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Just when you thought the Champions League group stage was starting to get predictable…
Manchester City and Real Madrid, the two teams likely to win the title this season, suffered two blows on Tuesday evening that shook up the competition.
New Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim may have saved his best for last at Sporting CP, capping off his final home game with a 4-1 win over Manchester City. Meanwhile, AC Milan added to Madrid’s many problems in the Spanish capital with a 3-1 win.
The third most likely team to win the 2024/25 Champions League? Liverpool. And they brushed aside Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso 4-0 at Anfield to boost their credentials.
Here are the main talking points from Tuesday’s action.
Does this make Amorim the new Fergie?
“If we win, they will think the new Alex Ferguson has arrived, which is very difficult to maintain,” Amorim said.
Get up, Lord Reuben. His words, spoken on the eve of his last home match in charge of Sporting, feel quite relevant, don’t they?
Manchester United are now favorites for the 2025/26 Premier League title and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City dynasty is on the verge of crumbling.
Okay, fine, let’s calm down a bit. But let us also allow ourselves to be carried away en masse by this remarkable result.
Two years ago, Manchester City defeated the Portuguese team 5-0 in the last 16 of the Champions League, but on Tuesday they showed why United were so keen to land Amorim after his team thumped Guardiola’s shell-shocked side.
It must have been an incredibly bittersweet evening for Sporting fans, who celebrated one of the best wins in the club’s recent history, knowing they might not see anything like it again for some time. They said goodbye with a huge tifo that read “Obrigada” (thank you) and Amorim returned the favor with a night to remember.
In the battle of Nordic goalscorers, the clear winner was Viktor Gyokeres, whose hat-trick took his tally to 23 goals in 15 games for club and country this season. He only failed to score in three games.
(Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)
Amorim will certainly want to take Gyokeres to Old Trafford via a €100 million release clause, although Ineos, perhaps the Etihad, are in control and incoming football director Hugo Viana, who will leave Sporting at the end of the season, may be a more likely destination. Gyokeres and Erling Haaland together at the front? The nets will need to be reinforced.
A perfectly placed ball from Geovany Quenda and a thundering finish from Viktor Gyökeres 😤
Sporting is level with Man City! pic.twitter.com/cg9rdzT1QU
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 5, 2024
Viktor Gyökeres is simply unstoppable in that position 🤖
21st goal of the campaign for the Sporting forward.
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/uhgkDhbuuZ
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 5, 2024
The two managers won’t have to wait long for a rematch. If Amorim can do the same with Rasmus Hojlund or Joshua Zirkzee up front when his Manchester United team take on City and Guardiola on December 15, you can already start making plans for the statue.
Inconsistent Milan turn it on at the Bernabeu
AC Milan’s 3-1 win at the Bernabéu was just as surprising and stunning as Sporting’s victory.
Milan can be wildly inconsistent – they sit a lowly seventh in Serie A, already eight points behind leaders Napoli, albeit with a game in hand. They lost their first two Champions League games (to Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen) before struggling past ten-man Club Brugge to claim their first win on Matchday 3.
But here they were at their best, and so happened to be Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez, who on their day must be one of the most exciting left-sided pairs in European football.
New manager Paulo Fonseca brutally dropped them earlier this season and Leao has been on the bench in the league of late, but as Alvaro Morata told The Athletics last week: “He’s the best player on the team and just needs to keep doing what he’s doing.”
Morata restored Milan’s lead by putting them 2–1 up after Leao’s shot was saved. Leao then brought on Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, who had scored twice against Brugge last time out, to seal a memorable victory in this clash between European football giants.
(Engel Martinez/Getty Images)
With AC Milan facing Slovan Bratislava, Red Star Belgrade, Girona and Dinamo Zagreb in their last four matches, the path to the last 16 via an automatic qualification spot should be an easy one.
But only if they can find that elusive consistency.
Noel Gallagher was City’s best player that night
If you thought TNT Sports would dilute their coverage even further by inviting Oasis legend Noel Gallagher into the commentary box for City’s match at Sporting, think again.
In what probably says a lot more about the standard of punditry on English football screens, Gallagher was a breath of fresh air because he spoke common sense. Yes, it’s a crazy concept, stay with us.
Sure, he said ‘we’ when talking about his beloved City, but this wasn’t a Sky Sports Fan Zone gimmick nor was he overly biased. (He felt the decision to award City a penalty for handball was harsh and questioned things like bringing on Kevin De Bruyne for the final seven minutes, probably out of fear for his hamstrings.)
There was no melodrama, silly noises or awful ‘banter’ like you get when certain other pundits talk about the teams they support.
