UEFA Champions League
‘That’s our maximum’, admits Mbappe after latest PSG exit
Kylian Mbappe admitted that Paris Saint-Germain had performed to their “maximum” as they slumped to another early Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
PSG, trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Paris, were beaten 2-0 in the return game at the Allianz Arena to drop out of the competition in the last 16 for the fifth time in seven seasons.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who scored against his former club, and substitute Serge Gnabry sealed the win for Bayern.
“As I said at my first Champions League press conference this season, we were going to do our maximum. That’s our maximum, that’s the truth,” PSG star forward Mbappe told reporters.
“What were PSG missing? Not much when you look at the two squads. They have a great squad, built to win the Champions League.”
The French champions are still waiting for a maiden European Cup title despite the vast amount spent in the transfer market by their Qatari owners.
Christophe Galtier’s men, who could not find a way past Bayern despite having 55 per cent possession of the ball, ended the tie with two 17-year-olds on the pitch in El Chadaille Bitshiabu and Warren Zaire-Emery as they ran out of ideas.
“We’re going to question ourselves and then return to our daily life, the league,” added Mbappe.
“We have to move on… We lost against a great team, trying to win the tournament.”
Mbappe, who wore the captain’s armband after Marquinhos went off injured in the 36th minute, signed a bumper new deal with PSG in 2022.
Despite the team sitting eight points clear at the top of Ligue 1, the Champions League failure will inevitably bring more questions about whether the France star will stay at the Parc des Princes.
“I’m calm,” he said when asked about his future. “The only thing that matters to me is this season, to win the league, and then we’ll see.”
Galtier, meanwhile, bemoaned his team’s defending at Bayern’s opener, which came after Marco Verratti was dispossessed in his own box.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t take the chances we had,” he said.
“Then in the second half we conceded a really stupid goal. At this level you need to be a bit more clear-headed.
“Obviously we were under pressure from Bayern. At that point you need to not be ashamed to play long, to break out of the press. And obviously after an hour when you go behind it becomes very difficult.”
PSG were playing without injured Neymar, who will be undergoing surgery on his injured led by a renowned British specialist, James Calder, at the Aspetar hospital in Qatar.
The Brazilian forward is expected to miss up to four months of action, almost certainly ruling him out for the rest of the season.
Besides scoring the vital goals, Bayern also had Matthijs de Ligt to thank.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann said the Dutch defender “rescued” his side after making a vital goalline clearance in the first half.
With the tie in the balance, de Ligt scrambled Vitinha’s shot to safety after Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer was caught trying to dribble out of his own area.
Nagelsmann was not pleased with Sommer’s risk-taking but chose instead to praise de Ligt’s game-changing intervention.
“Nine out of 10 defenders in the world would have left that because they thought it was already in,” he said.
“It was an unbelievable play. He (de Ligt) loves to defend and hates to concede goals. Mistakes happen, but thankfully we have a defender who rescued us.”
Sommer, who arrived in Munich from Borussia Monchengladbach in January to replace the injured Bayern captain Manuel Neuer, joked that he had a special reward in mind for de Ligt.
“I’ve told him before once or twice that there’ll be a block of Swiss chocolate sitting on his doorstep for his efforts,” he said.
–AFP/Reuters
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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