it.”
Bielik was a decent player for Birmingham and is now at West Brom. Patino is at Deportivo La Coruna, though sadly not a Diego Tristan, Djalminha and not the superb Juan Carlos Valeron quality of team. They’re in the Segunda.
Continue reading...Newcastle got off the mark in this year’s league stage with an easy but nevertheless impressive win in Belgium
6 min: USG launch it long down the right. Botman attempts to hook back upfield, but only succeeds in kicking the ball into his own face and out for a corner. The set piece comes in from the right. Leysen, in the centre heads it back to the near post, from where Rodriguez eyebrows over the bar. That was a decent chance, and Newacstle were fortunate the USG striker didn’t get that on target. Had he done so, Pope was most likely picking the ball out of the net.
4 min: Tonali and Elanga combine well down the inside-right channel. The latter works himself a little space to shoot … but not enough so his eventual effort doesn’t get blocked the moment it leaves his boot.
Continue reading...Harry Kane and Bayern Munich punish Pafos 5-1
Atalanta fight back to defeat Club Brugge 2-1
Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid eased to a 5-0 away win against the Champions League debutants Kairat Almaty on Tuesday.
Xabi Alonso’s side bounced back in style from their humbling 5-2 La Liga defeat by Atlético Madrid on Saturday, with Mbappé taking his Champions League tally to five goals in two European games this season.
Continue reading...Victor Osimhen’s first-half penalty and a late VAR intervention condemned disjointed Liverpool to defeat
1 min: Liverpool have stationed Szoboszlai at right back, with Frimpong up in Salah’s usual position … and the latter wins a corner after 49 seconds. The former to take.
Liverpool huddle, the Gala fans whistle their displeasure, and then the visitors get the ball rolling. Roar! Growl! Bedlam!
Continue reading...Mourinho back at Stamford Bridge with Benfica
‘I will always be a blue. I am part of their history’
José Mourinho called himself “the biggest one” as he reflected on his record-breaking Chelsea history before his latest Stamford Bridge return. The self-styled “special one” is back with Benfica for Tuesday night’s Champions League tie and he repeated another famous old line of his to set the scene.
Mourinho anticipates no hostility from Chelsea’s supporters as he seeks to ignite his Benfica tenure, having only joined them 11 days ago after his sacking by Fenerbahce at the end of August.
Continue reading...The comparison with Mourinho’s glory days will be clear as he returns with Benfica, but Stamford Bridge hierarchy is firmly behind their current man
Only league champions get their picture on the wall in the Drake Suite at Stamford Bridge. The room is named after Ted Drake, the author of Chelsea’s first title, and features images of a host of club legends: a beaming Carlo Ancelotti, one of Antonio Conte kissing the Premier League trophy and, as Enzo Maresca no doubt noted as he arrived to preview his young side’s Champions League tie with Benfica, three photographs of the manager whose latest return to west London conjures wistful memories of the days when Chelsea were the most feared team in England.
Here comes the Special One. José Mourinho, who won three league titles across two spells at Chelsea, is in town with Benfica and will surely enjoy a wonderful reception. Maresca, meanwhile, inspires less warmth. He has taken Chelsea back into the Champions League, along with winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup, but does not have his name sung by fans and was booed after losing 3-1 to Brighton on Saturday.
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Seven games into the season and Aston Villa finally have a win on the board. And while it may have come in Bigger Vase, a competition they probably resent having to play in after being robbed of a lucrative Bigger Cup place by some overzealous refereeing in their final match of last season, it at least gives Unai Emery a platform on which to build, even if his players have yet to produce a performance even remotely fit to lace the steel-toed boots of all those geriatric rockers who joined Ozzy Osbourne at Villa Park for his summer farewell. Despite last night’s win, Emery’s side continue to look a pale facsimile of the one that pushed the tournament’s eventual winners, PSG, all the way over two legs in their Bigger Cup quarter-final last season. Something is definitely not quite right at Villa Park, a state of affairs perhaps best illustrated by the fact the assist for their winner came in the form of a comedy air-shot by the desperately out-of-sorts Morgan Rogers.
The story of Lewis White going to the wrong Bury (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) reminds me of my first stag do, when I dragged all my London mates up to Manchester and to a home game at Gigg Lane, in the fancy hospitality section (well, fancy by Bury standards). We were late getting to the game and as we were walking from the tram stop to the ground, my best man got a call from the club asking if we were on our way. They were clearly so excited at the prospect of a large group who had travelled all the way up from London that they wanted to make sure we made it. If only the lads at Bury Town had extended the same courtesy to Mr White” – Tom Dowler.
In 1994 pop singer Lena Fiagbe was booked to appear at the Radio One Roadshow in Bangor to perform her hit single (the, as it transpired, somewhat unfortunately titled) ‘Gotta Get It Right’. After a long trip to north Wales with her entourage, and some time fruitlessly looking for the park that was meant to be hosting Bruno Brookes et al, Lena’s manager placed a call to Radio 1 to ask for directions, only to be told they were expected in Bangor, Northern Ireland” – Tim Grey.
I admire Robbie Keane and wish him well in his role as manager of the legendary Hungarian club Ferencvaros, but I wish he would be more adventurous, tactically. I mean, just yesterday in Bigger Vase he parked Dibusz” – Peter Oh.
I read your story about Marko Arnautovic and his signing for Red Star (yesterday’s Football Daily). I must admit that, as a Serb and a cynic, I think that – apart from his huge love for Red Star and all the promises he made to the late Sinisa Mihajlovic – it certainly helps that Marko’s yearly salary is reportedly something like €2.5m, in a country where the average monthly wage is no bigger than €800” – Bogdan Kotarlic.
Continue reading...More punishment for Rangers at the hand of a Belgian opponent. A familiar combination of self-destruction and the poor defending endemic under Russell Martin deepened Ibrox’s gloom. Reduced to 10 after Mohamed Diomande’s reckless first-half challenge, insult was added by Genk’s goal being scored by a former Celtic striker in Oh Hyeon-gyu.
Martin has talked of “results coming through difficulty” but could not have chosen to manage a club where poor results will cause more difficulty. Ibrox was undersold, just 38,000 present, though in attendance was Andrew Cavenagh, the chairman gladhanding fans before kick-off. The American co-owner’s scheduled visit to Glasgow has allowed him to experience what fans have been served during the new ownership’s choice of manager. “I’ll find out in about 15 minutes,” said Martin, asked if he had yet received Cavenagh’s verdict. “I look forward to seeing him.”
Continue reading...John McGinn’s goal gave Aston Villa a win over Bologna – their first of the season – while Rangers were beaten at home by Genk
Emery tells TNT that Martinez is injured, then explains that this is a good opportunity for Malen. Otherwise, he says Villa have been good at home, but European games are always difficult. It’s their dream to play in Europe, but they’ll have to do well to get a result.
I wonder if Emery spoke harshly about his players because he thinks they should win tonight; if he does it and they don’t, what else can he then say? I think they’ll have too much in midfield for Bologna, and if they can just get that first win, they’ve got more than enough to have a decent season.
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