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Holders Real Madrid Face Dortmund, Liverpool In New-Look Champions League

admin — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:52:13 +0000

Holders Real Madrid will face Liverpool away and host Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of last season’s final in the league stage of the new-look Champions League, the draw for which took place on Thursday. Every team will play eight games against eight different opponents in the new format of Europe’s elite club competition, with all 36 clubs now pooled together into one league rather than split into groups. Madrid, who have signed France superstar Kylian Mbappe since winning a record-extending 15th European Cup, will also notably play AC Milan at home and will go to Atalanta.

Real beat last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw earlier this month.

Liverpool, who are back in the Champions League after a one-season absence, will also notably meet Milan and take on tournament debutants Girona.

However, supporters of the Anfield club will perhaps be most excited about the prospect of hosting German champions Bayer Leverkusen, coached by former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, winners of the competition in 2023, will play at home to Italian champions Inter Milan and go to both Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

However, they were also handed more comfortable opponents including Club Brugge, Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava, who have never played in the modern Champions League proper.

Other standout head-to-heads will include Bayern Munich against both PSG and Barcelona, and Arsenal against Inter and Paris.

The number of clubs in the Champions League has increased from 32 in the past, with the 36 participants split into four seeded pots of nine for the draw.

Every team faces two teams from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. The first matches will be played on September 17, 18 and 19.

The two extra matchdays in the new league phase will take place in January, at the end of which the top eight clubs in the 36-team classification will advance directly to the last 16.

Those ranked between ninth and 24th place will go through to play a play-off round from which will emerge the remaining eight sides advancing to the last 16.

The bottom 12 in the league phase will be eliminated altogether, with no clubs parachuting down into the Europa League as in the past.

The Europa League and third-tier Conference League, the draws for which take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 clubs, although the latter competition will involve only six matchdays in the league phase.

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Julian Alvarez And Jeremy Doku Strike Late To Push Manchester City Past Leipzig

admin — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:52:16 +0000

Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku came off the bench to grab late goals and push Manchester City to a 3-1 victory at RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday. Facing Leipzig in the competition for the third straight year, City dominated from the start, Phil Foden slamming in the opener after some impressive lead-up play from teenage wing-back Rico Lewis. Clearly outclassed in the first half, Leipzig struck back immediately after half-time, Lois Openda scoring after a sweeping counter attack to equalise.

But with Leipzig focused on talisman Erling Haaland, who scored five in 60 minutes the last time these sides met, it was the Norwegian’s understudy who scored the crucial goal, curling in City’s second just five minutes after being introduced.

Doku sealed the win with a goal in injury time.

City forward Foden praised Alvarez’s “magical” goal, telling TNT sports “he’s someone we look to for the big goals.”

“He came on and changed the game. He’s a really important player for us.”

City boss Pep Guardiola praised his “perfect” side, saying “we took the game with a lot of passes and when a team is able to do this, very nice things are going to happen to you.”

“We played a fantastic game in all departments.”

City came into the game after two losses in a row for the first time since January.

Guardiola told the post-match press conference the victory put his team’s recent struggles “in perspective”.

“People say ‘oh, you lost a game, what happened?’ but you need to put it in perspective, after what we’ve won in the last years, we’re still here and we have got this passion.”

Leipzig manager Marco Rose called the result “a deserved win for City, even if we would have wished to defend that 1-1 until the end.”

“We’ll continue to learn from the best.”

Foden and Lewis impress

Bullish in the first half of Saturday’s 2-2 draw with German champions Bayern Munich, Leipzig were timid in the opening half, repeatedly losing the ball on the rare occasions City gifted it to them.

Foden and Lewis terrorised Leipzig down the right flank, the two linking for the opener 25 minutes in.

Lewis found an onrushing Bernardo Silva, who played it back for the 18-year-old to find Foden, who hammered the his shot into the grass, the ball looping past ‘keeper Janis Blaswich and into the net.

City showed their quality, cutting through the stagnant Leipzig defence, Haaland going close twice while advancing from the left to close the half.

Rose made no changes to his stuttering side at half-time but Leipzig emerged a different team, drawing level just three minutes after the break.

Yussuf Poulsen threaded a pass to a sprinting Openda, who kept City’s Manuel Akanji at bay with one arm while squeezing his shot in off the post as a frustrated Guardiola kicked the turf, cupping his face in his hands.

