Key events
GOAL! Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Real Betis (Silva, 49)
After a watchable but goalless first half, the breakthrough at Signal Iduna Park arrives for the home side, with Fabio Silva scoring a poacher’s goal after Jobe Bellingham’s shot was blocked in the box.
Real Betis’s perfect Champions League record this season is now at serious risk. As it stands, only PSG and Real Madrid will have four wins under their belts.
This is probably a case of speaking way too soon, but it’s been refreshing not to see too many fastidious VAR checks for handball or other types of dubious penalty shout. The early rounds of this Champions League group stage were riddled with such occurrences.
GOAL! RB Leipzig 1-1 Manchester City (Baku, 49)
That was coming! Another rapid Leipzig breaks sees the white shirts flood forward and this time Donnarumma is at fault. Somehow he’s let a cross from Ridle Baku in at the near post … talk about from hero to zero!
He should have done a lot better with that, it was simple fare for elite goalkeepers, usually gobbled up.
It’s an absolute procession for Como in Lens as Da Cunha drills home from Nico Paz’s pass to make it 4-0. This Italian team have come to play in this season’s Champions League. Lens are done.
What a save from Donnarumma to deny Christoph Baumgartner. That shot was bound for the top right corner before the Italian sprung high and got an important fingertip to it.
Leipzig are growing a little frustrated that their attacking efforts have had no reward thus far.
Manchester City are lucky to be ahead in Leipzig, and you sense they will have to step up in the second half to avoid another winless 90 minutes. They cannot seem to get Erling Haaland in the game, chances for any of their forwards in fact have been scant.
Arsenal’s opponents are more lightweight than Leipzig, but still the Gunners’ sharpness going forward has been notable, despite Mikel Arteta resting the likes of Kai Havertz, Martin Ødegaard and Christos Tzolis so far.
The second halves are mostly under way around Europe. Let’s get into the updates again.
Here are the reports from the earlier games.
Half-time scores
Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Real Betis
Lens 0-3 Como
PSV 0-1 Club Brugge
Porto 1-1 Napoli
RB Leipzig 0-1 Manchester City
Slavia Prague 0-2 Arsenal
Viking 1-1 Sabah
And right there, after a hectic 45 minutes typing, I shall take the shortest of breaks! Plenty more fun to be had in the second halves.
The half-time whistles are starting to sound. We’ll round up all the scores soon.
GOAL! Porto 1-1 Napoli (McTominay, 43)
Napoli had wasted a couple of chances to get level in Porto but Scott McTominay – who else? – has found an equaliser a few minutes before half-time. A great reactive rebound effort from the former Manchester United man.
Paz paid tribute to Tenerife striker Jesus de Miguel with a t-shirt showing the player’s image, after scoring his goal. Paz grew up on Tenerife and was part of the club’s academy for two years as a boy.
3-0 to Como in Lens. Nico Paz. Cesc Fabregas is clearly the greatest football coach to have ever graced our good game.
GOAL! RB Leipzig 0-1 Manchester City (Lukeba OG, 37)
City haven’t been at their scintillating best against Leipzig so far, but they’ve been handed the lead by an awful own goal by Castello Lukeba. There were a million things he could have done with Nico O’Reilly’s cutback … other than to bundle it into his own net.
GOAL! Slavia Prague 0-2 Arsenal (Gyökeres, 38)
Just when I thought I may be wrong about Arsenal in my earlier post, with the Slavia defence seemingly holding up well, Viktor Gyökeres slides one into the far corner after nice interplay with Mikel Merino. Two-nil and it will probably be more before long.
Douvikas is now out on his own as the top-scorer in this season’s Champions League so far, with five goals.
Tresoldi of Club Brugge is there on four alongside a tranche of star names, including Ballon D’Or’s Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Dortmund hitman Guirassy and Roma’s Donyell Malen.
We’ll keep tabs on that.
Como have doubled their lead at Lens! Douvikas nets his second of the evening for Cesc Fabregas’s side, who are seriously enjoying life in the Champions League, aren’t they? (0-2)
This isn’t Champions League-related, but a quick check of how West Ham are faring in their first game after sacking Nuno Espírito Santo and appointing Scott Parker … and they are 3-0 down at Cardiff City.
Jack Moylan has bagged a hat-trick for the Bluebirds. Perhaps there will be no quick fix for the Hammers.
Viking have levelled at home to Sabah, with Erik Botheim scoring an improvised volley. It’s 1-1 in Norway.
GOAL! PSV 0-1 Club Brugge (Tresoldi, 25)
Club Brugge have broken the deadlock in Eindhoven, and it’s their star striker Nicolò Tresoldi with a timely header. The young forward has been scoring by the boatload this season so it’s no surprise to see his name on the scoresheet.
