Manchester City’s Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during the English Premier League soccer match against Manchester United in Manchester, England, on September 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

There were goals for Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland; and wins for Real Madrid and Manchester City as the Champions League returned Tuesday (September 8, 2026) for a new season.

Mbappe gave record 15-time champion Madrid an early lead en route to 2-1 victory over Inter Milan at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Haaland scored both goals as 2023 winner City beat Porto 2-0.

Madrid and City are expected to be among the main challengers to back-to-back defending champion Paris Saint-Germain this season, and each club will be relying on its star strikers.

Mbappe’s goal after 14 minutes was his 71st in European club soccer’s top continental competition and saw him move level with Madrid great Raúl in fifth place on the all-time scorers list. Haaland took his tally to 59 in 59 appearances in the Champions League.

Borussia Dortmund beat Villarreal 3-2, and Real Betis won by the same score at Lille.

Aston Villa also won 3-2 over Club Brugge, and AEK Athens had a 1-0 win over LASK. PSG begins its campaign Wednesday (September 9) against Slovan Bratislava.

Jose Mourinho made a winning return to the Champions League as Real Madrid coach, despite Inter dominating possession.

When Inter lost possession deep in its own half Brahim Diaz slid in Mbappe, who fired low past Josep Martinez.

The Inter goalkeeper was then guilty of indecision when Federico Valverde closed him down in his own area and poked the ball into an empty net.

Inter, which ended the game with 61% possession, set up a tense finish when Carlos Augusto scored in the 77th.

“There’s so much criticism when a game is boring, but today it was crazy — it could easily have ended 7-6,” Mourinho told broadcaster Movistar.

Mourinho won his second Champions League title with Inter in 2010 and is aiming to join the likes of Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Zinedine Zidane by lifting the trophy for a third time.

Unstoppable Haaland With five goals in his last three games, Haaland is in hot form. And it could have been even more if not for Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa’s first-half performance.

Haaland eventually found the breakthrough at Estadio do Dragao with a header two minutes into the second half. He side-footed City’s second in stoppage time to make certain of the win and ensure new coach Enzo Maresca’s 100% start continued.

“We have to learn. Enzo demands a lot from us and we have to demand a lot from each other,” Haaland told Amazon Prime. “We have to win games because at Man City, you have to win trophies. That’s what we have to do at this club.”

Villa kicks off with a win. Aston Villa put its domestic problems behind it with a win over Club Brugge.

Victory in Belgium ended Villa’s winless and goalless start to its 2026-27 season, after early struggles in the Premier League.

John McGinn recorded the first goal of the Champions League campaign with a sweeping low shot from an angle in the 11th minute. Hugo Vetlesen equalized for Brugge, but Emiliano Buendia and Nicolas Jackson put Villa 3-1 up by the break.

Nicolo Tresoldi scored for the home team with a penalty in the 61st, but Villa held on for the win.

Villa coach Unai Emery will hope victory sparks his team’s season after the summer departures of star players Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Emi Martinez.

His much-changed team lost to Brighton and Arsenal in the Premier League and picked up its first point of the season with a goalless draw against newly promoted Hull City. It had recorded only one shot on target in those three games.

Borussia Dortmund teenager Konstantinos Karetsas was taken to hospital after slumping to the turf 25 minutes into his Champions League debut.

“Konstantinos Karetsas had to leave the field due to circulatory problems,” Dortmund said in a statement. Karetsas “is doing well under the circumstances and is on his way to the hospital for further tests.”

Serhou Guirassy scored three goals — two for Dortmund and one in his own net — in a frantic finish against Villarreal.

Guirassy gave Dortmund a 2-1 lead in the 80th and then struck again from the penalty spot five minutes later to make it 3-1. He then added an own goal in stoppage time to make it 3-2

Parrott strikes again It has been an eventful few days for Troy Parrott.

The Ireland international scored his first goal for new club Betis with a late winner against Madrid on Friday (September 4) and he was on target again with the decisive goal in the 3-2 win in Lille.

AEK Athens beat LASK 1-0 thanks to Razvan Marin’s brilliant first-half free kick.

Published – September 09, 2026 11:17 am IST

The biggest (read costliest) deadline-day move came as Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez swapped Chelsea’s royal blue for Manchester City’s lighter shade.
| Photo Credit: X@ManCity

The 10 years Pep Guardiola spent at Manchester City represent one of the greatest acts of dynasty-building in the sporting universe.

Not only did the Catalan coach City to six Premier League titles, five League Cups, three FA Cups, one UEFA Champions League crown and one at the FIFA Club World Cup, he did so by assembling multiple great sides, revolutionising tactics, and constantly reinventing himself.

Dominant reign

Guardiola’s six Premier League trophies are second only to Alex Ferguson’s 13 at Manchester United, and even in the four years when City did not win the top prize, it stayed in the top three. No other coach won more than one Premier League title during Guardiola’s time in England.