But Gallagher is a real fan (he was in the away match at Bournemouth on Saturday) and just says things like they are, backed up here by insight and statistics, and even foreshadowing City squandering chances and having to score a second goal – which came 37 seconds before Sporting equalized. It would be easy to make fun of his comments because he’s Noel Gallagher, like comparing Gyokeres’ penalty technique to Troy Deeney’s, until you stop and realize it’s true.
He did let himself down by saying, “A songwriting genius once wrote; ‘We see things they will never see’, and that’s Guardiola for you,” prompting raucous laughter from commentator Darren Fletcher. But we forgive him for that.
Regardless, Gallagher’s was probably the best City performance of the night as they suffered a third successive defeat in all competitions for the first time in six and a half years.
They squandered chances in the opening half-hour, with only Phil Foden’s goal in the fourth minute demonstrating their dominance, with Haaland firing a penalty against the crossbar when he had the chance to cut the score to 3-2.
Injuries are clearly having an impact, especially in defence, with teenager Jahmai Simpson-Pusey making his first senior start at the back. With 73 percent possession and twenty shots to nine, City is not outplayed, far from it.
But they are actually missing Rodri, who in some people’s eyes may be a more deserving winner of the Ballon d’Or for not playing.
Speaking of which…
Vinicius Jr. stood upright and then stood still
It was a mixed evening for Vinicius Junior, who had a good evening as he drew Real Madrid level with a Panenka penalty, minutes after the Bernabeu booed the Champions League anthem to express their dismay at him had not won the Ballon d’Or. .
𝑪𝒐𝒐𝒍. 𝑨𝒔. 𝒀𝒐𝒖. 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆. 🥶
Vinicius Jr sends Mike Maignan the wrong way with a stylish panenka 😎
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/IG9FFDZgVh
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 5, 2024
Vini Jr. goes for the Panenka vs. Mike Maignan 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/VkPPG2NOYN
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 5, 2024
Vinicius Jr. had won the penalty himself after a foul by former Tottenham Hotspur defender Emerson Royal, but from that moment on Madrid melted and the sight of Vinicius Jr. stood out. completely silent when a pass from Aurelien Tchouameni did not reach him (seconds later Milan were 2 -1 up) was one of the defining images of the evening.
So did Jude Bellingham, who kicked a water bottle in frustration after being substituted.
This was Madrid’s second league defeat in four games (they also lost 1-0 at Lille) and, after the 4-0 humiliation at home to Barcelona in their last league match, it sums up a threatening season. unravel.
They will certainly still reach at least a last-16 play-off with ease, but with a trip to Liverpool on Matchday 5, the usually composed Carlo Ancelotti may have to sweat a bit.
Alonso’s Leverkusen stumbles while Slot’s Liverpool flies
Anfield is not the place you want to go now to get a result.
Liverpool maintained one of only two 100 percent records in the new Champions League format (the other being *check notes* Aston Villa, who visit Club Brugge on Wednesday) with a serene 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Unlike Amorim, whose stock is sky high as he prepares to move to the Premier League, Xabi Alonso’s reputation is starting to take a bit of a hit just months after he was touted as the best thing since sliced bread but resisted against the temptation of a transfer to the Premier League.
Arne Slot got the Liverpool call-up instead and the above stats once again reflect how he got this Liverpool team spinning very quickly.
Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick in the second half, including a chip that could only have looked tastier with a dollop of mayonnaise at the end.
Curtis Jones’ ball and CHEEKY Luis Díaz finish 😳
He loved Anfield 👏 pic.twitter.com/FebrhSqnYK
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 5, 2024
Liverpool vs Leverkusen = The Luis Diaz Show ✨
All three of the Colombian’s goals in their 4-0 win… ⚽️⚽️⚽️#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/fqh6uW0aQq
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) November 5, 2024
Slot and Liverpool are flying at the top of the Premier League and the Champions League. Alonso and Leverkusen were never going to reach the impeccable heights of 2023/2024, but the difficult second season syndrome is setting in.
Tuesday’s results
- PSV 4 Girona 0
- Slovan Bratislava 1 Dinamo Zagreb 4
- Bologna 0 Monaco 1
- Borussia Dortmund 1 Sturm Graz 0
- Celtic3RB Leipzig1
- Lille 1 Juventus 1
- Liverpool 4 Bayer Leverkusen 0
- Real Madrid 1 AC Milan 3
- Sporting4Manchester City1
What’s next?
The remaining nine matches for game week four of the eight-round competition phase will take place on Wednesday.
- Club Brugge vs Aston Villa (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
- Shakhtar Donetsk vs Young Boys (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
- Bayern Munich vs Benfica (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Feyenoord vs Red Bull Salzburg (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Inter Milan vs Arsenal (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Paris Saint-Germain vs Atletico Madrid (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Red Star Belgrade vs Barcelona (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Sparta Prague vs Brest (8pm BST/3pm ET)
- Stuttgart vs Atalanta (8pm BST/3pm ET)
(Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)