GEWISS STADIUM — Why were Arsenal playing on a Thursday night? Why indeed, but with Manchester City to come on Sunday at least David Raya will be heading to the Etihad on a high after his stunning double save denied Atalanta in this goalless Champions League opener.
Avoiding Thursday nights in Europe were among Mikel Arteta’s primary objectives when taking charge, but to riff on the Arsenal boss’ own words, here we were.
In Uefa parlance, this was an “exclusive match week” for its crown jewel in its new guise, while for Arsenal this throwback to their Europa League years made for an uncomfortable night, albeit helped by Raya’s second-half heroics – first saving Mateo Retegui’s penalty and then quickly recovering to keep the resulting header out too.
“I witnessed probably two of the best saves I’ve seen in my career,” Arteta said. “Today he kept us in the game, that’s the reality, I’m really happy he’s in the form he’s in at the moment.”
Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini added: “He’s a cat.”
Onto Sunday, swiftly, will be the focus now, with Arteta and his squad afforded just two full days to recover and train before a match that is likely to have a major say in the Premier League title race.
If like the rest of us Arteta was miffed by the timing of this European match, he refused to show it, nor did he display any frustration that Arsenal were in Bergamo a day after City played at home.
“It’s different but here we are,” were the opening words of his Wednesday press conference, and on this novel occasion – bizarrely, it is the one and only Thursday pencilled in for this Champions League campaign – he instead chose to focus on the positive of an extra day’s rest from the derby win over Tottenham.
Arteta was also true to his word on naming a strong starting XI, with Declan Rice returning to midfield and Gabriel Jesus up front. In Martin Odegaard’s ongoing absence – their captain out for “a while” with ankle ligament damage – Kai Havertz dropped to midfield.
The City meeting, less than 72 hours away at the time of kick-off here, therefore had to be put on the backburner, and Arsenal unsurprisingly started with intent, going close a couple of times before Bukayo Saka’s low free-kick forced a decent stop from Marco Carnesecchi.
Smart work down the left then saw Gabriel Martinelli fire over when off balance, while Atalanta’s first real chance fell when Charles De Ketelaere hastily shot wide just before the half-hour mark.
Atalanta were otherwise reduced to ineffective crosses in the first half, but a purple patch from the hosts resulted in Arteta’s grievances visibly growing as he conducted his players from the sidelines.
The early momentum had gone, mistakes were creeping in, and a half that began with promise ended goalless, as Atalanta – who have drawn at home with Manchester City and Manchester United in recent years, and beat Liverpool en route to Europe League glory last season – showed they were no slouches.
A huddle before the second half was followed by stand-in captain Jesus gesturing for his teammates to start as they had begun the first half, but it could hardly have gone worse, with referee Clement Turpin pointing to the penalty spot within three minutes after Thomas Partey was deemed to have fouled Ederson.
Arsenal goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana gives instructions to David Raya just before the penalty (Photo: Reuters)
A lengthy VAR check did not change the outcome, but Raya used that time to run to the bench and speak with Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana for some last-minute advice.
It did the trick, with Raya ensuring the match remained all-square with a remarkable double save, first diving to his right to keep out Retegui’s penalty before then making a sublime stop to his left to keep the forward’s header out as well.
On came Leandro Trossard and Jorginho for Jesus and Partey, and then with 16 minutes to go, Martinelli spurned a brilliant opportunity to put Arsenal ahead, shooting over when through on goal but again seemingly unbalanced.
The Brazilian should have done better, but he snatched at it, and from there Arsenal appeared content with settling for a hard-earned point. What impact this will have against City, and what Arteta truly felt about it all, we’ll perhaps only find out on Sunday evening.
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Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here
It is early afternoon on Thursday 12 September and Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver is relaxing at home. An evening midweek kick-off gave him a chance to spend time with his children before school before playing a rare round of golf.
His playing partner was his father, Irving, who is also Harrogate Town’s chairman. They faced the crack pairing of assistant manager and goalkeeping coach, Paul Thirlwell and Phil Priestley.
Harrogate Town are arguably the smallest club in England’s top four divisions. Their Wetherby Road ground certainly has the lowest capacity.
Until 2018, they had never played above the sixth tier. In 2020, promotion to the EFL was followed by assumption that they wouldn’t hang around. Harrogate have not finished in the bottom five. Last season they were 13th.
Still, some league fixtures are more daunting than others. Doncaster Rovers are in town tonight. They are top of the table, have the division’s top scorer and its Player of the Month in Lee Molyneux. Billy Sharp will start up front for Grant McCann’s team.
This will also be the first time that Sky Sports have broadcast a match live from Wetherby Road. They are sure that it will not be the last.
The life of a professional football manager is one of near-constant obsession and Weaver is the longest-serving in the Football League by more than seven years. Harrogate lost their previous match in the final minute at Cheltenham Town.
As we sit in Weaver’s kitchen, he discusses the issues that persuaded him to change formation to 4-2-3-1. His 5-4-1 with wing-backs had been sound defensively but there had been problems with springing counter attacks.
He decided upon 4-4-2 for this evening, he tells me, when cooking Sunday dinner for the children on Sunday while his wife was away doing the Great North Run.
After watching videos of his own side and Doncaster, he believes that a concerted – but intelligent – dual press from the forwards can force rushed direct passes and turnovers. The team has worked on that shape for the previous three days.