It’s still goalless between Borussia Dortmund and Real Betis but that appears to be the most open and even contest of this batch of fixtures, based on the opening exchanges. Both teams have squandered big chances, and there’s been that disallowed Antony strike. (0-0)
RB Leipzig have been able to put together some very fast counterattacks to trouble Manchester City in the opening 20 minutes in Germany. That City midfield looks a little light tonight, with Elliot Anderson being asked to cover a lot of ground.
City have failed to win their past three games in 90 minutes, remember. (0-0)
“VAR in Europe drives me crazy,” exclaims Steve McManaman on TNT Sports, before changing tack and saying “good lad, well done” after a check for a handball in the Lens v Como goal is waved away. It would have been a framkly ludicrous penalty decision.
Arsenal are peppering the Slavia Prague goal in these early stages. After getting that goal, the Gunners should find plenty of joy, with the hosts forced to push out and play a bit. I should be utterly stunned if Arsenal don’t score at least three or four.
Antony thinks he’s scored for Real Betis at Dortmund after being found by Troy Parrott… VAR has a long old check of it. No goal. The former Manchester United player’s goal drought goes on.
I’m afraid I don’t have the bandwidth to stay across Viking v Sabah with detailed updates, but the visitors have opened the scoring via Gabonese forward Orphé Mbina. (0-1)
GOAL! Porto 1-0 Napoli (Bednarek, 11)
Porto are winless so far in this season’s Champions League but they are ahead inside 11 minutes at home to Napoli. A simple header from Jan Bednarek from a corner gets the home fans going at the Estádio do Dragão.
Madueke looks like a player reborn this season, doesn’t he? Surely he will feature in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad later this month? The winger has found a clinical touch in front of goal, which was so often a criticism levelled at him.
GOAL! Slavia Prague 0-1 Arsenal (Madueke, 9)
Arsenal follow suit after some less-than-impressive Slavia Prague defending. A long ball downfield is not defended, before Noni Madueke is slipped in by Viktor Gyökeres… and slips it past the goalkeeper.
GOAL! Lens 0-1 Como (Douvikas, 7)
And there is the first goal! Como are making a mockery of their ‘Champions League debutants’ tag this season. Anastasios Douvikas has turned in after a well-worked short corner was eventually nodded down in the box.
Serhou Guirassy has a sensational scoring record in the Champions League for Borussia Dortmund and he might have done better with an early chance, failing to latch on to Julian Ryerson’s cross from the right.
We’re still goalless across the board after around 6 minutes.
It’s a night for Premier League teams to be taking on teams managed by their former players. After Dirk Kuyt downed Liverpool earlier on, can Martin Demichelis do something similar to his old side Manchester City? The former Argentina centre-back is in charge of RB Leipzig these days.
KICK OFF
Whistles are sounded around Europe to signal the start of tonight’s late action! We’ll bring you all the goals as they go in …
All the grounds have held a minute’s silence in memory of Jesús de Miguel, the Tenerife striker who tragically died at the age of 30 after he suffered a cardiac arrest following an on-field collision.
Mikel Arteta has been speaking to TNT Sports before kick-off in Prague.
“We need everybody, everybody has a big impact on the team,” he says on his decision to rotate his lineup. “We know the patterns we’re going to have tonight against this opponent.”
On whether William Saliba could feature off the bench, he says: “Let’s see how the game pans out. He’s only had a couple of sessions with us, let’s be patient.”
I know I just posted the table, but honestly making sense of the maelstrom that is the middle of that table is impossible after four games. The key figures are 16 points, which was enough to qualify for the top eight last season; and 9 points, which may just about get you into the top 24, and thus the playoff round.
It was 11 points for the top 24 in 2024/25, mind you. Manchester United – beware.
Here’s how we now stand:
Full-time scores in earlier games
Two really entertaining affairs in which the less-fancied host looked set to clinch a result against the odds – until Fede Valverde scored in stoppage time to seal three points for Real Madrid, preserving their perfect start to this Champions League group stage, and breaking Athenian hearts. Only the Spanish giants and PSG have won four from four now.
Liverpool had three consecutive wins before tonight, but despite leading twice against Fenerbahce, they were pegged back and then stunned by Vedat Muriqi’s winner. It’s a famous night for former Liverpool favourite Dirk Kuyt, now in charge of Fenerbahce.
If the later games can be anything like these two in terms of entertainment value we’re all in for a cracking couple of hours. Strangely, Real Betis have the chance to join Real Madrid and PSG on top of the pile, if they win in Dortmund.
