What we learned from Tuesday's Champions League matches

Football writer Alex Keble assesses Tuesday's UEFA Champions League matches for Premier League clubs.

Man Utd fans prepare for 'new Ferguson' as familiar flaws put City in 'dark place'

Sporting 4-1 Man City

“If we win tomorrow they will think the new [Sir] Alex Ferguson has arrived. That will be very difficult. It could increase expectations.” Those were the words of Ruben Amorim, the incoming Manchester United head coach, in his pre-match press conference ahead of his current Sporting team facing Manchester City.

“Difficult” was the assessment if Sporting were simply to win. Not even Amorim had planned to win 4-1.

Man Utd supporters won’t be thinking of Ferguson just yet but they can be forgiven for getting carried away.

Here was a tactical plan masterfully enacted and led by a rapid counter-attacking front three not too dissimilar to the options Amorim inherits at Man Utd, with hat-trick hero Viktor Gyokeres resembling Rasmus Hojlund in particular.

Amorim's Sporting punished Man City in a way we rarely see. Pep Guardiola’s side haven’t conceded four goals in a UEFA Champions League match since October 2016. Man Utd, incidentally, haven’t scored four against City since beating them 4-2 in the Premier League in April 2015, when Louis van Gaal and Manuel Pellegrini were in the dugouts.

Could Amorim, then, be the man to turn the tide in the rivalry?

For that to happen he will need Man City to dip as well as United to rise, and after Tuesday’s result made it three defeats in a row for the first time in a single season since April 2018, the chances of the first part have increased.

“We’re a bit in a dark place right now,” Bernardo Silva said after the match. “Everything looks to be going the wrong way. Even when we play well we don’t score our chances and we concede too easily.

“Definitely we need to look inside and check what we are not doing well and start getting better very quickly, otherwise it will be difficult to come back from these losses.”

Analysis of what Man City are doing wrong starts, once again, in midfield, where Guardiola’s decision to field Mateo Kovacic alone at the base backfired.

Kovacic was at fault for both open-play goals City conceded.

He failed to close down Geovany Quenda as he set up Gyokeres for the equaliser, giving the 17-year-old far too much room to play the through-ball. Then Kovacic was turned too easily by Pedro Goncalves for the second goal.

But analysis will also show Man City were unlucky. They dominated a first half that looked a lot like Sporting’s 5-0 defeat to Guardiola’s side back in February 2022, only for poor finishing to allow Sporting their smash-and-grab win.

Ironically, Sporting’s openness in the first half, their deep defensive shape in the second, and their goals on the break had more in common with a conservative Erik ten Hag approach to these kinds of fixtures (like the FA Cup final, for instance) than how Amorim usually plays.

“At Manchester United you cannot play exactly like this," Amorim said after last night's match. "You cannot play so defensively and so there we will have to adapt. Clearly it is really difficult to beat this team and to beat Pep Guardiola. And he is not a worse manager than me.

“It will be a completely different world, a different team. We won’t have that much time to train and we will begin from a different starting point. People can make their own judgements but I say to the people of Manchester that this was a one-off.”

The 4-1 victory has greater symbolic significance than the actual performance, which will be erased from history in place of the more favourable narrative.

Amorim arrives in Manchester already, in some small way, a cult hero. Man Utd fans are ready to embrace him.

See: Man City report and line-up

Sporting 4-1 Man City highlights

Liverpool fans grateful Alonso is only a tourist at Anfield

Liverpool 4-0 Bayer Leverkusen

It was widely reported that Xabi Alonso was on Liverpool’s radar before the club brought in Arne Slot.

Three months into life after Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool supporters will be feeling very grateful that it turned out the way it did; that Alonso, who had “no time for tourism” on his first visit back to Anfield as a manager, was indeed just a visitor.

Slot is making this all look very easy. It isn’t. Nobody beats Alonso’s Leverkusen 4-0.

Leverkusen entered this match having not been behind at any stage in the Champions League this season, having conceded just one goal, and having lost just a single European encounter under Alonso. That was last season’s UEFA Europa League final.

That’s why Tuesday’s win is the best result of the Slot era so far, even if the scoreline ultimately flattered Liverpool slightly. It was an even encounter until Liverpool’s opener in the 61st minute, after which Leverkusen were forced to open up and the hosts picked them off three times on the counter.

But the swagger in Liverpool’s goals and the confident performance of Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones in particular highlighted the superb work Slot has done in a very short space of time.

See: Liverpool report and line-up

Only two Liverpool managers have ever won their first four matches of a Champions League season. Slot has done it at his first attempt. Klopp was the other to do it, in 2021/22, when they went on to reach the final. 

Slot has also set a record for the most wins of ANY Premier League manager in their first 16 matches across all competitions. What a start he's had.

Most wins in first 16 matches

Wednesday's Champions League fixtures for PL clubs

17:45 GMT Club Brugge v Aston Villa
20:00 GMT Internazionale v Arsenal