Key events
Barcelona 3-1 Bayern Munich: The Bayern defence does remind me of Burnley’s last season. Kompany really has not learned anything.
GOAL! Barcelona 3-1 Bayern Munich (Raphinha, 45)
A crossfield pass finds Raphinha on the left wing, he drives for the box and curls the ball beyond Neuer.
Barcelona 2-1 Bayern Munich: It is end-to-end stuff at Catalonia. I am not sure either side know exactly how to defend.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: Nunes crosses the ball and it is blocked by Vitik. The City midfielder seems to think it is worth of a penalty but it is the worst claim for handball I have ever seen.
Foden takes a shot from 20 yards but it flashes wide.
GOAL! Barcelona 2-1 Bayern Munich (Lewandowski, 36)
Kim fails to deal with a high ball, Fermin Lopez nips in, Neuer comes to close him down but the midfielder lays the ball on a plate for Lewandowski to tap into an empty net. VAR checks to see if Fermin Lopez has pushed Kim in the back but says there is no offence.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: Savinho cuts in from the right and beats a couple of defends. He eventually finds enough space to shoot but drags his shot wide.
Half-time Championship scores:
Blackburn 0-0 West Brom
Hull 1-0 Burnley
Luton 0-0 Sunderland
Millwall 1-0 Plymouth
GOAL! Benfica 0-2 Feyenoord (Milambo, 33)
What a performance from Feyenoord this has been. Milambo bundles his way through the Benfica defence and then thrashes the ball home.
Barcelona 1-1 Bayern Munich: CLOSE! The Germans pass it around in their own box but it almost ends in disaster when Neuer kicks it straight at Lamine Yamal. The goalkeeper looks mightily relieved as the ball bounces wide.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: Ortega is forced into a decent save as Sparta enjoy a good few moments and put City under pressure.
GOAL! RB Leipzig 0-1 Liverpool (Nunez, 27)
Salah heads a cross towards the corner, it looks like it is going in but Nunez makes sure on the line.
NO GOAL! Benfica 0-1 Feyenoord: The goalkeeper makes two saves in quick succession but Ayase pounces to score from close range. VAR checks and spots a foul in the buildup, causing the ref to ruling it out.
“Speaking of professors, I have to point out that Julian is wrong: the anagram would come out the slightly scatological Nun will wi. Frankly, I always assumed that they did,” says Adrian Goldman, PhD, FRSB.
GOAL! Barcelona 1-1 Bayern Munich (Kane, 18)
Bayern have been on top for a long time and this one will not be ruled out. Gnabry finds Kane in the box, allowing him to volley home from six yards.
RB Leipzig 0-0 Liverpool: Kelleher comes 30 yards out of his goal and fails to deal with the situation. Sesko picks up the ball and takes aim for the empty net but misses the target.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: The hosts have had 81% possession thus far.
Ewan Murray was in Bergamo to watch Celtic earn a point. Here is his report.
GOAL! Benfica 0-1 Feyenoord (Ayase, 12)
The striker sidefoots a first-time shot into the corner from a pullback.
NO GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Bayern Munich: Bayern go from one end of the pitch to the other, ending with a great cross that Kane heads home but the England striker is offside and VAR rules the goal out.
GOAL! Atletico Madrid 1-0 Lille (Alvarez, 8)
Alvarez gives the hosts the lead.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: Haaland leaps a good four feet into the air and sends a header towards the corner but Vindahl produces a world class save to keep it out.
Atletico Madrid 0-0 Lille: Sorloth breaks through the Lille defence and is one-on-one with the goalkeeper but his shot from six yards out is shanked out for a throw-in. Quite impressive, in a way.
Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague: Funnily enough, I can’t see Sparta getting back into this. City are in complete control.
Stones gets a booking for a mistimed challenge on the halfway line.
GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Bayern Munich (Raphinha, 1)
The Brazilian is sent through on goal, he goes around the goalkeeper and slots home.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Sparta Prague (Foden, 3)
The midfielder receives the ball around 22 yards from goal, spins and takes aim for the bottom corner.
Manchester City 0-0 Sparta Prague: I feel Sparta will be looking to be direct and turn City’s defence. They have what looks like a flat back five at the moment.
