Category: UEFA Champions League

Manchester City’s losing sequence is over – just. But they remain a listing ship that can go down at any moment. “Fragile” was Pep Guardiola’s summation of his team’s state, and a clue to the manager’s own mood was the cut to his nose he stated was self-inflicted, by a finger, due to the contest’s travails.

City were 3-0 up after 75 minutes but a late horror show ceded the advantage as Feyenoord preyed on home nerves via Anis Hadj Moussa, Santiago Giménez and David Hancko, who drew Feyenoord level to earn a well-fought point.

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City were cruising at three goals up and yet conceded three late goals to extend their horrible run of form

The headlines: De Bruyne still on the bench, and so is Gimenez. Walker dropped, as is Savinho.

In: Nathan Ake, Matheus Nunes and Jack Grealish. Out: Walker, Savinho and John Stones, who isn’t in the squad at all.

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• Manager says absence of contract offer is not distraction
• Alexander-Arnold not fit to start against Real Madrid

Arne Slot has claimed Mohamed Salah’s contract standoff with Liverpool may be bringing the best out of the forward and is not a distraction from a hugely important week for the club.

Salah’s admission that he is “more out than in” at Liverpool owing to the absence of a contract offer has overshadowed the buildup to Wednesday’s Champions League game against Real Madrid and Manchester City’s visit in the Premier League on Sunday.

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• Hoops chasing fourth straight home win in Europe
• Champions League progress will define club’s season

Caution from Brendan Rodgers over Celtic’s prospects in the Champions League is perfectly understandable. Thoroughbred racehorses know how to time their run. That Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Milan, Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain started this week behind Celtic in the newfangled version of European football’s premier club competition is likely to prove a temporary impasse. Celtic, despite a hugely promising start, were 15th before Tuesday evening’s fixtures. The Scottish champions have not altered their goal of reaching the playoff round. Seven points from a possible 12 has not changed aspirations that existed before a ball was kicked in anger.

Rodgers revelled in Celtic’s dismantling of RB Leipzig in the last round. Pre-match media duties for the subsequent Scottish Premiership stop at Kilmarnock were dominated by what had transpired days earlier. This was fair; Celtic have taken such public kickings for failures in Europe over recent years that they were entitled to purr over happier times. The performance against the German club was exceptional and a justification of Rodgers’ decision to return for a second Celtic tenure in 2023.

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• Brazilian out of Wednesday’s Champions League match
• Fears that forward could miss up to seven games

Vinícius Júnior will miss Real Madrid’s Champions League game at Liverpool on Wednesday after sustaining a leg muscle injury in Sunday’s 3-0 La Liga win at Leganés, the Spanish club have said.

Sources close to the player said that Vinícius is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks. It means he could miss up to seven games before the winter break.

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Juve’s visit to Villa Park this week conjures memories of when both clubs were at the centre of the football world

The champions of Europe side by side with more than half the champions of the world.” The first line of Barry Davies’s Sportsnight commentary is so succinct that, 41 and a half years later, there is no need for a new introduction. Aston Villa’s European Cup quarter-final against Juventus in 1983 had a unique selling point.

The clubs meet again on Wednesday in the Champions League but back then Villa were the holders of the trophy – although six of the Juventus team had started for Italy when they beat West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final. And they had the best player from the teams that finished third and fourth, France’s Michel Platini and Poland’s Zbigniew Boniek.

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There were boosts for Liverpool and Manchester United (by proxy). We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Liverpool

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Although unlucky in Milan Arsenal have forgotten how to score away from home and are looking to returning captain

To borrow a line from Catch-22: just because you’re trailed around the continent by a frothing cloud of online paranoia over questionable refereeing decisions, doesn’t mean the game isn’t also out to get you.

Arsenal were undoubtedly a little unlucky in the divvying up of competing penalty claims during the first half of this 1-0 defeat by Inter at the San Siro. But bad luck does also tend to look for a space to loiter, a ledge on which to perch. The continent-wide Masonic refereeing conspiracies may eventually get you in the end. But you can also make it difficult for them.

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• Barcelona hit five at Red Star Belgrade
• Brest and Atalanta continue superb starts

Paris Saint-Germain’s disappointing Champions League campaign continued on Wednesday as they slumped to a last-gasp 2-1 home defeat by Atlético Madrid that left the Ligue 1 leaders in the elimination zone.