Then we move onto free-kick defending, the situation from which Harrogate conceded their goal at Cheltenham. Because it was added time, Weaver says, his players had lost a little focus and defended areas rather than spotting the overload at the back post.
He talks about how you have to approach each player differently when discussing mistakes. I could sit there all day and listen, quite frankly.
Inside the hotel where Harrogate’s pre-match meal and final match preparation meeting took place (Photo: i)
At 3.30pm, Simon drives me to the Rudding Park Hotel, where Harrogate’s pre-match meal and final match preparation meeting will take place. On the way, he tells me why this fixture holds particular significance within his family.
His father and Terry Bramhall, Doncaster’s chairman, were childhood friends and subsequently contemporaries in the property development industry. There’s nothing better than getting the upper hand in a friendly rivalry.
Rudding Park – hotel, golf course, spa, fine dining restaurant – is a glorious venue on a sunny, warm, late summer’s afternoon. On the ground floor, a wedding reception is taking place, its guests spilling out onto the gravel as a squad of League Two footballers walks through them. Nobody nips off to take to the dance floor.
In a suite upstairs, Harrogate’s players have some social time. Some play cards, some watch videos on each other’s phones, some chat to members of staff.
Midfielder Stephen Duke-McKenna talks about his previous 10 days, representing Guyana as Harrogate’s first-ever senior international player. One unexpected issue arises: central defender Anthony O’Connor has had an allergic reaction and his eye has swollen up. A request for antihistamine is made.
The meal is a varied buffet affair. Players can choose between grilled chicken breasts, pasta with tomato sauce, baked beans, scrambled eggs, toast and jam and there are some slightly left field combinations on show. Who cares – you take what you need to feel strong but not bloated.
Before the meal had begun, Weaver told me that he would have to nip out for one of the few private moments of his day.
One of his players was being left out of the matchday squad and this is the type of meeting he feels can only be one-on-one rather than revealing the news in front of his teammates. They leave the room, heading for chairs in a quiet corner of Rudding Park Hotel’s first floor.
The pre-match meeting begins with a promise. Whatever happens – win, lose or draw, Weaver tells his squad, the players will be given three full days off after a Thursday night fixture. He tells them that it should be motivation to leave no energy on the pitch come 10pm.
Weaver begins with the in-possession analysis. He runs through clips of Doncaster’s recent matches and previous meetings with Harrogate. He reiterates what he has already told them in training: their best chance of scoring goals will be through attempting as many crosses as possible, particularly to the front post.
If possession is won quickly, they can also look for a direct through ball down through the middle and, as such, the strikers should be looking to make those runs.
Weaver also says that he believes Harrogate’s formation, especially the front two, will surprise Doncaster and runs through his predicted opposition XI. Without the ball, he uses a video of Leicester City under Claudio Ranieri to demonstrate how Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki worked as a unit to close down passing lanes and the central midfielders suffocated space. If you’re trying to thrive as the underdog, there are few better blueprints.
At 5.30pm, the players leave Rudding Park for the stadium and Simon drives us there. This time we discuss the forthcoming game, but dwell for a while on young winger Ellis Taylor.
The players arrive for their League Two match (Photo: i)
Taylor was released from Sunderland in May and had been within 12 hours of signing for National League Gateshead before a trial here. Within two training sessions of watching an enterprising, confident right winger, Weaver was convinced. He will start tonight.
Wetherby Road has such tight restrictions, with an ambulance station at the back of one stand, a hospital behind another and the A661 running within five metres of the back of a third, that even the home players and manager must park at Willow Tree Primary School down the road and walk the rest. After a call home to catch up on homework and evening plans, we enter the stadium.
As the players walk the pitch for the first time, a couple of them getting massages in the small physio room at the end of the tunnel, Weaver is still double busy. At 6.45pm he goes to exchange the team sheets with his opposite number and officials.
Then it’s to a pre-match interview with Sky Sports that takes place in a cubby hole room near the kit storage. This season it has become Weaver’s first private office of his 15 years in charge. Tonight he’s lost it to glamour.
Simon and I chat behind the goal for a while, largely focused on Des Walker nostalgia (Weaver was a trainee at Sheffield Wednesday with Walker, he was one of my childhood heroes to the extent that, at the age of circa six, I asked my Mum whether I could have a flat top hairstyle like his).
Then he is whisked away to present Warren Burrell with a memento of reaching 400 appearances for the club and tells me that he wants to go over his set pieces again. Fair enough; 90s football romanticism can probably wait.
With Harrogate firmly in the Leeds United catchment area and with average home attendances hovering around 2,700, this club and manager need to find ways of creating an alternative football offering and a sense of connection is the most effective.
As such, 20 minutes before a home league game live on Sky Sports, you can find the manager doing a live Q&A session with the supporters in the clubhouse as if he is a pundit on his own team.
Back in the dressing room, the senior players talk through the plan. Weaver has a superstition about re-entering to give his final missive at a certain time and must stick to it. The message is calm and simple, motivational more than tactical. Nobody looks like they need any persuading.
Then something happens that elevates what has been an insightful and exciting day into one of the best of my professional life.
Weaver has a quiet word in my ear to say that, so long as I maintain a low-key presence and don’t get in the way, I can sit on the bench for the entirety of the match and thus get the full experience of the manager’s matchday experience. I don a long club coat and try not to give the game away that my insides feel like someone has lobbed in four Berocca.