Kick-off
The whistles are peeping around Europe.
“I had a little smile reading the team sheet for Man City and your mention of two goalies on the subs bench,” writes Tim Smith. “Does Scott Carson not have the very best job in football? I mean, what are the chances of facing a shot in anger. Thinking further, he may have the best job/career ever.”
Yes he does.
TNT have sent Andy Brassell to Barcelona. What a gig for the great man.
Full time! Brest 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
The points are also shared in France.
Full time! Atalanta 0-0 Celtic
Celtic hold on for a point after having their backs to the wall in injury-time. It feels like a fair result.
Julian Scott Yeomans, who claims to be a professor, emails: “I believe that the gauntlet has now been thrown down. In response to Peter Oh’s seven-year-olds’ question of “who will unwin?” and not wishing to provoke an entire session devoted to your name, but a sufficiently juvenile response to his question is use an anagram of Will Unwin to reply that “nun will win”.”
Atalanta 0-0 Celtic: Four minutes added on.
Atalanta 0-0 Celtic: Rodgers’ side are currently looking relatively comfortable in Bergamo. They are defending well and creating a chance or two.
Peter Oh emails acting like some of the seven-year-olds I was at school with: “After Borussia Dortmund’s entertaining second-half implosion at Real Madrid yesterday, the question to you, Will Unwin, is, who will unwin today?”
I will say … Lille.
I should say we have five Championship fixtures this evening.
Blackburn v West Brom
Hull v Burnley
Luton v Sunderland
Millwall v Plymouth
Middlesbrough v Sheffield United
Atalanta 0-0 Celtic: De Roon has a shot from just outside the area but Schmeichel is equal to it.
If you want RB Leipzig v Liverpool then Rob Smyth has you covered.
Starting lineups: Barcelona v Bayern Munich
Starting lineups: Man City v Sparta Prague
City make the bold decision to name seven subs, including two goalkeepers.
Your City side to face Sparta Prague! 🩵
XI | Ortega Moreno, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Ake, Gundogan, Bernardo (C), Nunes, Savinho, Foden, Haaland
SUBS | Ederson, Carson, Dias, Kovacic, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, McAtee#ManCity | #UCL pic.twitter.com/OfR4pH9aiC
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 23, 2024
1️⃣1️⃣ SESTAVA | Na Etihad Stadium vyběhne od první minuty následující jedenáctka 👥
V kádru ze zdravotních důvodů chybí Indrit Tuci, Elias Cobbaut a Jaroslav Zelený 🤕 #acsparta pic.twitter.com/dbg6r6oXtW
— AC Sparta Praha (@ACSparta_CZ) October 23, 2024
Whoever designed this scarf was very lazy. I think they could have been a touch more original than ‘Come On You Blues’ and Haaland.
Half time scores in the early games:
Atalanta 0-0 Celtic
Brest 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
I am so committed to this blog that I went to hang out at the hotel where Sparta Prague are staying in Manchester earlier today. I found out that 21-year-old Martin Vitík is the man to watch. The centre-back has a big future and we can expect him to move to one of the big five leagues in Europe in the coming years. Tonight he will most likely be up against Erling Haaland to add to his education.
Get your Manchester City pre-match reading material.
Preamble
There are a few fun fixtures around this evening. Sparta Prague are in Manchester for a test of their mental fortitude as part of a very very low block. Can they keep City out for 90 minutes? Almost certainly not but they’ve had a good start to the competition, winning against RB Salzburg and drawing in Stuttgart.
Barcelona host Bayern Munich as Hansi Flick faces his former club. It is certainly the headline game of the night. Barcelona have scored 13 goals in their past three matches, while Bayern hit nine in their opening match of the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb, so it could be a fun night in Catalonia.
Here are tonight’s fixtures:
5.45pm BST
Atalanta v Celtic
Brest v Bayer Leverkusen
8pm BST
Atletico Madrid v Lille
Barcelona v Bayern Munich
Benfica v Feyenoord
Manchester City v Sparta Prague
RB Leipzig v Liverpool
RB Salzburg v Dinamo Zagreb
Young Boys v Internazionale
