IN UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
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Manchester City star, Erling Haaland has scored twice as the team began their Champions League campaign with a comfortable two-nil victory against Porto.
Norway star Haaland scored the only goal against Coventry on Saturday and was the match winner once more, nestling a header into the far corner and rolling home another to take his tally to thirty-six Champions League goals for City in only forty appearances.
The result means 2004 champions Porto have won only two of their past seventeen games against English teams in European competition, while City will be aiming to lift the trophy for the first time since their Treble-winning campaign in 2023.
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Real Madrid star, Kylian Mbappe has moved joint-fifth in the list of all-time Champions League and European Cup goalscorers as Real Madrid overcame Inter Milan two-nil.
The France captain, opened the scoring for Jose Mourinho’s side with a clinical 14th-minute finish from just inside the box – his 71st goal in ninety-nine appearances in the competition.
Only Karim Benzema (90), Robert Lewandowski (109), Lionel Messi (129) and Cristiano Ronaldo (140) have scored more.
Real Madrid’s second goal was scored Federico Valverde while Inter Milan’s only goal was scored by Carlos Augusto.
Despite the win, Real’s fans were unhappy with their team’s performance and made their feelings known during the game.
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Aston Villa have breathed life into their season as they edged to a three-two Champions League victory over Club Brugge.
First-half goals from John McGinn, Emi Buendia and Nicolas Jackson earned the Premier League side a battling victory in Belgium.
Hugo Vetlesen had briefly hauled the hosts level after McGinn’s opener, but Buendia and Jackson – with his first goal for the club – put Villa in charge.
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Borussia Dortmund star, Serhou Guirassy scored twice and netted an own goal as Borussia Dortmund opened their Uefa Champions League campaign with a three-two win against Villarreal.
A Renato Veiga own goal gave hosts Dortmund the lead early in the second half, but Santiago Mourino drew Villarreal level after his side missed several opportunities.
Dortmund improved and Guirassy restored their lead in the 80th minute, before the Guinean striker converted a late penalty and then scored an own goal.
Villarreal failed to score in any of their four away matches in the Champions League last season.
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The Republic of Ireland’s Troy Parrott scored the winner as Real Betis came from behind to begin their return to Champions League football with an exciting three-two win at Lille.
The former Tottenham man continued his strong run of form since joining Betis last month, having also scored the only goal in victory against Real Madrid on Friday.
Lille dominated the first half, but a strong performance after the restart and a Lille red card helped the Spaniards to victory.
Lille travel to Arsenal for their next Champions League game on 13th October, while Betis host Porto on 14th October.
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AEK Athens star Razvan Marin’s superb first-half free-kick was enough to earn AEK Athens a 1-0 victory over LASK in their opening Champions League league phase fixture.
Midway through the first half, Marin bent his effort from just outside of the penalty area over the wall, around the far post and past goalkeeper Lukas Jungwirth to separate Greek side AEK and their Austrian opponents.
For AEK, it was their first victory in the full rounds of the Champions League since 2006.
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Bournemouth has claimed a first competitive win under new manager Marco Rose by beating Lincoln City four-nil in the EFL Cup third round.
A Ryan Christie hat-trick and a late Rayan strike booked Bournemouth’s place in the fourth round at the expense of the Championship side, who started brightly at the Vitality Stadium but soon faded.
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Newcastle star, Joe Willock has scored a late winner as Newcastle United survived a scare against Championship side Millwall to reach the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.
Newcastle head coach Matthias Jaissle showed his respect for injury-hit Millwall, and the competition, by naming a strong team for the third-round tie at the Den.
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Sunderland star, Chemsdine Talbi scored on his Sunderland return as the Black Cats got the better of Hull and sealed their spot in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
Talbi, who was not included in his club’s Europa League squad last week and has been the subject of interest from Saudi Arabia, scored the only goal in a game which lacked many clear-cut chances.
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Bayern Munich striker, Harry Kane is one of three England players nominated for the 2026 Ballon d’Or.
Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Arsenal’s Declan Rice join Kane, the favourite for the award, on the thirty player shortlist.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi, who is looking to win his ninth Ballon d’Or, has been nominated.
Lamine Yamal is one of six Spain players that won the World Cup to be included.
Having scored the winning goal in the final, Paris Saint-Germain forward Ferran Torres, who joined the French club from Barcelona in the summer, makes the cut.
Back-to-back Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain have nine players, excluding new signing Torres, nominated, including last year’s winner Ousmane Dembele.
Real Madrid forwards Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior also make the shortlist, as well as Arsenal defenders Gabriel and William Saliba.
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England stars, Alessia Russo and Alex Greenwood are among thirty players nominated for the women’s Ballon d’Or.
They are the only Lionesses to make the shortlist, with Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati, who has won the award for the past three years, absent after missing a large chunk of the season with a broken leg.
Scotland’s Caroline Weir, who joined Lyon in June from Real Madrid, also made the shortlist after scoring 20 goals in all competitions for the Spanish side.