Spot Storey! i’s very own journalist took his place on the bench (Photo: i)
I have been to hundreds of football matches, but never before have I sat in this position. I walk out of the tunnel with the coaching and medical staff and take my seat, holding a towel to give to Priestley when he requests it. I make peace with the fact that I’m not going to stop fizzing until midway through the next day.
Doncaster are the better team in the first 20 minutes by a distance, unsurprising given the respective league positions. The advantage of sitting on the bench (other than, y’know, sitting on the actual bench) is that you can hear the relentless micromanagement as Weaver and Thirlwell get to grips with what their opponents are doing and what their own players are not doing perfectly.
Four or five times, messages are sent out to pass on about shape, pressing patterns and when the wingers should engage and stay narrow. Thirlwell is urging defenders to push out five yards higher when the ball is won, to avoid pressure building up irrepressibly. If this carries on, Doncaster will surely score soon.
And then the pre-match planning clicks. Crosses come into the box, as instructed. Taylor, singled out by Weaver on the way to the game, makes a front-post run, as they have been instructed. His diving header is flicked perfectly and Harrogate have the lead.
Shortly before half-time, the other trick: a central midfielder wins the ball and a through ball is immediately played to Josh March, who has made that perfect run, before Doncaster can regroup. He scores and this corner of Yorkshire is in delirium; 2-0.
At half-time, I’m back in the dressing room. Weaver prefers to let the heartbeats settle for the first five minutes before he speaks to the players. He aims to simplify the messages, but stresses the importance of not being too protective of the lead and avoiding dropping too deep to invite undue pressure.
Goalkeeper James Belshaw issues the final words: “We can’t just say what we’re going to do. We have to do it. They will come at us but this is everything we have talked about.”
During the second half, the micromanagement ramps up because there is something tangible to lose and because changes are afoot.
Every Doncaster substitution produces frantic turbo-analysis to work out if their own game plan needs to change accordingly. The players cannot always be expected to spot this themselves. More messages are frantically relayed.
Those players on the bench become cheerleaders for individual positions: a reserve right-back cheers on Toby Sims before he comes off, who then does the same in return.
They become mini-managers of their own and remind those on the pitch of the instructions, something Weaver reveals as a point of pride post-game. Those who come off high-five everyone on the bench, including me. The fizzing is back.
In 2002, Bolton and Leicester managers Sam Allardyce and Dave Bassett were hooked up to monitors during a 2-2 draw between the two. Allardyce’s heart rate reached 160 beats per minute, four times his resting pulse. Bassett’s blood pressure peaked at 190mmHg and he suffered irregular heartbeat as the game reached its denouement.
I get that now. In one corner of Wetherby Road is a big screen with the match clock; I can see it if I dip my head and look past the medical staff and through the perspex windows of the bench. I have no job here and so my role becomes a self-appointed clock-watcher.
I am not a Harrogate Town supporter but now the minutes are ticking slower than if my team were leading in a cup final. After the game I mention this to Weaver and he laughs: “We don’t have time for that; there’s far too much going on.” I am a novice.
The concerted onslaught never really comes. Doncaster end the game with 21 shots but Bellshaw only really has to make one decent save. Those defenders who had lost concentration a touch at Cheltenham are magnificent to a man, to the end: heading clearances, blocking crosses, retaining possession to give everyone else a breather.
Weaver, Thirlwell and Priestley embrace in a huddle as the final whistle sounds. Harrogate have won a Yorkshire derby again. They have their first home win since April and it was against the team top of League Two.
The goals were scored in exactly the manner Weaver planned and Taylor, his new young winger, is named Sky Sports’ Man of the Match. It doesn’t always work out like this, but my goodness it must feel good when it does.
Weaver is busy for the next hour, after he has congratulated his players and staff. He must do interviews with television, radios and then local media, the latter taking longer because Yorkshire outlets want to cover both teams.
I stand in the massage room and dressing room and soak up the warm glow via osmosis, reluctantly handing back my club coat. Back to reality, until someone tells me that I must be a lucky charm and I almost burst.
At 10.45pm, Weaver is applauded back into the clubhouse; people have stuck around to do so. We chat to Irving, the chairman, who doesn’t stay too much longer but wants to congratulate his son for all that he has witnessed.
We review the match with the two coaches and also Stuart Thomson, the club analyst who was relaying messages from the gantry with the view of the whole pitch. Better still is the discussion of what a weekend off will bring. They have earned it.
We leave for Weaver’s home at around 11.20pm, walking to Willow Tree primary and then the 25-minute drive. I say to Simon that I always knew why football managers got addicted to their sport but that tonight had reinforced that fivefold. He has been in charge here for 15 years, but the cycle never stops. The defeats make you want to win again and the wins make you desperate to keep winning.
Simon gets his own weekend off too, a trip with the family on the train to York for a rare football-free Saturday with the family. He will never be entirely off, of course. It’s Crewe away next, then Liverpool Under-21s in the EFL Trophy and another stellar Yorkshire derby at Wetherby Road against Bradford City. I’ll look out for Harrogate’s results from now on, in those games and others. It doesn’t take much to buy my heart. Just let me sit on your bench and watch the clock.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goalof visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season.You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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Coventry City 1-2 Tottenham(Thomas-Asante 63′ | Spence 88′, Johnson 90+2′)
Brennan Johnson kept Ange Postecoglou’s hopes of winning a trophy alive when he scored a stoppage-time winner – as two late goals in four minutes spared the Tottenham manager’s blushes in the Carabao Cup.
