UEFA Competitions
A Harry Kane double consigned Chelsea to an opening defeat in the group stage despite Cole Palmer’s cracker
The TNT Sports pundits Cole and Owen Hargreaves, who played in the 2004/05 tie between these sides, are reminiscing about José Mourinho hiding in a laundry basket to give a team talk, due to a Uefa touchline ban.
“This is what it’s all about,” says pundit Joe Cole of tonight’s mouthwatering clash, which is a fair point.
Continue reading...Liverpool took control of the game quickly, lost control of it gradually, and won it again eventually
Right then, the preambles have been entirely and completely completed, and as soon as Liverpool break from their huddle we can get on with kicking off.
The players are in the tunnel. The crowd have assuaged their lonely-walk-based fears. Not much stands between us and football.
Continue reading...Italian preparing to face Napoli, whom his mother supports
De Bruyne, McTominay and Højlund could face City
Gianluigi Donnarumma has said he believes Pep Guardiola will help improve his ball-playing skills and that Manchester City were interested in signing him before the summer.
Donnarumma joined from Paris Saint-Germain for about £30m (€35m) on transfer deadline day. The move caused surprise because of the view that the 26-year-old is not as accomplished with his feet as Ederson, who left for Fenerbahce, or James Trafford, the £27m signing from Burnley in July.
Continue reading...Qarabag fight back from 2-0 down to beat Benfica
Union Saint-Gilloise win at PSV on league phase debut
It was a dramatic opening night in the Champions League, with Juventus and Borussia Dortmund sharing eight second-half goals while Qarabag shocked Benfica.
Dusan Vlahovic and Lloyd Kelly scored in stoppage time to inspire a dramatic Juventus escape, as they secured a 4-4 draw in a game where all eight goals came after the break.
Continue reading...Kylian Mbappé converted two penalties to secure Real Madrid a 2-1 victory against Marseille in their Champions League group-stage opener despite playing the final stages with 10 men after their captain, Dani Carvajal, was sent off.
Carvajal had not started the match, coming on after five minutes when Trent Alexander-Arnold pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury.
Continue reading...The Europa League holders marked their return to the Champions League with a scrappy win
Bergvall is sent scampering down the right flank. He looks for Richarlison in the middle with a low cross. Junior dives to claim, but in diving forward to collect, allows the ball to squirt out of his hands, backwards, and into the bottom right. What a huge blunder! What a gift! What a start for Spurs!
2 min: Foyth’s first act on his return to north London is to clatter into Richarlison, knocking him upside the head in an aerial duel. The resulting free kick is launched long, and Van de Ven tees up Simons, who screeches a first-time shot over the bar from distance. A statement of intent from Simons on his home debut.
Continue reading...⚽ Goals and much more from the league stage’s first night
⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | And on Threads
One of the greatest nights in Union Saint-Gilloise’s history. They’ve done an emphatic number on the Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven, with Anouar Ait El Hadj’s exhilarating solo goal the highlight.
UNION SG ARE TOP OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
Continue reading...Club World Cup winners are Champions League contenders
Chelsea captain surprised by Nicolas Jackson’s loan
Reece James said Chelsea would make their Champions League return confident they were capable of competing with the best teams in the world.
Enzo Maresca’s young side are back at Europe’s top table after a two-year absence and face a stern test when they open the league phase by facing Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. Yet James is not worried about Chelsea’s lack of experience and accepts that July’s triumph in the Club World Cup means they are contenders to become European champions.
Continue reading...Alexander Isak in squad for match on Wednesday
Liverpool have won all four top-flight games late on
Arne Slot has said Liverpool have exceeded his expectations by winning their opening four Premier League matches but must improve as they start their Champions League campaign on Wednesday at home against Atlético Madrid.
Liverpool’s perfect start has them top but they have won each game late, becoming the first Premier League side to win four consecutive matches with goals scored after the 80th minute. The results follow the death of Diogo Jota and more than £400m of signings designed to make the squad more suited to Slot’s vision.
Continue reading...Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard came off the bench to get Arsenal’s campaign off to a winning start in a game low on quality at the San Mames
Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya was put up for interview in Bilbao and asked if Arsenal’s players are talking about the possibility of winning this season’s Champions League. “We are, we have belief,” he said. “We want to win, we are Arsenal and we play to win, no doubt. That’s what we play football for. It’s a long journey in the Champions League and the Premier League.”
On his Athletic counterpart Unai Simon: “We played against each other in pre-season,” he said. “We haven’t talked too much about it but as a goalkeeper, there is no need to say what I think about him. He is an amazing goalkeeper. He is a guarantee here and in the national team.”
Referee: Donatas Rumsas
Assistant referees: Aleksandr Radius and Dovydas Suziedelis
Fourth official: Robertas Valikonis
VAR: Pol van Boekel
Continue reading...Captain insists club is pulling in the ‘same direction’ at last as Tottenham’s Champions League campaign kicks off
The way that Cristian Romero tells it, there was a kind of rage inside him, an overwhelming desire for Tottenham to be better that sometimes overtook him. The defender could not help himself, he needed to make his views known, but when all of the pieces were put together from last season and into the summer, it was difficult to see that he was planning on staying at the club.
There was the repost of a social media message last September that claimed he was tired because Spurs had not flown him back on a private jet from Argentina duty. Note: reposts can be endorsements. There was the complaint in December that the club’s lack of spending meant they were falling behind Premier League rivals. “You have to realise that something is going wrong – hopefully they [the board] realise it,” he said.
Continue reading...Kulusevski, Dragusin and Bissouma also omitted
Uefa requires squads to have eight ‘homegrown’ players
Thomas Frank has left Mathys Tel out of his Tottenham squad for the league phase of the Champions League while he has been unable to find room in it for Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin – even though they could return from long-term injuries while there are still ties to play.
Frank has been in an impossible position because of how the profile of his players has jarred with Uefa’s regulations. Put simply, the head coach has too few homegrown squad members and too many who have come from elsewhere. He was always going to have to exclude six players from his 25-man “A” list.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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