Key events
Brest are top of the Champions League
I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again. So gawp at it. Drink it in.
Full time: Salzburg 0-4 Brest
Brest have run riot in Austria to continue their perfect start to Champions League life. Next up: Bayer Leverkusen at home.
Full time: Stuttgart 1-1 Sparta Prague
In their last home game, Stuttgart plugged Dortmund 5-1. Tonight they’ve been held by Sparta Prague, who earned a point through Kaan Kairinen’s mighty free-kick.
There are nine more games tomorrow, including Aston Villa v Bayern Munich…
… and Liverpool v Bologna.
Read Jamie Jackson’s preview of Slovan Bratislava v Manchester City
“According to your preamble no team has ever qualified from the league stage after losing its first two games,” says Richard Hirst. “But can this apply to new Bigger Cup, with a very different league stage? Are we in a Schrodinger’s-league situation, with the league existing and not existing at the same time?”
We’re not in a Schrodinger’s-league situation so much as a weary-hack-cracking-facile-gags situation.
Dortmund v Celtic preview
We’re playing against a team that are challenging the very top end of elite football. But for us, I’ve always said, whether it’s domestically or whether it’s away in this competition, it’s making us a really difficult team to play against, with and without the ball. That’s what we want to be able to do.
GOAL! Salzburg 0-4 Brest (Pereira Lage 75)
GOAl! Salzburg 0-3 Brest (Sima 71) The greatest story in football history continues. Abdallah Sima has scored his second and Brest’s third, strengthening their hold on this season’s Champions League.
“Hi Rob, from a finally sunny Indianapolis, after four days of Helene-inspired gloom and rain!” writes Joe Pearson. “Thanks to the vast buffet that is Paramount+, I have my choice of matches. Which one is the gem of the bunch? I’m tempted by Leverkusen-Milan, but I might just go for the whiparound show. Or there’s baseball playoffs. The dilemmas of a retired American.”
If I wasn’t working I’d probably be watching Pine Barrens for the 497th time Arsenal v PSG, though the Leverkusen and Dortmund games are also appealing.
It’s David Squires, it’s great
GOAL! Salzburg 0-2 Brest (Camara 66) Mahdi Camara has doubled Brest’s lead in Austria, and you know what that means.
Internazionale v Red Star Belgrade team news
This is how our team lines up at Meazza tonight:
XI | Glazer, Drkušić, Spajić, Djiga, Seol, Elšnik, Krunić, Silas, Maksimović, Olayinka, Ndiaye
Subs | Marko Ilić, Guteša, Kanga, Katai, Bruno, Dálcio, Rodić, Leković, Milson, Luka Ilić, Prutsev, Radonjić #FKCZ 🇮🇩 #UCL pic.twitter.com/95ViS3pHJl
— FK Crvena zvezda in English (@crvenazvezda_en) October 1, 2024
Barcelona v Young Boys team news
A piece of advice: if you ever need team news for Young Boys, don’t type ‘Young Boys Twitter’ into Google.
PSV v Sporting CP team news
Breaking news that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Champions League or any European competition because the ban would only have applied to domestic games.
Leverkusen v Milan team news
56 min: Stuttgart 1-1 Sparta Prague
“I recommend you look up Kairinen’s goal for Sparta Prague,” writes Kári Tulinius. “It’s the type of free kick that isn’t in fashion these days, the ball flew like it was on a VHS tape called 101 Great Free Kicks, hitting the top of the post before flying in, with the goalkeeper an inch from getting a hand to it.”
Dortmund v Celtic team news
Celtic have been walloping allcomers so it’s no surprise they’re unchanged. So are Dortmund, who beat VfL Bochum on Friday night.
Arsenal v Paris Saint-Germain team news
Mikel Arteta has named an unchanged team. You can read all about that and the PSG XI with Scott Murray.
Slovan Bratislava v Manchester City team news
Plenty of rotation from Pep, as you’d expect. Stefan Ortega Moreno, John Stones, Phil Foden, Savinho, Matheus Nunes and Jeremy Doku all come into the side. Foden starts for the first time this season in either the Premier League or Champions League.
Slovan Bratislava Takac, Blackman, Kashia, Bajric, Wimmer, Savvidis, Ignatenko, Barseghyan, Tolic, Weiss, Strelec.
Substitutes: Trnovsky, Hrdina, Voet, Medvedev, Marcelli, Mustafic, Mak, Zuberu, Pauschek, Gajdos, Szoke, Metsoko.
Your City line-up 🩵
XI | Ortega Moreno, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol, Gundogan (C), Nunes, Savinho, Foden, Doku, Haaland
SUBS | Ederson, Carson, Walker, Dias, Kovacic, Grealish, Bernardo, McAtee#ManCity | #UCL pic.twitter.com/n0f9IDl7th
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 1, 2024
Big Cup is dead, long live Bigger Cup
It’s half-time in the two early games. Abdallah Sima has put Brest ahead at Salzburg – and top of the as-it-stands Champions League table and yes we are milking this – while Stuttgart are level at home to Sparta Prague. Enzo Millot scored for Stuttgart; Kaan Kairinen equalised for Sparta.
Preamble
Good evening one and all. Life moves pretty fast, and by tomorrow night we’ll be a quarter of the way through the new league stage of the Champions League. A quarter! Two-eighths! Before you know it it’ll be 31 May 2025 and Carlo Ancelotti will be eating another celebratory cigar.
Carlo’s men aren’t in action tonight, but there are nine games involving eight former winners of the competition. The most eyecatching contest is between two teams who have never been champions of Europe: Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, who meet at the Emirates Stadium. That match has its own liveblog right here.
There are two meetings of former champions: Borussia Dortmund (1997) v Celtic (1967) and Internazionale (1964, 1965, 2010) at home to Red Star Belgrade (1991).
Manchester City and Barcelona have winnable matches, while AC Milan have a tricky trip to Leverkusen. They were well beaten by Liverpool a fortnight ago and their manager Paulo Fonseca will be conscious that no team has ever qualified from the league stage after losing their first two games.
These are the fixtures, all 8pm BST kick-offs unless otherwise stated.
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Salzburg 0-1 Brest (5.45pm)
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Stuttgart 1-1 Sparta Prague (5.45pm)
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Arsenal v Paris Saint-Germain
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Barcelona v Young Boys
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Dortmund v Celtic
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Inter v Red Star
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Leverkusen v Milan
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PSV Eindhoven v Sporting CP
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Slovan Bratislava v Manchester City