Postecoglou said in a TV interview after Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal he always won a trophy in his second season at a club.
But Coventry City almost cut off one path to Tottenham’s hopes of silverware.
The Sky Blues had threatened to deliver a major blow to Tottenham’s season.
Brandon Thomas-Asante, who cost £2m when making a summer move across the Midlands from West Bromwich Albion, put the Sky Blues ahead after 63 minutes, and it would not have been a surprise if they had extended that leader.
Tottenham looked off the pace for much of the time, but as the tie wore on, their Premier League staying power began to show.
It was second-half substitute Djed Spence who brought them level with two minutes left, and inspired Spurs’ late revival.
Brandon Thomas-Asante had put Coventry City ahead against Spurs (Photo: Reuters)
Dejan Kulusevski put Spence through and he was able to roll the ball past Coventry goalkeeper Ben Wilson.
The game looked for a penalty shoot-out, but Spurs were not finished Rodrigo Bentancur set Johnson clear and he raced wide of Wilson to slide home a 92nd minute.
It was the perfect reply from Johnson who had been forced to delete his social media account following Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal.
But Postecoglou will have been a relieved after his pre-match comments.
The Sky Blues took control after the break, and almost took the lead after 55 minutes when Forster came rushing out of his area and collided with Jake Bidwell.
The ball fell loose to Haji Wright, who had an empty goal to aim at, but Spurs captain, Ben Davies, made superb clearance.
Coventry’s goal was richly deserved. Norman Bassette’s cross from the left was met by Thomas-Asante, who cleverly steered the ball past Forster.
But Coventry almost scored a second when two substitutes combined. Ellis Simms delivered a ball to the far post, but Ephron Mason-Clark just failed to make contact.
Spurs came close to levelling with 10 minutes to go, but Wilson saved from Kulusevski – and then came the late show.
XX
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City have made a mockery of the first phase of recent Champions League campaigns, coming into Wednesday night’s re-run of the 2023 final against revenge-hunting Inter Milan after scoring three goals in each of their first nine games in last season’s competition – the first side ever to do so.
With world football’s elite marksman Erling Haaland poised on 99 club goals, ready to beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of the fastest to a century at a European club, the scripts were written.
But not only did City not score for the first time in 40 home Champions League group games, they were, for long periods, outplayed by a team who, on paper, cannot hold a candle to English football’s all-conquering force.
There is of course, in this new Champions League format that helps the minnows and ensures the very best are looked after in equal measure, plenty of time for City to turn things around, but rarely, on any stage, have Guardiola’s juggernaut failed to trouble a team as infrequently as Inter were under the Etihad lights.
For all the work they have done in getting to the head of Europe’s top table, City still, on occasion, act like those who belong on the outside looking in.
The pre-match entertainment, on the opening night on a Champions League campaign, was a local brass band playing Oasis hits. “Cigarettes and Alcohol” has never sounded so humdrum.
The start of the game was not all that rock and roll either. Rodri, making his first start of the season, was on a one-man mission to prove his own point about the modern footballer’s excessive workload as he laboured through.
Jack Grealish continued to be ineffective, his bravado strangled by the Guardiola system, while Haaland barely had a sniff, marshalled superbly by a well-drilled Inter unit.
Perhaps the kit City were debuting – their Oasis-inspired “Definitely City” Champions League strip, supposedly co-designed by Noel Gallagher to resemble the band’s famous album cover of 30 years previous, could be blamed for passes missing their targets with regularity.
Inter, who won on their last trip to England – a 1-0 success at Anfield in 2022 – had the better of the first-half chances, with Marcus Thuram, Lillian’s talented offspring, firing the best of the lot wide from a promising position.
Kevin De Bruyne did not appear for the second half, having taken a knock as the break approached, perhaps with one eye on Arsenal at the weekend. His replacement, Phil Foden, a more than capable stand in.
But it was Inter who remained in top, with an even more presentable opening passed up by former Manchester United full-back Matteo Darmian, who inexplicably chose to back heel to nobody when through on goal. His coach, Simone Inzaghi, of particular goalscoring stock himself, was beyond incredulous on the sidelines.
Foden did help them start to up the ante, jinking inside before finally calling Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer into a meaningful save, but that foray forward offered only a brief respite for the hosts, with another former United flop, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, passing up another golden opening, blazing over from 12 yards out.
Josko Gvardiol did force Sommer into another flying stop late on, before the Croatian clipped a perfect late cross for Ilkay Gundogan that was headed straight Sommer again.
Inter held on in relative ease for their point, but Inzaghi will know his side could have left Manchester with even more. City’s must regain their focus, fast, with Mikel Arteta licking his lips at capitalising on any further distraction.
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Toto Schillaci, the goalscoring hero of Italy‘s home World Cup in 1990, has died at the age of 59.
The former Juventus and Inter striker was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022 and was hospitalised 11 days ago.
Schillaci won the Golden Boot after scoring six goals on the host nation’s run to the semi-finals at Italia 90 and his wide-eyed celebrations became one of the enduring images of the tournament.
“A football icon is leaving us, a man who has entered the hearts of Italians and sports fans around the world,” Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni posted on X.
“Salvatore Schillaci, known by everyone as Toto, the striker from the magic nights of Italia ’90 with our national team. Thanks for the emotions you gave us, for having made us dream, celebrate, embrace, and wave our national flag. Bon voyage, champion.”
