UEFA Champions League
LIVE – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL: LYON 0-3 BAYERN MUNICH
88 MIN: GOAL! Lyon 0-3 BAYERN MUNICH –Lewandowski (Bayern) scores!
Double Lyon substitution
67min: Here comes a double change from Lyon as they look to force a way back into this game. Jeff Reine-Adelaide replaces Karl Ekambi while Kenny Tete comes on for Leo Dubois.
Bayern Munich substitution
63min: Having come on at half-time, Niklas Sule already looks like he is struggling with a knock. He is staying on for now though as Kingsley Coman replaces Ivan Perisic in Bayern Munich’s second switch.
MATCH UPDATE
*Bayern unbeaten; Lewandowski on 14 goals
*Lyon’s second semi-final appearance
*Winners face Paris in Sunday final
58 min: Substitution – Dembélé (in) – Depay (out) (Lyon).
Süle coming on for Boateng wasn’t an expected substitution. The German commentator suggested the change might be about saving his energy for the final, rather than it being injury-related.
SECOND HALF: Changes for both teams as Lyon restart
Lyon send on Thiago Mendes for Bruno Guimaraes in defensive midfield, while Bayern Munich replace Jerome Boateng with Niklas Sule at centre-back. Both changes look like they are injury influenced.
Substitution
Mendes (in) – Bruno Guimarães (out) (Lyon).
Substitution
Süle (in) – Boateng (out) (Bayern).
The referee blows for half-time.
Gooooal!
Gnabry (Bayern) scores!
GOAL! Lyon 0-1 BAYERN MUNICH
18min: What a goal this is! It’s eight goals in nine games for Serge Gnabry and I doubt any of them are better than this.
Picking the ball up from the right touchline, he cuts inside dodging a couple of challenges before from 23 yards he blasts into the top corner. It’s world class, it really its.
BAYERN MUNICH
Bayern Munich were able to seal their spot in the semifinals after battering Barca 8-2 last Friday.
Their attention had likely already shifted to today’s showdown with Lyon. Will they make it another harvest of goals?
The juggernaut, helmed by Hansi Flick, shows no signs of faltering after the comprehensive thumping. Bayern handed Chelsea their worst-ever aggregate defeat in a European tie, and often didn’t appear to have broken a sweat. They did the same to Barcelona.
Will Lyon be their next victims?
LYON
There were fears that the two Ligue 1 clubs remaining in the Champions League after Ligue 1 was called to an early finish would have suffered from a lack of preparation. But Lyon have blown that preconception well and truly out of the water.
They overcame Juventus and sealed a quarter-final spot in what was only their second competitive game in five months. Lyon appeared in top physical condition, despite their defeat in Turin, and deserved their eventual triumph on away goals.
Memphis Depay had bullishly predicted that Lyon were fearless and capable of springing an upset, and he was proved right.
The Dutchman also highlighted the newly-introduced single-leg format and now believes that ‘anyone can be favourites’.
However, that may not be the case for Rudi Garcia’s troops for their next clash. They face Manchester City, one of the favourites to win the competition for the first time in their history. Lyon will need to replicate the defiance which saw them narrowly lose out to Paris Saint-Germain in the French League Cup final last month in order to pose any real threat of reaching the final four.
Bayern have also shattered countless records during their run to Lisbon. They became the second-ever team to have won every single Champions League game so far this season. They have also scored the most goals in this season’s tournament, with 31 in total. That tally is sensationally 11 higher than the next closest team, Paris Saint-Germain.
Flick became only the third coach in history to guide his side to a win in his first five Champions League matches. His achievements have been rendered even more impressive considering the mess he had inherited from predecessor Niko Kovac in November.
Of course, it always helps that serial scorer Robert Lewandowski has netted the most goals in the competition with 13. Bayern are the favourites in many peoples’ eyes, and understandably so.
The second semi final of the Champions League is about to begin. It pitches French Ligue 1 side, Lyon against Germany’s Bayern Munich. The winner will face Paris Saint-Germain in the final.
Will the final match be an all-French duel? Will it be a Franco- German confrontation as this semi final match is? The events of the next one hour and a half will decide.
Meanwhile, both Lyon and Bayern Munich are unchanged from their quarterfinal matches.
Lyon starting XI: Lopes, Denayer, Marcelo, Marcal, Dubois, Caqueret, Bruno Guimaraes, Aouar, Cornet, Depay, Toko Ekambi
Bayern Munich starting XI: Neuer, Kimmich, Boateng, Alaba, Davies, Thiago, Goretzka, Gnabry, Muller, Perisic, Lewandowski
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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