In more logical news, Kylian Mbappé has found the net for Real Madrid, so Mourinho’s men could still dig themselves out of an almighty Champions League hole.
Not many would have put money on neither Liverpool nor Madrid winning their games this evening, mind. Less than 10 minutes remaining in both.
3-2 Fener. Goodness me. It’s bedlam in Istanbul. What’s happened to Liverpool in the past few minutes?
Scratch that, Fenerbahce get themselves quickly level – as they did in the first half. This time Gakpo is at fault, and Archie Brown profits for the Turkish side. (2-2)
And big big news in Athens … AEK have scored! Stavros Pilios smashes home after a quick counterattack. Good grief, could Real Madrid really lose to the lowly Greek outfit? (2-1)
A potentially big goal for Liverpool: Alexander Isak jumps straight off the substitutes’ bench to nod Andoni Iraola’s men ahead in Istanbul. Good play from fellow sub Cody Gakpo to stand up a delicious cross that was waiting to be headed home. (1-2)
No such luck for Real Madrid in Athens, although José Mourinho has brought on Endrick and Federico Valverde in search of a winner. (1-1)
A couple of Arsenal-related reads for you, as we count down to kick-off in the Czech capital. Can the Gunners reach 10 points from their first four games of the Champions League?
A win tonight would do just that.
(Saliba is on the bench tonight, by the way, after Arteta talked up a possible return.)
Speaking of AEK Athens … the Greek champions are holding Real Madrid 1-1 after roughly an hour. Jude Bellingham scored a STUNNING flick for Los Blancos – do check that out on the ol’ socials. And Liverpool are still locked at the same scoreline with Fenerbahce. The big boys not having everything their own way as it stands in those early games.
City have made five changes from the team Enzo Maresca picked at the weekend, which lost 1-0 at home to Brighton. Nico O’Reilly hasn’t been a regular this season so it will be interesting to see how he fares at left-back, especially from an England perspective with the youngster still favoured in that role by Thomas Tuchel, though under pressure from Newcastle’s Lewis Hall.
Phil Foden, who comes in for Jérémy Doku, will be another player keen to impress the England boss. Three of Foden’s four goals in all competitions this season came in a single Champions League game against AEK Athens last month.
Team news from selected games
RB Leipzig v Manchester City
RB Leipzig: Vandevoordt; Baku, Orban, Lukeba, Raum; Banzuzo, El Aynaoui, Baumgartner; Gruda, Nusa, Rômulo.
Man City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Fernández; Ndiaye, Cherki, Foden; Haaland.
Slavia Prague v Arsenal
Slavia: Domchak; Holes, Zima, Vicek; Nowak, Moses, Sadilek, Kublak; Ayaosi, Suleiman, Sturm.
Arsenal: Raya; White, Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapié; Zubimendi, Rice, Merino; Madueke, Eze, Gyökeres.
Other games
Elsewhere, the Como team lining up at Lens looking for their third victory in the Champions League includes the superstar attacker Nico Paz, with ex-Newcastle man Florian Thauvin the man to watch for Lens. Meanwhile in-form Dortmund include Jobe Bellingham and Fabio Silva in their lineup to take on Antony’s Real Betis at the Westfalenstadion.
It’s 1-1 at half-time in Istanbul after a deflected strike apiece for Fenerbahce and Liverpool.
Preamble
For all the valid arguments against the Champions League group phase using a ‘Swiss model’ – and there are many – it has at least produced an entertaining spectacle, with the bigger teams facing each other more regularly and the games, especially this season, producing lots of goals. Last night Manchester United discovered a new brand of chaos-ball to take centre stage, and take some heat off Michael Carrick, while Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain reminded us all why they are considered two of the favourites for the trophy, scoring nine goals between them.
Tonight, it’s the turn of Manchester City and Arsenal, who are away at RB Leipzig and Slavia Prague respectively, with both expected to win and win well. Even away from the English teams, there are some interesting ties: Borussia Dortmund v Real Betis and Porto v Napoli stand out as having the potential to thrill, and there’s also Lens v Como, PSV v Club Brugge and the titans of Viking meeting the giants of Sabah.
In the mean-time, Fenerbahce v Liverpool is ongoing – follow updates of that right here, as is AEK Athens v Real Madrid. We’ll follow those two games til their conclusion before getting stuck into the 8pm (GMT) games.
So that’s tonight’s football. Watch it – well, some of it. Or follow along on tonight’s clockwatch to keep tabs on pretty much all of it. We’ll bring you some of the team news headlines next.