Manchester City made a sluggish start to their Champions League campaign as they drew 0-0 against Inter Milan on Wednesday, while Paris Saint-Germain needed a last-minute goal to beat tournament newcomers Girona.
Pep Guardiola’s side have won all four of their English Premier League games this season, but failed to break down Italian champions Inter in a repeat of the Champions League final won last year by City.
City lost Kevin De Bruyne to injury at half-time and Phil Foden fired straight at Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer with their best chance as Erling Haaland was kept quiet on a night he was chasing his 100th goal for the English club.
Photo: Reuters
“It was a very intense game against a strong opponent. We knew what was coming, they are a top team as well and they are used to winning, so we were not going to have an easy job,” City defender Ruben Dias told TNT Sports.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan could have won it for Inter when he blazed over 15 minutes from time, allowing City to extend their unbeaten run in the competition to 24 matches — one off the record set by Manchester United between 2007 and 2009.
It is just the second time in 42 home Champions League games under Guardiola that City have failed to score.
Photo: AP
“Our plan was to show that we’re not scared to play here,” Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu said.
Elsewhere, PSG looked as if they would also have to settle for a point against European debutants Girona, who are backed by the City Football Group and ran Real Madrid close for several months in Spain last season before coming third.
However, a goalkeeping blunder from Paulo Gazzaniga in the 90th minute resulted in Nuno Mendes’ cross squirming through his grasp and handed the French champions victory.
Photo: AFP
“It was a difficult game, they’re a team that plays well with the ball,” Mendes told Canal Plus.
“I was surprised [by the goal]. The goalkeeper was there and it got through.”
Meanwhile, last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund, beaten by Real Madrid in the final, had English winger Jamie Gittens to thank as the 20-year-old came off the bench and scored twice in a 3-0 win at Club Brugge.
Serhou Guirassy added a stoppage-time penalty for his first Dortmund goal since arriving in the summer from Stuttgart.
Celtic began in style by thrashing Slovan Bratislava 5-1 in Glasgow, winning their opening game in the Champions League for the first time in 13 attempts.
Liam Scales’ powerful header put Celtic ahead and the hosts struck again through Kyogo Furuhashi early in the second half before Arne Engels converted a penalty for 3-0.
Kevin Wimmer pulled one back with a fine strike for the Slovak champions, who came through four rounds of qualifying, but Celtic pulled away with further goals from Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah.
“It’s a fantastic night,” Celtic captain Callum McGregor told TNT Sports.
“I hope the supporters enjoyed it because the managers and players did. This is the next level for the group in terms of growth and development,” he added.
Bologna drew 0-0 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Italian team’s first-ever Champions League match. Lukasz Skorupski saved an early penalty from Shakhtar’s Georgiy Sudakov.
Sparta Prague swept Red Bull Salzburg aside 3-0 with goals from Kaan Kairinen, Victor Olatunji and Qazim Laci, as the Czech champions won for the first time in the competition proper since 2003.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946