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The big winners
To say that Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid have history is to put it mildly. At Barcelona, Guardiola grew up amid an obsessive enmity on both sides, one deepened by his term as the Catalan club’s coach. They are highly familiar with Manchester City, too. City met Madrid for the fifth season in succession on Wednesday. Despite Madrid’s recent struggles under Xabi Alonso, winning at the Santiago Bernabéu is a huge result, a deserved win where City might have been out of sight by half-time. Rodrygo scored his habitual goal against City but one of Guardiola’s new generation in Nico O’Reilly equalised before a controversial penalty award, converted by Erling Haaland, decided the game. A player linked with a move to Madrid sometime in the distant future celebrated with a smirk; Jude Bellingham’s attempt to distract by trying to yank Haaland’s ponytail did not work. After the selection misstep that led to defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, Guardiola got it right in Madrid to leave a lifelong rival in flux. In acknowledging an opponent wracked by injury and infighting had made for an easier task than usual, high standards came to the fore. “I’ve been here [at the Bernabéu] many times in the last five years and we have played much better than today and not won,” Guardiola said. He talks – and his team plays – like he has his mojo back.
No Mohamed Salah, taking gym selfies back on Merseyside, but the Champions League continued to be a haven for Liverpool and Arne Slot. If you can’t find it, grind it? Pre-season hopes of a forward line costing over half a billion dollars carving through opposition are set aside in the hustle for results. Beating Inter at San Siro was crucial for resetting the equilibrium imbalanced by Salah’s weekend outburst. “All I could ask for,” said Slot, an inadvertent victor of the Salah saga, maintaining diplomacy by concentrating on those players who travelled to Milan. “Only 14 outfield players available with Premier League or Champions League experience … tonight it should be all about the players that are here.” Slot reserved high praise for Ibrahima Konaté, who starred amid his troubled season. It was Dominik Szoboszlai who converted the decisive, if controversial, penalty. In a season of flux, Szoboszlai’s positive influence has been a happy constant.
The English response to Atalanta’s defeat of Chelsea was to voice concerns about Enzo Maresca’s team’s wild inconsistencies. The broader, continental view is to appreciate the continued rise of the Serie A club from Bergamo. It was only last month that Ivan Juric was sacked after just five months in charge – marginally longer than the Croat lasted at Southampton – after a seven-game winless run in the league. His successor, Raffaele Palladino, has instigated a revival including successive Champions League wins, beating Chelsea following the defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt. Gianluca Scamacca, formerly of West Ham, cancelled out João Pedro’s opener from Charles De Ketelaere’s cross. While Robert Sánchez’s goalkeeping was suspect for the winner, De Ketelaere’s solo run had carved Chelsea wide open. “An amazing feeling, with the fans behind us, against the champions of the world,” said De Ketelaere, one of the best of Belgium’s new generation. Atalanta continue to be an admired nursery of talent who also deliver results. Even though the talismanic coach Gian Piero Gasperini is now at Roma, the 2024 Europa League winners are well-set for automatic qualification.
Player of the week
Jules Koundé, from right-back, notched two headers as Barcelona mounted a comeback to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1, the first assisted by Marcus Rashford, the second by Lamine Yamal; the first time a Barça player has scored two headers in the competition. Other nominees include De Ketelaere, Arsenal’s Noni Madueke for his double in Bruges and Ajax’s Israeli winger Oscar Gloukh, who also scored twice, against Qarabag, for his club’s first win.
They said it
“Thanks, Nicky ... shame on you,” read a banner displayed by Club Brugge fans during their 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal. It was a protest after Nicky Hayen, their popular coach, was sacked on Monday. “Not our club,” read a series of handmade signs. The coach who masterminded a league title in 2023-24, and the Belgian club’s fine showings in the Champions League last season, had been linked with the Celtic vacancy. His replacement, Ivan Leko, declaring himself a Hayen admirer, said: “The supporters’ banners? Honestly, I’m proud of them.”
The pundit’s chair
On beINSports’s broadcast to the Middle East and North Africa, Ruud Gullit leapt to the defence of Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid, dismissing Richard Keys’s trenchant opinions. “He can’t play in the same way he could when [Toni] Kroos was there. When he and [Federico] Valverde are there, they have balance. Now it has to be another guy,” said Gullit, who claimed the Englishman was being sold short by all-star colleagues not tracking back.
Keys responded: “He is an agitator, not a victim. He might be [a great player], but there’s a reason that Thomas Tuchel won’t pick him.”
Gullit hit back: “That’s a ridiculous suggestion. He is the best player they have. He just wants to win.”
Looking ahead
Napoli meanwhile, are 23rd in the table, and play Copenhagen in 24th next time out. Antonio Conte’s Champions League record pales into insignificance compared to his domestic titles. “I know how much we have spent both physically and mentally,” he said of his side’s weekend victory against Juventus, in justification for the 2-0 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon.
Is late-stage José Mourinho performing a miracle? Benfica, inherited winless and pointless in the Champions League, moved to 25th after beating Napoli, and he enjoyed a barb at his old rival Conte. “Saying Benfica were fresher physically feels like an excuse,” said Mourinho. Next up are another familiar foe in Juventus. Following that, Real Madrid. “Character and intelligence, a Benfica mentality,” is how Mourinho envisages his club reaching the knockouts.