Warren Zaïre-Emery’s opener was quickly cancelled out by Nahuel Molina in the first half of a largely disappointing match which ended with Ángel Correa stabbing in the winner three minutes into added time.

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Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s first-half penalty was enough for the Italian champions, who withstood a second-half barrage from Arsenal to secure the win

2 min: Inter so close to taking the lead! A cross looped in by Martinez from the left. Dumfries takes it down, just inside the box on the right. He digs out a spectacular rising shot that rattles off the underside of the bar, Raya beaten all ends up. Arsenal clear their lines.

1 min: “All right, great – a game of football,” begins Charles Antaki, high on copium. “That’ll do fine; like many, I’m looking forward to a bit of distraction. Please let it be engaging enough to take one’s mind off recent geopolitical news – hopefully a thrilling, entertaining game, but if it’s a nasty anger-filled slugfest in the pouring rain with two red cards and a pitch invasion, that’ll do just as well. Something, anything.”

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Manager’s ability to improve individuals has helped the club to the summit of both Premier and Champions Leagues

Arne Slot had asked for judgment to be reserved on Liverpool’s potential until after the seven matches between the October and November international breaks. It’s not jumping the gun to declare it serious, powerful and rich after six of those games.

Tuesday night at Anfield presented Xabi Alonso with an opportunity to demonstrate up close why the clamour for him to succeed Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool manager was more than an emotional call. But it was Slot’s name that rang out from the Kop immediately after the final whistle after yet another victory and another reminder that, when it comes to succession planning, Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group and the man who appointed Richard Hughes as Liverpool sporting director, has few equals.

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Luis Diaz scored a memorable hat-trick as Liverpool overwhelmed Leverkusen in the last half hour at Anfield

A reminder of the teams

Liverpool (4-3-3) Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas; Jones, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Gakpo, Diaz.
Substitutes: Jaros, Davies, Gomez, Endo, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Robertson, Quansah, Morton, Bradley.

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• Villa chasing fourth straight win against Club Brugge
• Emery: ‘We have the possibility to get one step ahead’

Unai Emery has challenged his Aston Villa players to cement their surprise status as favourites to automatically qualify for the Champions League last 16. Villa, who are yet to concede in the competition, can make it four successive wins if they beat Club Brugge on Wednesday. The Villa manager estimates his team will need 16 or 17 points to guarantee a place in the top eight.

Emery said Villa have enjoyed being a “fighter team” after returning to Europe’s most prestigious club stage but has encouraged his players to take the next step in Belgium. “We have the possibility to get one step ahead in this competition, to be contenders for the top eight,” Emery said. “This is really an amazing objective that we can achieve. We are aware about the possibility to get the fourth victory, 12 points and the expectation for the next round to be in the top eight, maybe it [would take] 16, 17 points. If we win, clearly we can be contenders to be in the top eight.

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Anfield will forever celebrate their hero of Istanbul but the Leverkusen head coach returns with a new fairytale to write

Xabi Alonso took centre stage at Anfield elegantly, considered his options and switched play in an instant. Had the ball been at his feet it would have felt as if he had never been away, but it was on the subject of succeeding Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool manager where the club’s former midfielder showed the deftest of touches.

Alonso was back with Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool’s opponent in the Champions League on Tuesday night, 15 years after ending a playing chapter in his career synonymous with style, Istanbul and an intuitive rapport with Steven Gerrard. He could have been back sooner had Liverpool received any encouragement he might have been in the market for a new job this summer. It was not a possibility he entertained at the time or was keen to revisit at his pre-match press conference on Monday.

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• Uefa ban looming if fans repeat Dortmund incident
• ‘There’s a sanction hanging over the club,’ says Rodgers

Celtic’s manager, Brendan Rodgers, has reiterated his call for the club’s supporters to stop using pyrotechnics, with the Bonfire Night Champions League visit of RB Leipzig raising fears of a Uefa ban.

Supporters’ use of fireworks during last month’s 7-1 defeat by Borussia Dortmund led to Celtic being fined by Uefa and told their fans will be banned from attending an away fixture if there is another such incident within two years. The warning was heeded when Celtic drew away to Atalanta two weeks ago, but kick-off was delayed at Saturday’s Scottish League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen after yet another Celtic pyro display. Uefa is keeping a close eye on the matter.

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