Manchester City Draw with Inter Milan as PSG Secures Narrow Victory in Champions League

Manchester City kicked off their Champions League campaign on a shaky note after playing a barren stalemate with Inter Milan on Wednesday.

On the other hand, Paris Saint Germain was forced to a close from Girona and most teams are new in the tournament. While they dominated all their fixtures in the English Premier League this season including a record seventeen victories in a row, City could not pierce the Italian champions’ defense which they faced in the 2023 final that they triumphed. Their last chance of the night came from Phil Foden whose shot was covered by Inter’s goalkeeper Yann Sommer, Kevin De Bruyne was substituted off injured at half-time while Erling Haaland was also relatively subdued in his bid to score the 100th City goal.

A very tough match against a confident and strong rival hence the high emotions in the match, declared City’s defender Ruben Dias to TNT Sports.

Inter had been able to get a chance to score an insurance goal from their side when Mkhitaryan sent a shot on target over the bar in the final minutes of the match. However, City took their unbeaten run in the competition to twenty-four matches which is only one match shy of the record that Manchester United set in the 2007/09 season. City was only unable to record a single goal in this match and this has rarely happened over 42 Champions League.

“We planned to prove that we are not afraid of coming here to play,” said Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu.

On the other hand, PSG seemed destined for a draw against Girona, who are backed by the City Football Group and who were fighting for the top positions in Spain the last season. But the final twist of the event belonged to Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga who let Nuno Mendes’ cross-ball in which PSG scored.

‘The match was very tough, it’s a side that possesses the ball well,” said Mendes to Canal Plus.

I did not expect the goal to be scored because, the goalkeeper was very much in sight and the ball sneaked through.

Super-sub Gittens propels Dortmund

Last year’s Europa Cup finalist Borussia Dortmund who lost to Madrid in the final had English winger Jamie Gittens who came from the bench to score two goals in the 3 Hash club Brugge.

The deciding goal was scored by Serhou Guirassy who subsequently converted a penalty in added time which was his first for the Dortmund since joining from Stuttgart in the summer.

Celtic made the perfect start by thrashing Slovak side Slovan Bratislava 5-1 at Celtic Park, coming out winners in the opening match in group stages of the Champions League for only the second time ever.

Liam Scales propelled Celtic into the lead with a fantastic header and the hosts doubled their lead through Kyogo Furuhashi in the second half of the same period and Arne Engels scored a penalty to make it 3-0.

Despite this effort, Kevin Wimmer equalized for the Slovakia league champions who qualified to the playoff round having gone through four qualifying rounds, but Celtic again opened a wide gap with goals from Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah.

“Tonight has been amazing,” said Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain in a conversation with TNT Sports.

>I hope the supporters enjoyed it because the managers and players did, though; this is the next level for the group, in terms of development.

In August Bologna had their first ever European Champions League encounter: Bologna 0 – Shakhtar Donetsk 0. It was two early shocks: Lukasz Skorupski denied Shakhtar’s Georgiy Sudakov penalty kick.

In the second leg, Kaan Kairinen scored the first goal followed by Victor Olatunji and Qazim Laci to help Sparta Prague dispose of Red Bull Salzburg 3-0 and finally set a record to come from the group stages of the competition proper for the first time since 2003.

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