UEFA Champions League
Neymar flops once again on disappointing Champions League night for PSG, but team still qualify
What happens when a team which relies on moments fails to capitalise on said moments?
From a position of strength in the second half, 1-0 up and in the driving seat in their Champions League group, PSG contrived to surrender their advantage and, by extension, the group.
From Mauricio Pochettino’s perspective, it largely hinged on one moment.
With 17 minutes remaining and the game locked level, Neymar collected the ball on the edge of the area. Slaloming his way through the Man City defence, he had the goal at his mercy.
His finish, however, was dragged wide of the post.
Less than two minutes later, City grabbed their winner.
The episode characterised Neymar’s season in the French capital. Whereas many expected him to thrive after the arrival of former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi, he has cut a slightly awkward figure. Most damning is that a team which requires decisiveness in the final third is currently getting the opposite from the Brazilian.
PSG’s game plan on the evening mirrored their approach to the fixture at the Parc des Princes in September. Pochettino packed his midfield with athleticism – Ander Herrera replaced Marco Verratti in the starting lineup – before surrendering possession and tasking his star-studded attacking trio to go and win the match.
It was all going to plan for an hour. City created the majority of the goalscoring opportunities, but their pressure wasn’t incessant and there were periods in which PSG were able to take the sting out of the game without much resistance from Guardiola’s side.
However, when City responded through Sterling on the hour mark PSG didn’t really lose their composure. It was about as much as Pochettino could ask from his defensive unit given the instructions he had handed them pre-match, but they were let down by Neymar’s profligacy in that moment 17 minutes from time.
Perhaps he could be forgiven if this was merely an off-night, but it marked the fourth Champions League game this term that Neymar has provided neither an assist or a goal. In a group including Club Brugge and an RB Leipzig side struggling for form, it makes for dismal reading.
His domestic form barely offers a note of encouragement either. Three goals and as many assists in nine starts doesn’t cut it in a dominant PSG side. Many will underline the fact the Parisiens have flattered to deceive in Ligue 1 this term, but Neymar’s contributions – or lack of – is part of that.
When compared to Kylian Mbappe’s numbers, you would be forgiven for believing Neymar was a bit-part squad member. The Frenchman has registered 12 assists this season, with eight goals to boot in all competitions. He is averaging a goal involvement roughly every 59 minutes on the pitch.
There’s only one football on the pitch, you might say, which renders it largely impossible for each of PSG’s front three to post extraordinary numbers. But it’s been Mbappe’s decisiveness which has marked him out. This is also a player who believed he was leaving PSG with just a week left in the transfer window last summer.
Of course, there could be mitigating circumstances. Neymar missed the opening three games of the season through injury, and his performances hint at a player carrying either mental or physical baggage.
But at present, it’s difficult to defend Neymar’s contributions. In fact, it’s difficult to justify his place in the team at all.
-90min
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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