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Arsenal's Christian Norgaard is manhandled by Joel Ordonez of Club Brugges Photograph: Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images
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GOAL! Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Bodo/Glimt (Brandt 18)
Fabio Silva, formerly of Rangers and Wolves, nips in to steal the ball on the half-way line and beelines for the Bodo/Glimt goal. A clever reverse pass finds Brandt and the German international lashes a shot inside the near post!
Club Brugge 0-0 Arsenal
15 min: This will not be an easy match for Arsenal at Brugge, who drew 3-3 with Barcelona last month. The Gunners are enjoying plenty of possession, just as Barça did, but Brugge don’t mind playing on the counter attack and have plenty of pace up top. Particularly with Carlos Forbs, who made his debut for Portugal last month.
“Arsenal don’t have an injury crisis up front, clearly,” emails Russell Eberts. “But the fact that we’re starting Christian Nørgaard at CB speaks for itself in terms of defensive injuries. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated that happening a few weeks ago.”
GOAL! Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Newcastle (Bruno Guimarães og, 12)
Terrible defending from Newcastle! Leverkusen swing a corner deep to the back post where Andrich has pretty much a free header, which cannons off the arse of Bruno Guimarães and over the line. Own goal. Ouch.
Benfica 0-0 Napoli
10 min: The home side so nearly take the lead. A delicious backheel from Aursnes sends Sudakov clean through on goal, but Milinkovic-Savic stands tall to save, before Benfica recycling the ball and Aursnes sending another effort wide.
Juventus 0-0 Pafos
7 min: Pafos nearly take the lead in Turin! Bruno Felipe gets free down the right wing for the Cypriot side, crosses low into the box. The ball pinballs around the area, zinging off Cambiaso’s knee and forcing Di Gregorio into a point-blank save!
Club Brugge 0-0 Arsenal
5 min: In Belgium, Martin Odegaard has tried his luck from range, with van den Heuvel palming it away. I thought Odegaard looked quite good against Villa at the weekend, despite the defeat.
Bayer Leverkusen 0-0 Newcastle
3 min: It’s a brilliant atmosphere in Germany. The home crowd are buzzing. These are two teams that both like to press high, so I wonder if the match will be high-octane.
Peeeeeeeeep!
And we’re off. Two Bellinghams in action tonight, by the way, for Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, of course.
Around the continent, the teams are out! Newcastle are wearing that dreadful green away kit at Leverkusen, which I can’t really get behind.
The two early (5.45pm GMT) kick-offs have now finished and they were both absolute corkers, by the look of it:
Qarabag 2-4 Ajax
Ajax, who started the match on zero points, scored three times in the final 11 minutes to seal a stunning comeback at Qarabag, with Football Manager wonderkid Oscar Gloukh netting twice.
Villarreal 2-3 FC Copenhagen
The Spanish side, also struggling in the league phase this year, twice got themselves back on level terms but conceded a last-minute goal in defeat. Andreas Cornelius, formerly of Cardiff City, got the goal for the Danes.
Real Madrid v Manchester City also kicks off at 8pm GMT. You can follow minute-by-minute updates, with Scott Murray, right here.
Borussia Dortmund v Bodo/Glimt team news
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Anselmino, Anton, Schlotterbeck, Yan Couto, Nmecha, Bellingham, Bensebaini, Brandt, Beier, Silva.
Subs: Campbell, Adeyemi, Ryerson, Sule, Svensson, Can, Chukwuemeka, Duranville, Gross, Guirassy, Meyer, Ostrzinski.
Bodo/Glimt: Haikin, Sjovold, Bjortuft, Aleesami, Bjorkan, Berg, Blomberg, Evjen, Fet, Hauge, Hogh.
Subs: Jorgensen, Maatta, Klynge, Helmersen, Saltnes, Nielsen, Brondbo, Lund.
Benfica v Napoli team news
It’s the David Neres derby, as nobody calls it.
Benfica: Trubin, Dedic, Tomas Araujo, Otamendi, Dahl, Rios, Barrenechea, Aursnes, Barreiro, Sudakov, Ivanovic.
Subs: Soares, Antonio Silva, Pavlidis, Manu, Schjelderup, Prestianni, Wynder, Rodrigo Rego, Veloso, Rego, Neto, Freitas.
Napoli: Milinkovic-Savic, Beukema, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Di Lorenzo, Elmas, McTominay, Olivera, Neres, Lang, Hojlund.
Subs: Contini, Ferrante, Juan Jesus, Politano, Vergara, Lucca, Spinazzola, Ambrosino.
Bayer Leverkusen v Newcastle team news!
Bayer Leverkusen: Flekken, Andrich, Quansah, Tapsoba, Arthur, Maza, Garcia, Grimaldo, Tillman, Poku, Schick.
Subs: Blaswich, Lomb, Bade, Echeverri, Tape, Ben Seghir, Tella, Kofane, Belocian.
Newcastle: Ramsdale, Livramento, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Barnes, Woltemade, Gordon.
Subs: Thompson, Schar, Wissa, Elanga, Jacob Murphy, Willock, Alex Murphy, Ramsey, Miley, Adam Harrison.
Athletic Bilbao v PSG team news
Athletic Bilbao: Simon, Areso, Vivian, Yuri, Boiro, Jauregizar, Ruiz de Galarreta, Berenguer, Sancet, Nico Williams, Guruzeta.