With Leipzig happy to sit and counter and City equally happy to control possession, Foden looked the most likely, and he nearly caught out Blaswich with a free-kick that bounced back off the crossbar.

Foden was replaced with 11 minutes remaining by Alvarez and the Argentinian World Cup winner would prove crucial, collecting a pass from fellow substitute Doku and unleashing an inch-perfect shot into the top corner.

Doku got a goal of his own as the clock wound down, finishing off a City counter to seal the win for the visitors.

The victory was City’s first in three attempts in Saxony, having drawn and lost in previous visits to Leipzig in the past two Champions League campaigns.

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Harry Kane Penalty Helps Bayern Munich Snatch Draw At Leipzig

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 03:06:48 +0000

Bayern Munich came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at RB Leipzig on Saturday as Harry Kane kick-started a second-half revival to prevent a first league loss of the season. Leipzig were 2-0 up and cruising at half-time thanks to goals from Lois Openda and Castello Lukeba, but Kane converted a penalty early in the second half to give his side hope. The goal, Kane’s eighth in six league appearances since moving from Tottenham, had the desired effect, spurring Bayern on and Leroy Sane equalised shortly afterwards.

Bayern slipped to third, two points behind unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen, and captain Joshua Kimmich lamented his side conceding “dumb goals” while coach Thomas Tuchel said: “In the first half, we weren’t even here.”

“The reaction in the second half was good,” Tuchel said, “and it was necessary.”

Leipzig boss Marco Rose said his side had he better chances to score and said the win “showed we belong” among the top teams in the league.

Just a day before the match, Leipzig fired sporting director Max Eberl, who had been heavily linked to a move to Munich, saying the former Bayern defender had shown a “lack of commitment” to the Saxony club.

Bayern invited the hosts into the game early, goalkeeper Sven Ulreich roaming well out of his box and scuffing a pass to Emil Forsberg, but the Sweden international’s long-range shot drifted just wide.

The home side did not have to wait long however, Openda latching onto a superb long pass from Xaver Schlager to score his fourth league goal of the season.

Leipzig extended their lead shortly after through Lukeba, who slammed in a rebound from a corner for his first goal since moving from France in the summer.

Tuchel made two changes at half-time to ignite his lethargic squad, who pulled one back from the penalty spot through Kane after VAR detected a Leipzig handball.

Bayern drew level shortly after, Musiala carrying the ball up the middle of the park and laying off to Sane, who stroked the ball into the bottom corner.

Bayern’s Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting had a chance deep in injury time but headed directly at the goalkeeper, meaning the sides split the points.

Leverkusen roll on

Earlier on Saturday, Leverkusen continued their blistering start to the season, winning 3-0 at struggling Mainz to go top of the table.

Leverkusen, who dropped their only points in the league this season in a 2-2 draw at Bayern, took the lead after 18 minutes as wing-back Jeremie Frimpong forced Mainz defender Sepp van den Berg into an own goal.

Dead-ball specialist Alejandro Grimaldo doubled Leverkusen’s lead with a pinpoint free-kick before Germany winger Jonas Hofmann scored a third to round out another win.

“It’s a lot of fun. Everyone pats you on the shoulder and tells you how nice the football looks,” said Hofmann.

Hofmann toasted his team’s “extreme potential” after Leverkusen’s best start to a league season in their history, but said “it’s important to stay humble.”

Union Berlin’s poor start to the season continued, losing 1-0 away at promoted Heidenheim after a second-half goal from Jan-Niklas Beste.

Beste’s free-kick deflected into the net midway through the second half, consigning Champions League participants Union to their fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions for the first time since 2004.

“There are going to be phases like this. It’s up to us to get out of it,” said Union captain Christopher Trimmel.

Surprise package Stuttgart continued their remarkable rise this season, winning 2-0 at Cologne thanks to a brace from Deniz Undav.

Stuttgart, who needed to win a relegation playoff against Hamburg last season to stay up, sit second having won five of six matches.

Wolfsburg striker Jonas Wind scored both goals to help his team to a 2-0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt and now has seven of his team’s nine league goals this season.

Elsewhere, a double from Alassane Plea earned Gladbach their first win of the season, a 3-1 victory away at Bochum.

Florian Neuhaus opened the scoring for the visitors and Plea added two by half-time, before Bochum’s Anthony Losilla pulled one back.

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