A diminutive, bustling forward and something of a late developer, Schillaci spent the early years of his career with Messina on the island of Sicily where he was born.
But after finishing as top scorer in Serie B in the 1988-89 season, he earned a move to Italian giants Juventus and international honours followed.
Schillaci came on as a substitute in Italy’s opener at the 1990 World Cup, scoring in a 1-0 win over Austria and he never looked back from there.
Schillaci’s wide-eyed celebrations became one of the enduring images of Italia 90 (Photo: Getty)
Two more followed in the last 16 victory over Uruguay, another in the win over Ireland in the quarter-final and another as Italy drew with Argentina before crashing out on penalties.
His sixth and final goal of the tournament came against Bobby Robson’s England in the third-place play-off.
Schillaci’s heroics earned him runners-up spot in the 1990 Ballon d’Or behind World Cup winning captain Lothar Matthaus of West Germany.
Remarkably he would score just once more for Italy in his career, in a European Championship qualifier against Norway in 1991.
He moved to Inter in 1992, spending two years there before moving to Japanese club Jubilo Iwata.
Gabriele Gravina, the president of the FIGC, said: “His face was a symbol of shared joy (and) will forever remain a common heritage of Italian football.
“Toto was a great footballer, a tenacious symbol of will and redemption, he was able to thrill the Azzurri fans because his football was full of passion. And it was precisely this indomitable spirit that made him appreciated by everyone and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci’s family announced last week he had been admitted to hospital.
Additional reporting by agencies
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STADION WANKDORF – Even on your Champions League bow, sometimes you’ve just got to lump it up to the big man.
Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey would go on to score, but first was what could go down as a fitting tribute to Gary Shaw, the Aston Villa legend who died on Monday.
Shaw was Villa’s striker when they won the European Cup in 1982, and while his name was sung by away supporters all night, how he would have loved the moment that kicked them into Champions League gear.
It was simple, it was old-school, it was a long ball up top. Emiliano Martinez picked out Ollie Watkins, his cushioned header found John McGinn, and his resulting effort went narrowly over.
Sure, it wasn’t a goal, but it was Villa’s first chance, and woke them from their slumber. For 20 minutes, they had looked flat, maybe overawed by their first game in this competition for 41 years, but from then on, they were utterly dominant.
That dash of old, from this side playing 4-4-2 no less, was followed by a modern touch, instrumental for their first goal.
Unai Emery rarely leaves his technical area but when he does you know what’s coming next: a set-piece. Villa’s specialist in that area, Austin MacPhee, takes his boss’ places, pointing fingers and barking out instructions.
And on this occasion, another move made at Bodymoor this time led to their first-ever Champions League goal.
Austin MacPhee hugs the touchline every VIlla set-piece for and against (Photo: i)
A short corner between Lucas Digne and McGinn resulted in Tielemans being found at the back post, and after taking a touch he rifled in a tidy effort. The Belgian wheeled away to the fans in the corner of this stadium, while MacPhee turned with the look of a rockstar – it’s the hair – when fist-pumping and celebrating towards the bench.
Suddenly, Villa looked settled and composed, having managed to wrestle the momentum away from a side who were not fearing these Champions League newbies, and had beaten Manchester United and Juventus here in recent years.
That was the sticking point Villa had to overcome. Their inexperience. And after riding out those first nervy 20 minutes, by 38 minutes they were two goals to the good, with Birmingham-born Ramsey capitalising on a horrendous defensive error from the hosts.
It then become about game management, with Villa looking to achieve what they had not done in the Conference League knockout stages last season – win away from home.
In that regard, then, they have upgraded, a necessity when you climb two rungs of the European ladder, and they even finished with a strut in their stride.
After Jhon Duran’s goal was chalked off – but the yellow card for fronting up to the ultras still stood – Amadou Onana added the icing with a fine strike from distance.
From shaky to start, to ending with a swagger, here was Villa schooling Young Boys after learning lessons from last year’s European journey, and while half of this team lacked Champions League experience heading into this game, by the end you wouldn’t have known it.
Morgan Rogers belongs on this stage, as does Ramsey, Watkins, Onana, McGinn, and a handful of others, and now it has quickly become clear that if ensuring they are not among the worst 12 teams of this league phase – yes, this format will take some getting used to – Villa’s mission is off to the best possible start.
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AC Milan 1-3 Liverpool(Pulisic 3′ | Konate 23′, Van Dijk 41′, Szoboszlai 67′)
SAN SIRO — Sometimes football reminds us of its beautiful simplicity.
After days of debate about Arne Slot’s rotation policy and tactical transition, Liverpool’s opening victory over AC Milan in the revamped Champions League came from sticking it into the mixer for the big men.
Christian Pulisic was given the freedom of San Siro to fire home the opener inside three minutes in a shock start for Slot’s men, but the heavy artillery of Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk rolled forward to turn the game on its head before half-time with copy-and-paste six-yard headers from set pieces.
It was no more than they deserved for a robust retaliation to a slow start, with Mohamed Salah rattling the bar twice and Mike Maignan forced into several sharp saves before Dominik Szoboszlai – who Slot had asked to raise his goal output in the week – made it three after the break from a quick counter to end hopes of a fightback from the dwindling hosts.
Saturday’s shock defeat to Nottingham Forest led to calls for Slot to rotate his side for their second game of a run of seven in 22 days, having named the same eleven for three games in a row.
