UEFA Champions League
Dortmund hammer Celtic 7-1 after Adeyemi first-half hat-trick
Borussia Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half hat-trick as last season’s losing finalists hammered Celtic 7-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday with five goals in the opening 42 minutes.
The humbling scoreline sent Dortmund top of the 36-team Champions League standings, with two wins from two matches and a goal difference of nine, while Celtic plunged from third to 19th.
“A sore one, for sure. We were punished with every mistake we made. Before we knew it, we were 5-1 down. A sobering night,” Celtic captain Callum McGregor told TNT Sports.
The 80,000 crowd started the celebrations early at the Westfalenstadion, with captain Emre Can scoring from the spot in the seventh minute after Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel up-ended Jamie Gittens and was booked.
Celtic momentarily hushed the deafening Yellow Wall two minutes later when Daizen Maeda bundled in a cross from Arne Engels but Adeyemi restored the lead with a shot deflected in off Auston Trusty in the 11th.
The Germany winger made it 3-1 in the 29th when he lashed the ball into the top corner past the diving Schmeichel, then won a 39th minute penalty for Serhou Guirassy to tuck away before completing his hat-trick three minutes later.
Adeyemi was substituted with an injury shortly after the break, the 22-year-old applauding fans as he left.
Guirassy grabbed his second of the night in the 66th and second-half substitute Felix Nmecha completed the rout in the 79th, with Celtic having Schmeichel to thank for keeping the sobering scoreline to seven.
“It was a great night. Almost the perfect night for us. Everything went right. It’s great to get such a big win,” said Can. “We’ve made a really good start, but there’s still a long way to go.”
CELTIC SHREDDED
The halftime shredding rewound Celtic’s goal difference to zero after their 5-1 thrashing of debutants Slovan Bratislava in their opening match last month, and it only got worse.
Guirassi’s second came after a poor clearance by Alistair Johnson as Celtic, who arrived with some confidence of getting a good result, paid the price for slack passing and scant possession.
Adeyemi was the first Dortmund player to score a first-half hat-trick in Europe since 2002 and his achievement left the 4,000 travelling Celtic fans shell-shocked as the speedy hosts ripped their side apart.
“We scored seven goals, so it was a really good night. We can reach the final again if we keep playing like this,” he said afterwards.
Both teams had started unchanged from weekend domestic league games with Celtic the leaders in Scotland and Dortmund, 3-0 winners at Belgian side Club Brugge in their European opener, fifth in the Bundesliga.
“The quick goal killed us and rattled us a little bit. When you give good players time on the ball, they will kill you. And that’s what they did,” said McGregor.
Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin said his team set the bar high.
“We were always looking to go forward, and we’re difficult to beat when we play like that. I was incredibly pleased with the amount of effort we put in,” he said.
Dortmund’s next game is at Real Madrid on Oct. 22, a repeat of last year’s Wembley final, while Celtic play last year’s Europa League winners Atalanta in Italy on Oct. 23.
-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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