Category: UEFA Champions League

This week’s action saw an astonishing 71 goals over two nights, with the Premier League responsible for many of them

• Barcelona’s youth system. Ahead of Sunday’s edition of El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two clubs won their midweek matches. Real Madrid’s opponents were Juventus, in the type of heavyweight clash the Champions League’s rejig into a 36-team group stage was supposed to throw up on a regular basis. Wednesday’s meeting fell short of classic encounters like 2003’s meeting of Madrid’s Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane with Juve’s Pavel Nedvěd and Alessandro Del Piero. In 2025, Juventus are not the force of yore, though they made Madrid sweat. The sole goal came from Jude Bellingham, England’s great enigma.

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Liverpool put an end to their losing run in swaggering style

20 secs: … and so Knauff immediately races down the right and wins a corner off Van Dijk!

To the strains of a ballad set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, the hosts get the ball rolling. Eintracht have left out their leading scorers, Jonathan Burkardt and Can Uzun, for Dino Toppmöller’s aforementioned pacy duo of Jean-Matteo Bahoya and Ansgar Knauff. Let’s see how that pans out, then.

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• López hat-trick and Rashford double sink Olympiakos

• Bayer Leverkusen 2-7 PSG; PSV 6-2 Napoli

A Fermin López hat-trick and two goals from Marcus Rashford powered Barcelona to a commanding 6-1 Champions League victory over Olympiakos, while Ousmane Dembélé scored on his return to the Paris Saint-Germain side as they won 7-2 away to Bayer Leverkusen in a battle of two 10-man teams.

The match got off to a flying start when the 22-year-old López opened the scoring from a rebound in the seventh minute and he doubled his tally in the 39th, finishing off a lightning-quick counterattack.

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When José Mourinho arrived on Tyneside and immediately showered Eddie Howe and his players with lavish praise, Newcastle fans feared the worst. Yet in lauding the terrifying pace of Howe’s wingers, not to mention his team’s aggression and organisation, Benfica’s manager was perhaps not being disingenuous after all. By the end his insistence that Newcastle’s modest Premier League position is false certainly rang true.

At the final whistle no one doubted Mourinho’s sincerity as he strode up to Anthony Gordon and informed the England left-winger that he had been “absolutely brilliant”.

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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.

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• 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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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• 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.

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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!

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• 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.

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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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• Striker could yet replace Leoni in league phase squad

• Italian relishing chance to thank fans for their support

Federico Chiesa has outlined his determination to play his way into Arne Slot’s Champions League plans and to repay Liverpool fans for their unwavering support during a difficult debut season at Anfield.

The Italy international impressed in his first start of the season on Tuesday with two assists in the 2-1 Carabao Cup third-round win against Southampton. Chiesa has also made an impact in four substitute appearances in the Premier League this season and says he feels “better physically and mentally” compared with his first campaign as a Liverpool player.

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