UEFA Champions League
GLORY-SEEKING NEYMAR LEADS PSG IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHALLENGE
The perennial French champions face RB Leipzig in the last four on Tuesday as they try to reach the final for the first time.
They were seconds away from going out to Atalanta on Wednesday but Marquinhos equalised in the 90th minute and former Stoke striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored the winner 149 seconds later.
The Champions League has been the missing piece of the puzzle since PSG’s big-money takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.
In eight full seasons under Qatari ownership, they have won 18 of the 24 domestic trophies – including seven Ligue 1 titles.
But this is the first time they have been to the Champions League semi-finals since 1994-95, long before the takeover.
They reached the quarter-finals in the first four years of Qatari ownership but seemed to regress by going out in the last 16 for the next three seasons.
Capitulations against Barcelona in 2017 and Manchester United last year will live long in the mind.
This year, instead of bottling the big moments, PSG have managed to show resilience.
They topped a group containing Real Madrid with five wins and a draw.
They then overcame a first-leg defeat to beat Borussia Dortmund in the last 16 pre-coronavirus break, before their comeback against Atalanta in the quarter-finals.
So what has changed?
“The team spirit we saw against Atalanta and in the second leg against Borussia Dortmund was not really there in previous years,” says French football journalist Julien Laurens.
“Boss Thomas Tuchel and his staff created a pact between them that this could be their year – you have to believe until the end and not feel that stress or pressure that you did before. The game against Atalanta showed that really well.”
PSG made Brazil forward Neymar the world’s most expensive signing when they paid Barcelona 222m euros (£200m) for him in 2017, a record that still stands.
That was largely in a bid to challenge for the Champions League, a competition Neymar won with Barca in 2014-15.
They also brought in France striker Kylian Mbappe for 180m euros (£165.7m), the second most costly signing of all time.
Neymar has been unfortunate in the Champions League and missed the game in which they were eliminated in his first two seasons with a foot injury.
However, he has managed to stay injury free at the right moments during 2019-20 – even though he has had three spells out – and fitness should not be an issue after Ligue 1 was curtailed.
The 28-year-old was impressive in their victory over Atalanta, taking the lead in driving the team during the first half and then having a hand in both their goals.
“Neymar showed why he is one of the best in the world,” adds Laurens. “He wasted chances but the way he played and the way he took the game on and owned the game was incredible.”
PSG could probably not have hoped for a more favourable Champions League semi-final (on paper anyway) than RB Leipzig.
The German team were only formed 11 years ago and had only won two matches in Europe’s elite club competition before this season.
They have also lost their all-time top scorer, Timo Werner, to Chelsea.
However, they did see off Atletico Madrid – conquerors of holders Liverpool and twice finalists under manager Diego Simeone – in the quarter-finals.
Laurens says: “In Paris they are very cautious of this Leipzig team and they know PSG can only go through if Neymar and Mbappe have the same type of performance they had against Atalanta.”
Bayern Munich or Lyon await the winner in the final. Will PSG be there? We shall find out soon enough.
-BBC
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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