Category: UEFA Competitions

• ‘Some are not following the plan,’ says manager
• Ollie Watkins and Jhon Durán ‘didn’t work well’

A seething Unai Emery questioned the mentality of some of his Aston Villa players and conceded his ­latest attempt to partner Ollie Watkins and Jhon Durán backfired after they blew an opportunity to qualify automatically for the Champions League last 16.

Emery accused several of his Villa players of “not following the plan” after an insipid 1-0 defeat in Monaco. Asked to elaborate on his comments, the Villa manager tapped his temple with his index finger and said: “We want it and we need it.” He added: “We are being demanding with the players we have and some are not following the plan we are doing. This is the objective I have now, to try to build the team as strong as possible with a mentality we are building.”

Continue reading...

A leggy Aston Villa’s hopes of automatic qualification for the Round of 16 took a dent as they were sunk by Wilfried Singo’s early strike at the Stade Louis II

• Read Ben Fisher’s match report from Monaco

Youri Tielemans: The former Leicester midfielder has proved sceptics wrong with displays central to the transformation of Unai Emery’s side. Ben Fisher reports …

Adi Hutter speaks: “We have an opportunity against a big, big opponent and tomorrow we will face a team in the Premier League who is stable in their results,” said Monaco’s head coach in his pre-match press conference. “Arsenal were the better team [on Saturday], but Villa came back and played out a draw. Unai Emery has won four titles in Europe and he has very good players.

Continue reading...

• Atlético 2-1 Leverkusen, Bologna 2-1 Dortmund

Meanwhile, in the other earlier game, Atalanta are leading Sturm Graz 1-0. That will lift them to third, though with plenty of football to be played this match day. Villa are in danger of slipping from the top eight; Monaco could go to ninth. So much to play for. Thank you, Uefa, thank you!

Not going to plan for Villa in the Principality.

Continue reading...

Manchester City slipped to a seventh defeat in 10 games as Juventus ended their run of draws thanks to two second-half goals

3 mins: City have had the ball for almost all the game thus far, and they eventually work it to De Bruyne on the right. Di Gregorio catches his cross.

1 min: City have kicked off, and immediately gone route one, Ederson pumping a long ball downfield and winning a throw-in as a result.

Continue reading...

Arsenal moved into third place in the table thanks to two goals from Bukayo Saka

3 min: Monaco are winning most of the early duels. Arsenal not quite up to speed yet. On the touchline, Mikel Arteta claps his hands by way of encouragement.

1 min: Ødegaard loses the ball within nanoseconds and Monaco go on the attack. Ben Seghir has a run at the Arsenal defence, but there’s no way through. A very early sign that Monaco aren’t here simply to make up the numbers.

Continue reading...

Luis Enrique’s side can be quietly hopeful of Champions League progress after deathly meeting of pop-up teams

It has often been said that the point of art is to ask the essential questions. Why does this thing exist? Why is this process happening? And is there any way of making it stop? In this context Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-0 defeat of Salzburg at the Red Bull Arena on Champions League match-day six was undeniably a work of art.

At the end of a fretful but still relentlessly soporific game, 90 minutes of Diazepam-ball dotted with moments of quality, PSG had upgraded their hopes of progressing to the next phase from dicey to quietly hopeful.

Continue reading...

Aston Villa went third with a thrilling win in Leipzig while Real Madrid won a similarly exciting affair against Atalanta

If Paris Saint-Germain take an early lead at Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday they may wonder whether to stick or twist. The new Champions League format has, at least in part, been designed to ensure Europe’s superpowers have fewer opportunities to fail, so their position risks embarrassment. They will not even qualify for the playoff round in February unless they improve on 25th place and, with three league-phase games remaining, are two points and three goals shy of the cutoff.

Victor Gyokeres, formerly of Coventry, clearly has an eager social media manager.

Continue reading...

Received wisdom before kick-off at Stadion Maksimir was that this was the ideal time to face Dinamo Zagreb. Celtic proceeded to prove this campaign is not the one in which to play them in the Champions League. While there will be a tinge of frustration from Brendan Rodgers that a draw was all that could be collected from a fixture in which they were the superior team, capitulation in Dortmund early in this campaign continues to look irregular.

Celtic are again a serious team at elite level in Europe; while progression to the knockout stage could not be sealed in Zagreb, there should be every confidence of that box being ticked when Young Boys visit Glasgow in the new year. One defeat from six until now is a fine Celtic return. Dinamo never looked particularly capable of altering that record.

Continue reading...

Mohamed Salah’s second-half penalty was enough to maintain Liverpool’s 100% record in the group stage

Beyond the goalies, two changes from the Newcastle game for Liverpool.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai in, Alexis Mac Allister out altogether and Jarell Quansah benched after a difficult night on Tyneside.

Continue reading...

• Left-back has not played for club in 16 months
• Arteta lacking in defensive options in Champions League

Kieran Tierney is set to feature for Arsenal for the first time in more than 16 months after Mikel Arteta revealed he expected to be without several key defenders for Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Monaco.

Thomas Partey, Jurriën Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Magalhães did not train with the rest of the squad on Tuesday and Arteta said “some of them probably aren’t going to be fit” to face the French side, who have an identical record of 10 points from five fixtures.

Continue reading...

Eye-catching thrashings have been a feature of the revamped competition, but the cause is up for debate

If Paris Saint-Germain take an early lead at Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday they may wonder whether to stick or twist. The new Champions League format has, at least in part, been designed to ensure Europe’s superpowers have fewer opportunities to fail, so their position risks embarrassment. They will not even qualify for the playoff round in February unless they improve on 25th place and, with three league-phase games remaining, are two points and three goals shy of the cutoff.

A tight 1-0 would prise the door back open but that might not cut it in this season’s competition. Salzburg are a shadow of their former selves and it should be an invitation to rack up a big score. The majority of PSG’s rivals have done so at least once: this edition of the tournament has been hallmarked by booming scorelines and the question, in a week that promises more of them, is why.

Continue reading...