Dortmund Scores 7 while Barcelona, Man City and Arsenal All Win in Champions League

Fans display flares during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Celtic Glasgow at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.  (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP)
Fans display flares during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Celtic Glasgow at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP)
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Dortmund Scores 7 while Barcelona, Man City and Arsenal All Win in Champions League

Fans display flares during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Celtic Glasgow at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.  (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP)
Fans display flares during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Celtic Glasgow at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP)

Karim Adeyemi starred as Borussia Dortmund ran riot against Celtic while Barcelona and Manchester City claimed their first wins in the restructured Champions League on Tuesday.
Adeyemi scored a first-half hat trick as Dortmund routed Celtic 7-1 at home. It was the second big win from a German team in the competition after Bayern Munich's 9-2 bashing of Dinamo Zagreb in the first matchday.
Robert Lewandowski got Barcelona off the mark as the Spanish giant eased to a 5-0 home win over Swiss team Young Boys, while his former teammate İlkay Gündoğan got City off to a 4-0 win at Slovan Bratislava. Erling Haaland scored his 42nd goal in his 41st Champions League game.
City was held 0-0 by Inter Milan in their opening game, while Barca responded to its 2-1 loss at Monaco, the team’s first defeat under new coach Hansi Flick.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal outclassed his former team Paris Saint-Germain in a 2-0 win with Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scoring in the first half for the Gunners. PSG coach Luis Enrique's gamble on leaving Ousmane Dembélé out did not pay off.
Arteta enjoyed a successful 18-month loan spell at PSG while still he was still a teenager at Barcelona.
Dortmund fans cry foul Though the Dortmund team appears to have adapted to the new competition format very well — last season's beaten finalist has 10 goals from two games after starting with a 3-0 win over Club Brugge — its fans made their opposition to the reforms clear with a huge tifo slamming UEFA.
This season UEFA changed the structure of Europe’s premier competition to add four more teams. The group stage was scrapped for a league system with each of the now 36 participating teams playing eight opponents once in a first phase of the competition.
UEFA claimed the changes would ensure more evenly matched games, but Tuesday's results — the big wins for Barca, City and Dortmund — appear to belie that claim.
There were more big wins Tuesday with Inter Milan defeating Red Star Belgrade 4-0, and tournament debutant Brest routing Salzburg 4-0 away for its second win in as many games in Europe’s premier competition, The Associated Press reported.
Iran forward Mehdi Taremi struck a penalty past Israel and Red Star goalkeeper Omri Glazer and set up two more goals for Inter hours after his country launched a barrage of missiles at Israel.
Senegalese forward Abdallah Sima netted twice for Brest to take his tally to three goals in two games after he scored in the French team’s tournament-opening 2-1 win over Austrian champion Sturm Graz.
Also Tuesday, Bayer Leverkusen defeated AC Milan 1-0 in Germany thanks a well-worked move finished by Victor Boniface.
Daniel Bragança scored late to earn Sporting Lisbon a 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven.
Kaan Kairinen’s brilliant free kick was enough for Prague to draw 1-1 at Stuttgart.
Stuttgart fans displayed a huge choreography saying “Back in Europe” behind one of the goals. It was the German team’s first Champions League match at home since a 1-1 draw with Barcelona in February 2010.



Alexander-Arnold’s Possible Move to Madrid ‘Doesn’t Affect Me at All,’ Says Liverpool Manager Slot

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Newcastle United - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - January 1, 2024 Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold applauds fans. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Newcastle United - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - January 1, 2024 Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold applauds fans. (Reuters)
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Alexander-Arnold’s Possible Move to Madrid ‘Doesn’t Affect Me at All,’ Says Liverpool Manager Slot

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Newcastle United - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - January 1, 2024 Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold applauds fans. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Newcastle United - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - January 1, 2024 Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold applauds fans. (Reuters)

Liverpool's bid to clinch a record-tying Premier League title hasn't been affected by persistent reports linking Trent Alexander-Arnold with a move to Real Madrid at the end of the season, manager Arne Slot said Tuesday.

Sections of the British media reported during the international break that Madrid is in discussions about finalizing a deal to bring in Alexander-Arnold, who is in the last year of his contract at Liverpool and would be available on a free transfer. Neither club has publicly commented on a potential deal.

Slot said his club has lived the entire season with speculation about Alexander-Arnold as well as both Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who are also out of contract at the end of the season.

“It's a situation that is there for eight or nine months now,” Slot said, “and I think all these three players have performed so well under these circumstances, so it doesn't affect me at all.”

Slot said there would not have been so much talk about Alexander-Arnold in recent weeks had he been fit and played for England in World Cup qualifiers. Instead, he is recovering from hurting his ankle when Liverpool was eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain on March 11.

That means Alexander-Arnold will miss the Premier League game against local rival Everton on Wednesday. Ahead of the midweek round, Liverpool leads by 12 points over second-place Arsenal with nine games remaining as the clubs looks to a seal a 20th English league title, tying the record with Manchester United.

“He is injured,” Slot said of Alexander-Arnold, "and that means for him he is fully focused on his recovery and for us it means we are trying to help him to be back as soon as he can. For the rest, for the last eight months, it went up and down maybe with all the talks about him, Virgil or Mo, but we have never been focused on those talks.

“We have been focused on what we have to do. For Virgil and Mo, that is trying to win the Merseyside derby and for Trent it is making sure he is fit as soon as he can (be).”

The 26-year-old Alexander-Arnold has played his entire career at Liverpool and won every major honor with the Merseyside club, including the Premier League and Champions League.