The Dutchman obliged, but only with two tweaks as Kostas Tsimikas and Cody Gakpo came in for Andy Robertson and Luis Diaz. Back on home soil, Federico Chiesa waited patiently on the bench for his debut.
One on-pitch criticism the Reds hoped to quickly address was to move the ball quicker and with more purpose after a frustrating afternoon at Anfield against Forest, but instead they were left reeling when Pulisic exchanged passes with Alvaro Morata and dribbled from the halfway line into the box unchallenged before picking his spot.
Liverpool looked stunned and failed to muster a chance until Salah’s crossbar-rattling shot on 17 minutes seemed to shake them into life.
Slot’s side started to see a lot more of the ball and push into dangerous areas, but while some slick movement and quick interchanges caused problems for the Milan defence, it was the route-one approach that proved decisive.
The two centre-backs, Konate and Van Dijk, headed in from six yards from set pieces teed up by the two full-backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Tsimikas, before the half-time whistle.
In the interim, Salah thundered another effort off the bar and Maignan, who twice went down for treatment on a leg problem, was forced into sharp saves on Salah and Gakpo, while Diogo Jota steered a simple finish wide.
It was a galling end to the half for a home support that was much reduced after many decided not to buy expensive tickets after a poor start to the campaign under new coach Paulo Fonseca.
The clearly struggling Maignan was eventually brought off after clattering into Jota when smothering the striker’s finish early in the second half, giving 19-year-old Lorenzo Torriani the chance to make his professional debut on a daunting stage.
Sadly for the teenager, it wasn’t long before he was picking the ball out of the net for the first time as a senior player, as a quick break by Liverpool led by Gakpo was finished by a Szoboszlai tap-in.
Player of the match – Cody Gakpo
The Dutchman seized his chance with a display full of attacking endeavour. One assist only tells part of the story.
It wasn’t to be a contest to compete with those of years gone by between these two decorated European giants, and the scattered empty seats only grew in number as the clock ticked down towards full-time with the home fans seeing few signs of a dramatic recovery, with Rafael Leao hitting the woodwork late in injury time as good as it got.
One final positive for the boisterous Reds fans stuck up in the rafters of the Curva Nord was seeing summer signing Chiesa finally come on for his debut – to the jeers of the Milan fans – if only for a few minutes of stoppage time.
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Over the weekend a story dropped that sent alarm bells ringing for many who had been confident that the establishment of an independent football regulator was a mere tap-in away.
A five-page letter from Uefa general secretary Theodore Theodoridis to culture secretary Lisa Nandy was leaked to The Sunday Times, which reported on its front page: “England risk ban from their own Euros” in a story that appeared on Saturday evening.
Throughout Sunday, campaigners took to social media, TV and radio to pour doubt on the troubling questions Uefa had raised.
Will England be banned from Euro 2028 if a regulator is formed? Will Premier League clubs be kicked out of the Champions League? The very short answer is no. But there remains a big caveat.
What did Uefa’s letter state?
Many have been of the long-held view that the proposed powers of the independent regulator meant that the idea it would breach Fifa and Uefa rules preventing governments from interfering in the running of domestic football wasn’t a prospect worth entertaining.
But this letter, dated 2 September, was a very real and credible threat from Uefa. Sources indicated to i that while Uefa is not worried about the regulator itself, the European governing body is concerned about the potential reach of its powers.
“Uefa is concerned about the potential for scope creep within the IFR,” the letter, seen by i, states.
“While the initial intent of the IFR is to oversee the long-term financial sustainability of clubs and heritage assets, there is always a risk that, once established, the IFR may expand its mandate beyond these areas.
“This expansion, intentional or otherwise, into broader aspects of football governance could undermine the established structures and processes of the sport, and amount to government interference.”
The threat to expel England from Uefa competitions – including Euro 2028; to be hosted by England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales – and clubs from the Champions League, is made explicitly. Albeit, in a letter overwhelmingly positive in tone, the threat of expulsion is meant as a last resort and rated as extremely unlikely by multiple sources.
Why is Uefa concerned about the regulator?
One of the particularly intriguing and tangible elements of Theodoridis’s letter is that it states clearly that the continuing financial regulation of clubs must be left to the leagues and Uefa.
Ensuring the overall sustainability of clubs is meant to be one of the key pillars of the regulator, yet the letter asserts that the new body can only concern itself with long-term compliance, essentially to ensure clubs don’t go bust, as opposed to interfering in how much they spend.
Another significant concern is that in its current state the regulator would consider the alignment of owners – current and future – to the Government’s foreign and trade policy objectives in any decisions whether to permit ownership, which seems an obvious sticking point when governments are not permitted, in Uefa and Fifa rules, to encroach on football.
What has the reaction been?
The story forced campaigners for the independent regulator to speak out about the prospect of expulsions and competitions bans.
“I don’t post much anymore but feel the need to on this subject,” Gary Neville, the pundit and former England defender, posted on X. “Please don’t be fooled by the scaremongering regarding the independent regulator and England losing tournaments. They will do anything to stop it coming in and are happy to create misinformation and apply soft power in the right places in the meantime.”
Niall Couper, chief executive of the campaign group Fair Game, said: “The DCMS have been over this ground a hundred times. This is nothing short of a scare story.
“With 58 per cent of the top 92 [clubs in England] technically insolvent, annual losses of £10m a year in the Championship viewed as ‘a success’, football is an industry in desperate need of financial reform.