The award is celebrating its 70th anniversary, having been created by France Football in 1956, and the winner will be announced at an ceremony in London on 26th October.
The symbolic choice of venue is in tribute to former England player Sir Stanley Matthews, who won the first Ballon d’Or.
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Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister says he is very sad not to have been offered a new deal by the club and had options to leave in the summer.
The Argentine, who joined on a five-year contract from Brighton in June 2023, saw team-mates Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch extend their Reds deals this year.
Speaking before Liverpool’s Champions League game against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, Mac Allister spoke openly about his future at the club.
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Newcastle United sporting director, Ross Wilson says the club were preparing for former head coach Eddie Howe’s departure for up to nine months.
Although Howe had originally intended to carry on this season, the drained manager decided to step down in July because he felt it was in the best interests of all parties for him to take a break.
It was a summer of huge change as several key players departed, but Newcastle did not envisage Howe leaving when he did following nearly five years in charge.
Wilson is adamant the Englishman’s exit was not chaotic or painful because the club had a contingency plan in place, which led to the appointment of Matthias Jaissle.
Newcastle spoke to multiple candidates, but Wilson said Jaissle emerged as their first-choice to replace a legend of the club.
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Former Leicester City defender Conor Coady believes the problems at his old club have got to run deeper than the manager and players after their difficult start to life in League One.
The former England international revealed he could feel the decline during his two-season spell in the East Midlands.
Leicester are 18th with five points from their opening five matches and were beaten 4-0 at home by Oxford United on Saturday.
Coady said the club had been in transition too long following three relegations in the past four seasons.
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Wycombe Wanderers have sacked manager Michael Duff following a five-game winless start to the League One season.
First-team coach Alex Morris has also left in the wake of the Buckinghamshire side having picked up just three points out of a possible fifteen.
Tom Hounsell will take on the role as interim head coach for Saturday’s trip to Leyton Orient.
Former Cheltenham Town, Barnsley, Swansea City and Huddersfield boss Duff, had been in charge almost a year after replacing Michael Dodds on 18th September 2025, having made a similarly poor start to last season.
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IN NIGERIA
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China head coach, Wang Jun says his team is fully focused on their upcoming clash with Nigeria’s Falconets at the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Jun’s side will face Nigeria in their second Group match at the Arena Sosnowiec on Thursday.
The Chinese coach said his team would look to rely on their strengths, particularly their pace, to secure another victory.
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Barau FC General Manager, Dominic Iorfa, has praised his players for their resilience after they secured a hard-fought goalless draw against Kun Khalifat in a EuroMatch Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, Matchday 2 encounter.
Iorfa’s satisfaction was particularly significant given the challenging circumstances the team faced just hours before kick-off.
The Barau FC delegation arrived at Owerri Airport on Saturday, but their journey to the hotel was disrupted when the team bus reportedly developed a fault.
The former Queens Park Rangers forward revealed that several players sustained varying degrees of injury during the incident, although the team chose not to make a major issue of it.
Reflecting on the encounter, the former Lobi Stars of Makurdi boss admitted that Barau FC’s determination was complemented by a degree of fortune, particularly in defence.
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Edo Queens have been rewarded with a whopping fifty million naira for winning the 2026 WAFU B Women’s Champions League.
Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, announced the cash reward during a reception held in honour of the victorious team in Benin City.
The players and their officials returned home to a hero’s welcome following their impressive campaign in Burkina Faso.
Addressing the players at the reception, Okpebholo praised their resilience, determination and fighting spirit, saying he remained confident they would overcome Ghanaian side Ampem Darkoa Ladies in the final.
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Super Falcons midfielder, Deborah Abiodun has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2026 season after her NWSL club, Washington Spirit, confirmed that she will undergo surgery this week.
Abiodun was initially expected to spend about two months on the sidelines, but the club has now placed her on the season-ending injury list.
The 22-year-old midfielder was an important part of the Super Falcons squad that featured at the 2026 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Her latest injury is also expected to rule her out of Nigeria’s 2028 Olympic Games qualifying fixtures against Comoros next month.
The Super Falcons will face Comoros in both legs of the second-round qualifier at the Remo Stars Sports Complex in Ikenne on 9th to 13th October.
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OTHER LEAGUES
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Former Valencia midfielder, Gaizka Mendieta has disclosed that the UEFA Champions League remains the ultimate ambition for Barcelona, its fans, and players following a strong start to the season.
Mendieta noted that while domestic success is always targeted, the European trophy is what everyone at the club desires most.
With strong resources provided by the club’s sporting direction, expectations are high for Barça to compete all the way
Barcelona were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 2025-26 competition by Atletico Madrid and will seek to go all the way this year whilst also hoping to defend their league title after winning all of their opening games.
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Napoli says Scott McTominay’s heart surgery was a complete success and expect the Scotland midfielder to resume training this month.
The 29-year-old’s ablation procedure a minimally invasive operation to correct irregular heart rhythms, took place at Spire Manchester Hospital on Tuesday.