When such a king abdicates the throne and leaves his kingdom, as Guardiola did at the end of the 2025-26 campaign, there is bound to be an almighty jostle among those below to be the immediate heir. The 2026-27 Premier League season, which got underway late on Friday (August 21), will be the battleground to decide whom the power is transferred to.

The setting is conducive for an intriguing competition. City without Guardiola will be one of nine clubs to have new coaches, and two others in Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur did not have Michael Carrick and Roberto De Zerbi in place at the start of the year.

Mikel Arteta, who secured Arsenal its first English top-flight crown in 22 years, is the most experienced, having been in the job for a little over six years and seven months. Unai Emery, who masterminded Aston Villa’s 2025-26 Europa League triumph, is next, with a stint now at roughly three years and 10 months.

Though Guardiola has exited the scene, his giant shadow still looms. Enzo Maresca, who has replaced the 55-year-old at the Etihad, and Arteta have served as his assistants. Xabi Alonso, installed as Chelsea’s new manager, was once Guardiola’s midfield marshal at Bayern Munich.

The post-Pep Premier League era will not have a clean break in terms of tactics too, for Guardiola has left a deep imprint, both in terms of the first principles he introduced, and how he evolved and shed his orthodoxies to cater to the League’s fast-changing demands.

When he first arrived, Guardiola was a cleric of the possession-heavy school and was canonical in his belief that retaining the ball was the best route to success. So much so that even goalkeepers weren’t spared; one of his first decisions at City was to replace Joe Hart, a top-class shot-stopper, with Claudio Bravo, a ball-playing goalie.

And it felt like the league as a whole — with the glorious exception of Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United — was trying to inculcate parts of it.

Guardiola then changed tack to embrace high-energy players and those with great individual skills in order to adjust to the breathless, end-to-end football that the likes of Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) and Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham) introduced. The controlled aggression of the earlier years made way for a more expressive and expansive style.

Philosophical blasphemy

And in his last four seasons in charge, he played with one of world football’s purest strikers in Erling Haaland. For a man who once made Lionel Messi turn out as a False 9, and then won two Premier League trophies in 2020-21 and 2021-22 with midfielders as top-scorers (Ilkay Gundogan with 13 goals and Kevin de Bruyne 15), to have Haaland score 112 times over four campaigns would have been akin to philosophical blasphemy.

However, football is now more direct and physical than in recent times and it is to Guardiola’s credit that he tweaked his methods and put in place a blueprint for success. “You need to adapt, evolve,” City’s Maresca said recently. “Set-pieces, man to man — it’s a little bit the direction where football is going. We managers… it’s our duty to find solutions.”

Who among Arteta, Carrick, Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Maresca will answer the call? For one, the sight of Arteta, Carrick and Alonso walking briskly up and down the touchline is sure to remind fans of their glory days as players for Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool not so long ago. For a certain generation, it will appear like they are reliving a childhood dream.

Arteta has the first-mover advantage, having already won the League and possessing a winning combination. The addition of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle for GBP 75 million will reduce the inordinate burden on midfielder Declan Rice. But Arsenal’s unsuccessful pursuit of Vinicius Junior suggests that the outfit is mindful of the need of a world-class threat upfront.

Carrick, who took over at Old Trafford after the sacking of Ruben Amorim, had an impressive stint as caretaker manager, winning 12 and drawing three of his 17 matches in 2025-26, and helping United qualify for the Champions League after a two-season hiatus. The question before the astute 45-year-old is whether his United has the quality to sustain simultaneous domestic and continental challenges.

For Alonso, Chelsea is the opportunity to light up an aura that has seemingly dimmed after a failed seven-month stint as Real Madrid’s boss. The 44-year-old is known to possess a shrewd tactical brain, and his role in ending Bayern Munich’s hegemony in Germany — 11 straight Bundesliga titles from 2012-13 to 2022-23 — by leading a young Bayer Leverkusen side to its maiden crown is noteworthy. The addition of 24-year-old English attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers for a whopping GBP 117 million shows that he has Chelsea’s wholehearted trust.

Andoni Iraola’s ascent to the top job at Liverpool after making a mark at Bournemouth is eerily similar to Graham Potter’s entry into Chelsea in 2022 after a stellar show at Brighton & Hove Albion. But Potter was dismissed in less than seven months, a fate Iraola will want to avoid.

The 44-year-old is agnostic to any style of play that is not front-footed, a factor that endeared him to the Liverpool hierarchy after a dreary end to Arne Slot’s time. Can he manage to keep the club faithful happy without the services of Mohamed Salah, who left after nine glorious years?

