Some live updates from the Women’s Champions League qualifiers. These are the first of two legs, with the victors of the tie set to advance to the group stage.
Anderlecht v Vålerenga (26 mins gone) Paris FC 0-2 Manchester City (HT) Hammarby 1-1 Benfica (HT) Häcken 0-0 Arsenal (HT) Juventus 2-1 PSG (HT) Roma 3-1 Servette (FT) Osijek 1-4 Twente (FT)
Half-time scores in the early men’s Champions League games:
Bologna 0-0 Shakhtar
Sparta Prague 2-0 RB Salzburg,
Kaan Kairinen and Victor Olatunji with the goals for Sparta. Remember Bobby Clark (son of Lee, formerly of Liverpool) and Stefan Bajcetic (on loan from Liverpool) are in the Salzburg midfield tonight. Eeeesh.
Preamble
If you want glamour ties, you’ve come to the wrong place. By all means, head over to our Manchester City v Internazionale liveblog, if that’s your sort of thing.
This clockwatch – bridging three different competitions and multiple different kick-off times – will instead bring the latest from a series of genuinely enthralling ties, each more obscure, intriguing and hipster than the last.
Women’s Champions League qualifying
Anderlecht v Vålerenga (6.30pm kick-off, all times BST) Fiorentina v Wolfsburg (7pm)
Carabao Cup
Brighton v Wolves (7.45pm) Coventry v Spurs (8pm)
Champions League (all 8pm)
Celtic v Slovan Bratislava Club Brugge v Borussia Dortmund PSG v Girona
We will also have the latest from the early kick-offs: Bologna v Shakhtar, Sparta Prague v RB Salzburg.
In the Women’s Champions League qualifying, Anderlecht host Norwegian champions Vålerenga. Wolfsburg – Champions League royalty who reached the final in 2016, 2018 and 2023 and won both the thing in both 2013 and 2014 – travel to Fiorentina, who came through qualifying after finishing third in Serie A last season.
The two Carabao Cup ties throw up an all Premier League clash and a classic banana skin of a tie for Tottenham at last season’s FA Cup semi-finalists Coventry City. Woof.
Some seriously interesting subplots in the men’s Champions League on just the second night of its new incarnation/league phase. There are five tournament debutants in this year’s competition, and two of them feature here (with Bologna having also kicked off against Shakhtar at 5.45pm BST).
Slovan Bratislava have made it through to the group stage at the 12th time of asking, having made it through four qualifying stages. Managed by Vladimir Weiss, his son of the same name also features in the squad. You may remember Weiss Jr from spells at Manchester City, Bolton and … um … Glasgow Rangers. Under the lights at Parkhead, rarely have Celtic had a better opportunity to get off to a winning start.
Borussia Dortmund, last year’s unlucky finalists, start this season’s campaign against Club Brugge. Dortmund added Maximilian Beier, Waldemar Anton, Serhou Guirassy, Pascal Gross, Yan Couto among others, and shipped out a whopping 18 players (including Marco Reus, Youssoufa Moukoko, Sebastién Haller, Mats Hummels and Niclas Füllkrug) and it will be interesting to see how Nuri Sahin moulds his new-look side this year.
Kylian Mbappé-less PSG seem revitalised, perhaps even stronger since the departure of their talisman to Real Madrid. So far this season the French side have played four, won four. Goals scored: 16. Goals against: three. They host Girona, another debutant, and remain a fascinating prospect despite the departures of Artem Dovbyk, Aleix García and Savinho. The Spanish club’s manager, Michel, promised earlier this week that 37-year-old striker Cristhian Stuani that he would give him the captain’s armband against PSG. “Stuani deserves to be in the starting XI. He has been wearing this shirt for many years. He deserves it more than anyone,” Michel told reporters.
That’ll do you, for now. We’ll have some team news shortly!