McTominay was substituted after 56 minutes of Napoli’s two-one Serie A defeat by Como on 30th August.
Napoli said McTominay would rest for two weeks and then resume training”, had expected the former Manchester United player to return to action after the international break in early October.
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Rangers captain, Lawrence Shankland will be out for up to four months because of a hamstring tear and the forward may have surgery.
Speaking before Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership visit of St Mirren, manager Derek McInnes confirmed his 31-year-old skipper had suffered a recurrence of the injury when both were at Hearts last season.
Shankland missed nine weeks.
He scored four goals in ten Rangers appearances so far this term but came off early in Saturday’s one-nil home league win over Motherwell.
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Celtic manager, Martin O’Neill has confirmed Celtic duo Kasper Hogh and Kieran Tierney could play a part in Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership match at St Johnstone as the pair close in on returns from injury.
Denmark striker Hogh, who became the Scottish champions’ record signing this summer, has not played since the second leg of Celtic’s Champions League play-off defeat against LASK on 25th August.
Scotland defender Tierney missed the wins against Aberdeen and St Mirren.
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Como president Mirwan Suwarso and several directors are giving up their tickets for the club’s Champions League debut to allow elderly supporters to attend.
The Serie A club will host RB Leipzig on Thursday after qualifying for the continental competition for the first time in their 119-year history.
They did so by finishing fourth in the Italian top flight last season under former Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas.
The demand for tickets for Como’s historic European debut has far exceeded the supply.
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Legal action from the top European leagues and global players’ union Fifpro against Fifa has been extended to include the world governing body’s abusive conduct towards the women’s game.
European Leagues, which represents fifty-three professional divisions, including the Premier League, and one thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight clubs in thirty-four countries, first filed the complaint to the European Commission to protect the welfare of men’s players in October 2024.
The complaint stated that Fifa abused a dominant position under European competition law allegedly by not including national leagues and player unions over the new men’s international calendar announced in 2023.
It said it is extending the scope of its complaint to include “Fifa’s abusive conduct regarding the women’s international match calendar and related women’s football regulatory decisions”.
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OTHER SPORTS
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In Tennis, Aryna Sabalenka thought she had lost her US Open crown before leaving herself speechless as she battled back to beat Linda Noskova in three sets and advance to the semi-finals.
Taken to a deciding set for the first time in this year’s tournament, the two-time defending champion trailed 4-2 in the third set and later 2-0 in the tie-break before recovering to close out a 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 win in a little under two and a half hours.
It was the 28-year-old’s 19th consecutive win at the tournament, having not tasted defeat since the 2023 final, while she becomes the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach six successive semi-finals at Flushing Meadows.
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In Cricket, Cricket Australia has opened the Big Bash to private investment, although individual state associations will retain the power to decide whether and when to sell stakes in their franchises.
The governing body had originally been keen on a league-wide sale of franchises for the Big Bash League (BBL) and the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) but those proposals were opposed by New South Wales and Queensland.
Instead, a “self-determination model” will be adopted by Cricket Australia for the process, which will allow individual states to have the final say.
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In Formula one, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli has climbed from 19th on the grid to win the Italian Grand Prix – his home race – in one of the great Formula 1 drives.
Antonelli extended his lead at the top of the drivers’ standings to 66 points over team-mate George Russell.
Max Verstappen, in the Red Bull, finished third to complete the podium at Monza.
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In Rugby, Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says England’s rules on selecting only home-based players are the right thing for the domestic game.
Former England forward Courtney Lawes has called for overseas-based players to be eligible to be picked for the England side.
The 37-year-old, who has won 105 England caps, returned to the Prem this summer with Sale, having spent two years at French side Brive where he was ineligible to represent his country.
Under England’s selection policy, players can only be called up from overseas clubs in exceptional circumstances.
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In Cycling, Matthew Brennan has emerged victorious in the 16th stage of the Vuelta a Espana to claim his fourth stage win of this year’s race.
The British Visma Lease-a-bike rider sprinted to victory ahead of Bryan Coquard and Vito Braet in Palos de la Frontera.
Brennan, held up four fingers to celebrate each of his four stage wins in his first Grand Tour.
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In Athletics, Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall has decided to end her 2026 season after suffering severe concussion in a car crash.
The decision means the 27-year-old American will miss this week’s World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Hungary.
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In Golf, LIV Golf has filed for bankruptcy protection with at least thirty-three million pounds owed to players, who will now have the option to leave.
A Chapter 11 petition, which LIV says is to “preserve the company’s business” as it attempts to restructure after Saudi Arabia withdrew its multibillion-dollar funding, was filed in the United States.
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TODAY’S FIXTURES
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IN UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – LEAGUE STAGE
Barcelona vs Feyenoord
Stuttgart vs Viking
Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid
Napoli vs Arsenal
Paris Saint-Germain vs Slovan Bratislava
Sporting CP vs Galatasaray
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.. words from Political and Spiritual Leader, Mahatma Gandhi.
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