“The Government should not be derailed by such nonsense.”
But while they were right to shoot down the prospect of any kind of sanctions, Uefa’s letter is a warning that should not be ignored.
A spokesman for the DCMS said: “The regulator will not compromise the independence of the football authorities. We are working closely with Uefa and the FA on the development of the Football Governance Bill, which will stay firmly focused around financial sustainability and heritage protection of the sport.”
You can suspect that, following the letter, some of the clauses and phrasing will be sharpened to avoid the embarrassing prospect of England being banned from its own European Championship.
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Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here
PLOUGH LANE — On the wall of the media working room at AFC Wimbledon, a square piece of paper, just larger than A4 size and inserted into a plastic wallet, has been attached.
It contains, in large printed text, a quote from the Football Association’s three-man commission from 28 May, 2002:
“Resurrecting the club from its ashes as, say, ‘Wimbledon Town’ is, with respect to those supporters who rather that happened so they could go back to the position started in 113 years ago, not in the wider interests of football.”
I have come to this game because it’s this game. There can be no argument on that point. As I am reminded, firmly, by those who I have met on the way here, this is not a derby, because that would be to legitimise something that they cannot. But it is a big game nonetheless. Few fixtures in English football resonate as much as AFC Wimbledon vs MK Dons.
I have also come to this game to deliberately avoid many of its aspects. I do not want to sell this as a rivalry, because frankly it does neither any favours. I do not want to focus just on the match itself, because that spectacularly misses the point. I want to tell the story of a football club that is infinitely more than who they aren’t.
My host for the day is Marc Jones who, along with Ivor Heller, Kris Stewart and Trevor Williams, was one of the four founding fathers of AFC Wimbledon. Those four were drinking in The Fox and Grapes on that same night as the quote on the wall was uttered, drowning sorrows and making plans. Dreams of a phoenix club had already been touted, but time had been taken up with protesting. As Stewart said at the time: “By the end of the evening we were thinking what if, what if…”.
What if indeed. Four quickly became 40, became 400, became 4,000 and more. Protest became defiance and the seed for a new future was planted into the ground, a long way – geographically, competitively, figuratively – from home.
Six weeks later, at Sutton United’s Gander Green Lane, AFC Wimbledon played their first pre-season friendly.
Jones is something of a AFC Wimbledon polymath, although everybody had to wear many hats in the beginning. With nobody to design the shirts, and Jones a self-taught graphic designer, he did it all: the crest, the kits, the programme and the website. From the start, there was an intention to do this on their own terms. If you have to start again, at least the route is mapped by you alone. He’s still doing the same work now, 22 years on.
To describe Jones as avuncular is underselling it by several weight categories. He is the perfect guide to the club, because it runs through him like an aorta and because he is so capable of expressing what makes it what it is. As we tour around the ground, everybody wants a word of good luck or therapy about what might unfold. I am emphatically an outsider and yet, even on this day of all days, am treated by all as a friend.
What strikes more than anything about Wimbledon is how close the component parts are to one another. We walk out of the tunnel and shake hands with players. We bump into club chair Mick Buckley in the concourse and chat for a while – this is his 50th year as a Wimbledon supporter. We meet the head of the supporters’ trust and briefly put the football world to rights. We see former players and their families who tend to stick around here more than almost anywhere else.
AFC Wimbledon beat MK Dons 3-0 at Plough Lane (Photo: i)
It happens at other clubs too, but there is a pervading sense that everybody considers themselves honoured to be in whatever position they hold, however small their cog. There is a deeper connection here, particularly for those who played a part in the rapid rise. For those who are only visiting, it has a restorative effect.
There is also deep-rooted ill-feeling towards their opponents – how could there not be? They took away their football club and moved it. Even if Wimbledon was creaking, so many others have before and since and avoided the worst fate. It was no excuse. English football has – should have – some irrevocable principles, given its tradition and cultural heritage. Moving a football club to an entirely different city is one of them.
As such, there are season-ticket holders who refuse to attend this fixture and many more who choose not to travel to the away game – each of them makes an individual choice and it has to be respected. Advising anything else, especially having not lived it yourself, is as logical as telling someone to get rid of their scar.
Saturday felt different. It’s something that Jones repeats often over the two hours before the game, but around the ground there is less of the existential angst that has long haunted their experience of this game. Bubbling tension fills the air, naturally, but it rarely rises above that. Perhaps it’s because Wimbledon were favourites to win. Perhaps it’s because the last-minute last year “lanced a boil”, to use Jones’s own words.
But more than that, I think, it’s because Wimbledon have created their own legacy. You can always want to beat certain opponents, but then you want to win every game. Is that not the ultimate mark of your progress, that you need not to define your existence through a singular prism? Just another match? Don’t be silly. But this can become closer to something than everything.
Wimbledon is owned by its fans. The Dons Trust is a democratic supporters’ organisation that gives fans control. Anybody can join and every member has one vote. Thousands have taken up the option but there is always a desire for more. One of Jones’s latest projects is designing a new call-to-arms branding that we stand outside for a while.
He discusses a recent deliberate shift in policy. Supporters usually come to football for escape, not to be bogged down in the quagmire of politics. So rather than informing them of voting rights, sell them the experience. If you enjoy yourself here, and if you have ideas for how it might be even better, get involved. It can be that simple.
