UEFA Champions League
PAST ENCOUNTERS OF CHAMPIONS’ LEAGUE GLADIATORS
BY APESIN ADEMOLA.
With the set-up for the first knockout stage of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League completed, some clubs are paired against familiar foes.
Liverpool v Bayern München
Last year’s finalists Liverpool had played seven times against Bayern München , prevailing two times, sharing honours on four other occasions with the German champions winning only once.
Their last match-up in the 2001 UEFA Super Cup on August 24, 2001, which English Premier League current leaders won 3-2.
In 1981, Liverpool played goalless with Bayern in the first leg of the European Cup semi-final and edged the Germans out on away goal rule having played 1-1 in Munich.
Liverpool’s current manager Jürgen Klopp will be up against a familiar side in the Round of 16 this time. He hasfaced Bayern more than any other team in his managerial career with 29 matchesso far, winning nine, drawing four and losing the rest.
AFC Ajax v Real Madrid
Ajax had played 12 times against Real Madrid in the Champions League and the European Cup competitions with the defending champions recording seven wins, one draw and four losses.
Ajax triumphed over Real Madrid in the semi-final of the 1972/3 European Cup, which the Dutch team eventually won, Ajax beat the Spaniards 2-1 in the first leg at Amsterdam and won in Madrid 1-0 with Juventus falling 0-1 in the final.
Their other matches were at the group stage of the Champions League, the recent face-off being five years ago.
Olympique Lyonnais v Barcelona
In six Champions League matches against Lyon, Barcelona have won four times and drawn the remain.
Both teams first met at the preliminary group stage in the 2001/2 editions which the Catalans won 3-2 away and 2-0 in Barcelona.
In 2007/8 season, Barcelona were paired in Group E along with Lyon, Rangers and VfB Stuttgart. Although the Spanish club won 3-0 at home and battled 2-2 in the return leg, the two teams qualified to the knockout stages.
On the way to winning the Champions League in the 2008/9 season, Barcelona faced Lyon in the Round of 16 forcing 1-1 draw away and emerging victorious 5-3 at home.
Atlético Madrid v Juventus
Both teams were paired in the same Group A of the 2014/5 UEFA Champions League. Atlético won the group and the Old Lady also progressed to the second round as runners-up.
In their head-to-head in that group , the LaLiga side won the first leg 1-0, while the return leg in Turin ended goalless.
Both teams had also clashed in the semi-final of the 1964/5 edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup with the home team winning each of the two legs 3-1, while Juventus won the decisive fixture by the same margin.
Schalke 04 v Manchester City
Both teams are yet to meet in the Champions League.
In other European competitions, they have had three encounters with the current English champions winning two and losing the other.
In the semi-final of the 1969/70 UEFA European Cup Winners Cup on April 1, 1970, Schalke 04 prevailed 1-0 at home, while City won the second leg 5-1. Manchester City eventually won the trophy that season.
The last match between both clubs was a decade ago in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, Manchester City victorious 2-0 at the one-match group stage.
Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund
Spurs and Dortmund were in the same group in the last episode of this competition. The English club won 3-1 at home and 2-1 in Dortmund to win the group and eliminate the German side who finished third.
Their other match-ups were in the Europa League in the 2015/16 season. Dortmund won home and away 5-1 aggregate.
AS Roma v FC Porto
FC Porto sent Roma out of the Champions League in last season’s play-off phase. The Portuguese club, who had won the competition two times, played 1-1 at home but beat Roma 3-0 in the return leg in Rome.
Manchester United v Paris Saint-Germaine
These teams don’t have any previous match-up in competitive matches.
UEFA Champions League
Osimhen and Aubameyang: Africa’s First Men of the Match in 2025/26 Champions League
The Champions League has barely started and already African fans have something to be proud of.
Two of the continent’s biggest names, Victor Osimhen from Nigeria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Gabon, have become the first African players this season to be named Man of the Match.
For Osimhen, it was a night to remember in Istanbul. Galatasaray were up against Liverpool, a team with a European pedigree and needed someone to step up. Osimhen did just that.
His goal gave Galatasaray a 1-0 win but it was more than just the goal. His energy and how he kept Liverpool’s defenders on their toes all night made him the best player on the pitch.
So his winning of the UEFA Man of the Match award. Galatasaray fans had proof they have a striker who can change games at the highest level.
Meanwhile, on the same night in Marseille, Aubameyang was showing why he has been Africa’s most reliable goal scorer for over a decade.
At 36, some wondered if he still had it on nights like this. His answer was a thunderous “YES.”
Marseille tore Ajax apart in a 4–0 demolition that saw Aubameyang seal his stature as the orchestrator and heartbeat of the French club’s attack.