Tough act to follow

Maresca’s situation at City is comparable to what David Moyes faced at United after the latter succeeded Ferguson in 2013. The Italian’s first test will be to not get crushed under the burden of expectations after Guardiola’s supremely successful tenure. It helps that City is not known to be trigger-happy, for both Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini enjoyed tenures lasting three years or more before Guardiola arrived.

Maresca also comes with a certain pedigree, having led Chelsea to FIFA Club World Cup glory in 2025, and has added England midfielder Elliot Anderson for a hefty GBP 116 million fee. But he will have to compete without the talismanic World Cup winner Rodri, who has shifted to Barcelona, and fellow playmaker Bernardo Silva, who has moved to Real Madrid.

Will he be guided by the spirit of Guardiola or will the ghost of Guardiola haunt him?

Arsenal’s Kai Havertz scores during a Premier League match against Burnley in London, on May 18, 2026
| Photo Credit: AP

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola won six Premier League titles and City’s first Champions League among 20 trophies
| Photo Credit: Action Images via Reuters

Manchester City’s players react after the Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Everton in Liverpool, on May 4, 2026
| Photo Credit: AP

Arsenal’s manager Mikel Arteta. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Real Madrid swept Manchester City aside to qualify for the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday, while Paris Saint-Germain rubber-stamped their spot in the next round by thrashing French rivals Brest. Kylian Mbappe struck twice in the first half before completing his hat-trick on the hour at the Santiago Bernabeu as the European champions won the return leg of the play-off tie 3-1 to complete a 6-3 aggregate victory. “I said it (before), I didn’t come to Real Madrid to play badly,” Mbappe told Movistar. “Making my dream come true is one thing, but I want to play well here, mark an era and make history at Real Madrid.”

Carlo Ancelotti’s side will face either city rivals Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, coached by former Real midfielder Xabi Alonso, in the last 16, for which the draw will made on Friday.

“The best team won, they deserve to be there and we don’t,” said City boss Pep Guardiola.

After two late goals last week swung the balance considerably in Madrid’s favour, City suffered another blow before kick-off in Spain with Erling Haaland only considered fit enough to start on the bench.

Mbappe padded Madrid’s advantage with a fourth-minute lob, squeezing in between Ruben Dias and John Stones as he latched on to Raul Asencio’s long ball and lifted his effort over City goalkeeper Ederson.

The France striker rounded off a flowing team move with a sharp finish for Madrid’s second of the game, completing his hat-trick with a crisp left-footed shot from the edge of the area. 

Nico Gonzalez netted a consolation in stoppage time for City after Omar Marmoush’s powerful free-kick came back off the crossbar.

The lone real disappointment on the night for Madrid was a yellow card for Jude Bellingham that will rule the England midfielder out of the first leg of the last 16.

For City, the focus will switch to simply securing a place in next season’s Champions League after a disastrous domestic campaign for a team that won the last four Premier League titles. 

“It’s been our worst year… we’ve been an incredible team and this year, for many reasons, we have lost that consistency,” said Guardiola.

PSG demolished Brest 7-0 at the Parc des Princes as goals from seven different players propelled the in-form French champions to a 10-0 win over both legs.

Bradley Barcola and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored in the first half to eliminate any small doubts for the hosts, who showed no mercy with Vitinha, Desire Doue, Nuno Mendes, Goncalo Ramos and Senny Mayulu also on target.

It was PSG’s record winning margin in a European game. They scored just three goals in their first five Champions League matches this season, but have found the net 21 times in five outings since then.

“I think we are showing that winning everything is possible,” Kvaratskhelia told Canal Plus. “We come into every game to win and of course that is our goal and our dream. We will put everything into that.”

Luis Enrique’s men go on to a blockbuster clash with Liverpool or Barcelona, while Brest’s first-ever European campaign ended in sorry fashion against a club they have not beaten in 40 years. 

“It is pretty shameful to go out this way. To lose 7-0 is too much. Yes Paris are a great team and I hope they go all the way, but to lose 7-0 is unacceptable,” said Brest midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou.

PSV Eindhoven knocked out Juventus 4-3 on aggregate after extra time, overturning a first-leg deficit with a 3-1 win in the Netherlands.

Timothy Weah cancelled out Ivan Perisic‘s opener for PSV, but the hosts forced an additional 30 minutes with a goal from Ismael Saibari.

Defender Ryan Flamingo turned in from close range in the 98th minute to send PSV through at the expense of Thiago Motta‘s Juventus, with Arsenal or Inter Milan awaiting the Dutch side next month.

Borussia Dortmund progressed after a goalless draw at home to Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon sealed a 3-0 overall victory.

The competition’s leading scorer Serhou Guirassy missed a second-half penalty but it mattered for nothing in the end as last season’s runners-up were rarely troubled by Sporting.

Dortmund’s reward is a last-16 tie against Aston Villa or Lille.