At every fan-owned club you visit, sensible people are fully prepared to discuss the challenges it inevitably presents on the uneven stage of professional English football. Budgets are usually tight. Planning has to be meticulous. Success on the pitch raises cheer, but also provokes grumbling discussion in some quarters about the need to raise capital to compete. Before you know it, there are whispers of discontent.
If that’s true here, the Cherry Red Records Stadium should be the whole of the truth. Not only did a fan-owned club manage to build a new ground, they were able to a) get back to the same road as their original home and b) construct a magnificent home for football. Its facilities are comfortably Championship standard. And it is theirs.
“As football fans we can sometimes get a bit too bound up on outcomes,” says Tim Hanson, author of the excellent Plough Lane By Numbers. “Where we finish in the league, how far we progress in the cups. But it’s not really about that. It’s about the moments along the way, even if they don’t make much difference to the ultimate destination.” The Cherry Red Records Stadium is the ultimate destination.
At the back of one stand is a pub – called The Phoenix, naturally – that is open for supporters before and after the game from all three home stands. The area next to it is filled with local food and drink stalls. It is a community hub in every sense of the word. Hundreds of people congregate in pockets before heading to their seats, knowing that their investment is helping out the club they love. To get here, and have it looking like this, is one of the great achievements in English football over the last decade.
“We don’t need to be told to ‘get over it’ or ‘move on’,” Hanson says. “I’d say we’ve done a pretty good job of that by working our way up from the Combined Counties League, building our own ground at Plough Lane, and doing it all as a fans-owned club.”
When their club was moved to Milton Keynes, the end result of a bitter, grim process, it allowed AFC Wimbledon – in appalling circumstances – the chance to define what they really wanted and determine what really mattered. As Jones says: “We got to put a football club into a sieve and give it a shake to see what was left that provided joy: people, community, comradeship, ownership”.
It reminds me of the recipe by the great Italian food writer Marcella Hazan, who died in 2013. In one of her books, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Hazan offers her recipe for the perfect pasta sauce. It contains three ingredients, all of the highest quality you can find: tinned tomatoes, an onion and a generous knob of butter. Add time and care and perfection is achieved. A football club can be the natural home for bells and whistles, but it only takes several ingredients. Those are the pillars.
It also meant that AFC Wimbledon, and those who love it dearly, had already been through the worst. That is Jones’s mantra. Whatever else happens – losing games, relegations, managers leaving – it can never be the worst thing. Everything else will be better than something we lived through. If you are able to adopt that philosophy, fan ownership becomes the only answer because it is the only way of ensuring a second death can never happen.
The stadium has its own pub, The Phoenix, located in one of the stands (Photo: i)
As I take my seat alongside Jones, with friends behind him and family in front, the reminders of history adorn your view.
The most impactful is the poster hung behind the halfway line that uses an image taken by an unknown supporter at Plough Lane, 16 years after the last game there. Following the relocation, the gates became a communal rallying cry. They have since been removed to make room for new flats; the message lives on.
The game is a living dream for all of those who sit around me. Before the game, Jones details how the perfect match plays out: a 3-0 lead that allows for “oles” during the final 30 minutes. By full-time he’s changed his mind based on what he’s just witnessed and I have nothing to say in disagreement.
Wimbledon score early, an indirect free-kick awarded for a back-pass touched and then lashed into the net. The second half brings nervousness that dominance has not resulted in a more handsome lead and at the increasing pressure that is being invited. “Change it JJ,” one older gentleman screams on repeat to manager Johnnie Jackson, who obliges.
No fear: substitute Callum Maycock scores twice in the 90th and 97th minutes, two expertly composed finishes. Both give a bundle of players in blue the chance to rush to a corner of the ground where they will find only abiding love to meet them.
As the final whistle approaches, a song fills the air, dispersing the catcalls and waves to an emptying away end: “Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you”. It may only be for hours, a bestowed benefit of a lunchtime kick-off, but Wimbledon are top of the league.
After the match, because of how this stadium has been designed and constructed with The Phoenix as its heartbeat, the headiness hangs in the air. The queues at the bars are longer than before the game and will stay open as long as there is custom. Someone has a guitar and everyone is singing. It is as if, by refusing to leave the stadium itself, they are extending ten minutes of added time long into the mid-afternoon. These are the weekends of your lives, my friends.
The only direct inquiry I put to Jones all day, with a view to using it in this piece, is whether he is able to take a step back and be proud of his work, given that there are reminders of it on the pitch and everywhere around the ground. He is one of thousands now, but he will always be one of four too.
It is clearly a complicated question. Nobody within a community such as this wants to talk themselves up as an individual; far better a warm feeling than a loud voice. A football club, and a football season, often feels like an impossible environment to stop and take breath, let alone reflect on years that became decades. But how could you not burst with pride on days like this? Not because of who they have beaten, but because beating them is just another step on the road to what they want.
Just before I leave, with promises that I’ll be back that I intend to keep, we walk past another piece of artwork that Jones designed and created and stop to chat for the last time.
“I’ve spent a lot of money on this,” he says. “I said that to my kids. I won’t leave them with much really because a lot has gone into Wimbledon. But they just said back to me: ‘Dad, you’ll leave us with a football club.”
On this sunny Saturday afternoon, with them sat in front of their dad and hugging after every goal, and with their team going top of the league and no opponent mattering, it’s worth more than all the money in the world.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goalof visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season.You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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