His movement, his composure and his leadership stood out. So much so that he too was rightfully awarded the Man of the Match.
The fact that these two happened on the same night made it even more special for African football fans.
Osimhen represents the new generation: quick, hungry and with still a few years ahead to make history.
Aubameyang is the veteran still out there to prove – even though he really has nothing to prove anymore – that experience and class don’t fade easily.
Together, they gave African football fans a double reason to smile.
For Nigeria and Gabon, these awards are more than individual trophies. They are ultimately a reminder of how much African players contribute to the Champions League season in, season out.
And the tournament is still in its early stages. So there’s every chance more players from the continent will follow in their footsteps before the Budapest finale in 2026. Only good omens for the 2025 AFCON that starts in a few months.
-Morocco World News
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In his glory days, Jose Mourinho celebrated dramatic goals from his teams by sprinting down the touchline, sometimes sliding on his knees for extra euphoric effect.
On Tuesday, back at his former club Chelsea as the new coach of Benfica, Mourinho’s most eye-catching intervention was down the touchline again, but this time his run was to urge his team’s fans to stop hurling objects onto the pitch.
Benfica under Mourinho, in his fourth game in charge, were defeated 1-0 by an under-strength Chelsea side in the Champions League after a fist-half Richard Rios own goal.
The self-declared “Special One” was lauded by the home fans with a few choruses of “Jose Mou-rin-ho” in recognition of his successes – three Premier League titles and four other trophies – which no other Chelsea manager has come close to matching.
Mourinho, 62, acknowledged the chants with a gentle wave, got a cheer when he ventured onto the pitch to clear a spare ball and quickly vanished down the tunnel at the final whistle after shaking the hand of Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca.
It was all a far cry from the fervour of 20 years ago when Mourinho – having led Porto to an unlikely Champions League triumph – turned Chelsea into English champions for the first time in 50 years in 2005 and won the title again a year later.
After a collapse of form, Mourinho departed in 2007 but he won the Champions League again, this time with Inter Milan in 2010, knocking out the Londoners on the way to the final.
He went on to manage Real Madrid before returning to Chelsea where he claimed a third English title and then had spells at Manchester United, London side Tottenham Hotspur – an unforgivable move for many Chelsea fans at the time – and Roma.
As the big offers dried up, Mourinho went on to coach Fenerbahce in Turkey where he lasted little more than a year before his return to Portuguese football with Benfica.
Asked after Tuesday’s defeat by Chelsea if he still had the drive of the early days of his career, Mourinho insisted he felt more motivated.
“If I am in a job it’s because I like to put myself on the line every day,” he told reporters. “I am desperate to win the next match.”
Mourinho said he thought Benfica had deserved more from the game. “We started well, we controlled well. I don’t know if I can say big chances but we had chances for sure.”
Chelsea’s Maresca said he was relieved to secure a win – albeit a scrappy one – after two consecutive defeats in the Premier League and a 3-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the his side’s Champions League opener.
“Sometimes you need to learn to win in another way,” he said of Chelsea’s improved defensive performance. “At least we learned how to win a game with a red card.”
Striker Joao Pedro was dismissed for a second yellow card after coming on as a substitute, the third time in four matches that Chelsea have finished with 10 men
-Reuters
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Hosts Eintracht Frankfurt scored four times in 29 minutes to bounce back from a goal down and hammer Galatasaray 5-1 in their Champions League opener on Thursday.
The Turkish sides are without their talismanic striker, Victor Osimhen who was injured while on international duty with Nigeria.
The Turks had hit Frankfurt on the break with Yunus Akgun completing the move from a Leroy Sane assist in the eighth minute. Germany international Sane, who joined from Bayern Munich this season, became the only player in Champions League history to play for four or more clubs and score or assist on his debut for each of them.
Frankfurt, competing for only the second time in the Champions League main round, struggled to break through Galatasaray’s defence until a defensive error from Akgun in the 37th. Ritsu Doan pounced, charged into the box and Davinson Sanchez deflected the Japanese winger’s shot in for an own goal.
The hosts took the lead in first-half stoppage time when 19-year-old Turkey international Can Uzun scored a superb goal on his Champions League debut after fine control and a quick turn in the box. The hosts netted again before halftime with Jonathan Burkardt’s well-timed glancing header putting them 3-1 up.
With the visitors forced to take more risks after the break, Frankfurt found space and Burkardt completed his dream Champions League debut with another header in the 66th for his second goal of the evening. Ansgar Knauff completed the rout in the 75th.
Frankfurt next travel to Atletico Madrid on September 30 when Galatasaray host Liverpool.
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