Subs: Santos, Padilla, Gorosabel, Vesga, Lekue, Gomez, Serrano, Rego, Hierro, de Luis, Selton Sanchez, Inaki Williams.
PSG: Safonov, Zaire Emery, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Neves, Vitinha, Fabian, Barcola, Mayulu, Kvaratskhelia.
Subs: James, Marin, Zabarnyi, Goncalo Ramos, Doue, Lee, Ndjantou, Mbaye.
Remarkable that Arteta can talk of an injury crisis, when he has that XI and Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Eze, Nwaneri, and Calafiori all on the bench.
By the way, if Gabriel Jesus does play tonight, it would be his first minutes since 12 January, a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, when he suffered a knee injury.
Club Brugge v Arsenal teams!
Club Brugge: Mignolet, Siquet, Ordonez, Mechele, Seys, Stankovic, Nwadike, Forbs, Vanaken, Tzolis, Tresoldi.
Subs: van den Heuvel, de Corte, Romero, Vetlesen, Sandra, Meijer, Nilsson, Spileers, Sabbe, Diakhon, Campbell, Furo.
Arsenal: Raya, White, Norgaard, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Zubimendi, Merino, Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Eze, Nwaneri, Calafiori, Salmon, Copley, Nichols.
Juventus v Pafos team news
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Kelly, Koopmeiners, McKennie, Locatelli, Miretti, Cambiaso, Zhegrova, Yildiz, David.
Subs: Perin, Scaglia, Bremer, Francisco Conceicao, Adzic, Kostic, Thuram, Openda, Rugani, Joao Mario, Cabal, Rouhi.
Pafos: Michael, Bruno, Luckassen, Luiz, Goldar, Pepe, Sunjic, Correia, Dragomir, Orsic, Anderson Silva.
Subs: Petrou, Pileas, Quina, Bassouamina, Dimata, Jaja, Bruno Langa, Gorter.
Paphos’ club badge – which depicts the classic figure of the Cypriot hero Evagoras Pallikarides, a poet and revolutionary who was active during the anti-colonial 1955–1959 campaign against British rule – also sees them qualify for a place on this list!
It’s a great piece. I had no idea that Bournemouth’s badge is not just a stylistic masterpiece but depicts somebody called Dickie Dowsett, “who played for the club between 1957 and 1962 and apparently scored a brilliant diving header against Aston Villa which is the inspiration for the badge.”
Paphos are making quite the impression in their first ever season in the Champions League proper. A home win over Villarreal and draws against Kairat and Monaco leave the Cypriot side on 25th place on five points, one berth below tonight’s opponents Juventus.
They also have 38-year-old David Luiz – yes, THE David Luiz – and the Brazilian scored a header for the ages in the last round against Monaco to help his new side to a 2-2 draw. Shades of Didier Drogba in the 2012 final in Luiz’s header, his first goal in the Champions League in eight years!
Newcastle United, meanwhile, travel to Germany tonight to play Bayer Leverkusen, who slumped to a 2-0 defeat at lowly Augsburg at the weekend.
Here’s Louise Taylor’s preview on Newcastle striker Nick Woltemade, who returns to his homeland tonight of course.
Club Brugge, meanwhile, sacked manager Nicky Hayen just two days ago – following the weekend’s defeat to St Truiden – and immediately announced his replacement in Ivan Leko from KAA Gent, who only found out that they had lost their Croatian manager when they read it in the media!
The following passage is from Reuters (yesterday):
Club Brugge captain Hans Vanaken said the players had learned of the managerial change after training on Monday. “A surprise for the squad,” he told a press conference on Tuesday. “Nobody expected that. There wasn’t really a reason or anything we thought was a reason. Look, the board has made a decision and it’s up to the players to accept that. We know that in football, tough decisions are made sometimes. Firing a coach is always unpleasant. Secretly, we’re all convinced that things could have got better in the coming months.”
Vanaken played with Leko when he first started out and also worked under him in Leko’s previous spell at Brugge from 2017-19. “Ivan is a completely different personality than Nicky, he has a bit more fire in him,” added Vanaken. “That’s not to say one is better than the other, but in the past, we clicked.”
Oh, and here’s a piece we did on Nicky Haden back in January, before Club Brugge’s trip to Manchester City. I don’t think he will be going back to the Welsh Premier League.
Team news is yet to surface. Here’s what Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had to say before his side’s clash with Club Brugge. Declan Rice is ill, while Leandro Trossard, William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Kai Havertz, Max Dowman and Gabriel Magalhães are all sidelined.
And here’s the song that I immediately thought of when I read that headline. A wonderfully 90s tune by Soccer Mommy.
Preamble
Hello world and welcome to this Champions League clockwatch.
As Flight of the Conchords once sang, it’s business time. After today’s matches, there will be just two rounds of matches remaining in the league phase, so time is running out for teams to make the top eight automatic qualification spots or the other places (nine-24) for the play-off round to reach the knockouts.
Yes, many eyes will be on Real Madrid v Manchester City, a blockbuster tie if ever there was one, but the six other 8pm GMT matches have plenty at stake.
Last year, 11 points was enough to reach the play-offs and 16 points enough to make the top eight, so that is a rough guide for what this year’s hopefuls will be trying to achieve. Here is the current table, which is updated with the live ongoing early kick-offs (5.45pm GMT) tonight. Currently the half-time scores are Qarabag 1-1 Ajax and Villarreal 0-1 FC Copenhagen, so those are reflected below as if they are results.
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