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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)
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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.

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Sports

Leverkusen in Battle for Top-four Spot as Dortmund Look to Next Season

Bayer Leverkusen's Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand looks on ahead the German first division Bundesliga football match between Bayer leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg in Leverkusen on April 4, 2026. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
Bayer Leverkusen's Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand looks on ahead the German first division Bundesliga football match between Bayer leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg in Leverkusen on April 4, 2026. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
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Leverkusen in Battle for Top-four Spot as Dortmund Look to Next Season

Bayer Leverkusen's Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand looks on ahead the German first division Bundesliga football match between Bayer leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg in Leverkusen on April 4, 2026. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
Bayer Leverkusen's Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand looks on ahead the German first division Bundesliga football match between Bayer leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg in Leverkusen on April 4, 2026. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)

Bayer Leverkusen will be battling for a top-four spot when they travel to second-placed Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, with the hosts already looking to next season following what is likely to be a trophyless campaign.

Leverkusen, Bundesliga champions in 2024, are currently in sixth place on 49 points, four points off fourth place which brings a Champions League berth next season.

Dortmund are second on 64 points, nine behind leaders Bayern Munich with only six matches remaining. RB Leipzig in third and fourth-placed VfB Stuttgart are both on 53.

Leverkusen will be hoping a 6-3 comeback win over VfL Wolfsburg last week -- their first ⁠league victory in ⁠four matches -- will provide the spark for a strong season run-in that includes their German Cup semi-final against Bayern on April 22.

"This important win can give us a push for the remaining matches," said Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand, who took over from Erik ten Hag after just two matches into the league campaign.

The ⁠Dane knows he has to deliver to have any chance of staying on in the job, and his team have their work cut out with games against fellow Champions League hopefuls Leipzig and Stuttgart to come in May, Reuters reported.

The situation in Dortmund is far less urgent with the club having all but secured second spot following a strong domestic campaign under Niko Kovac.

However, with Bayern nine points clear in the league they are likely to end the season without silverware.

"It is not what we want because with ⁠a club ⁠like Dortmund your standards have to be always high, and you try to play every single game to win and to win titles," said Dortmund's Fabio Silva.

"We are not fully happy because we cannot realistically fight for a title for now, but of course we can improve a lot of things, and we can win a lot more than titles to keep building this team and this club."

Leaders Bayern, buoyed by Tuesday's 2-1 victory at Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final first leg, travel to relegation-threatened St Pauli.

The Bavarians are a goal away from equaling the all-time Bundesliga record of 101 in a season.

Sports

Antonio Conte Hinting at a Napoli Exit and a Return to the Italy Job

Napoli's head coach Antonio Conte reacts during the Italian Serie A soccer match between SSC Napoli and AC Milan in Naples, Italy, 06 April 2026. EPA/CIRO FUSCO
Napoli's head coach Antonio Conte reacts during the Italian Serie A soccer match between SSC Napoli and AC Milan in Naples, Italy, 06 April 2026. EPA/CIRO FUSCO
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Antonio Conte Hinting at a Napoli Exit and a Return to the Italy Job

Napoli's head coach Antonio Conte reacts during the Italian Serie A soccer match between SSC Napoli and AC Milan in Naples, Italy, 06 April 2026. EPA/CIRO FUSCO
Napoli's head coach Antonio Conte reacts during the Italian Serie A soccer match between SSC Napoli and AC Milan in Naples, Italy, 06 April 2026. EPA/CIRO FUSCO

Win and then move on to the next challenge.

Antonio Conte never seems to stay too long in one place and now the fiery coach appears ready to leave Napoli less than a year after guiding the southern club to its fourth Serie A title.

Conte is openly campaigning for the vacant Italy job after the Azzurri failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup. Such a move would mark a return for Conte, who already coached Italy at the European Championship a decade ago, The Associated Press reported.

“If I were the federation president I would consider myself,” Conte said after Napoli’s 1-0 victory over AC Milan on Monday. “I’ve already been with the national team and I know what it’s like.”

Currently, though, the Italian soccer federation has only a lame duck president after Gabriele Gravina announced that he is resigning, with new elections called for June 22.

Gennaro Gattuso, who coached Italy in the World Cup qualifying playoff loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina, also resigned.

In the meantime, Conte can focus on Napoli’s late-season surge after leapfrogging Milan into second place with a visit to Parma coming up on Sunday.

Still, Napoli trails Italian league leader Inter Milan by seven points with seven rounds remaining and Conte is not expecting another title.

“It’s not a question of believing or not; it’s about being realistic,” Conte said. “We would have to be perfect and Inter would have to make several missteps. And from what we’ve seen, that seems unlikely because Inter is strong.”

If Conte does leave Napoli, it would follow similar exits immediately after or soon after titles at Bari (he left immediately after a Serie B title in 2009), Juventus (he left immediately after winning a third straight Serie A title in 2014), Chelsea (he left immediately after winning the FA Cup in 2018 and a year after a Premier League title) and Inter (he left immediately after a Serie A title in 2021).

Key matchups Inter visits neighboring Como on Sunday for its shortest trip of the season.

Inter’s Appiano Gentile training center north of Milan is located less than 20 kilometers (slightly more than 10 miles) from Como’s Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia. That’s about half as far as the trip from Appiano Gentile to the San Siro.

While Inter routed Como 4-0 December, Como held Inter to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the Italian Cup semifinals last month at the Sinigaglia. The second leg is scheduled for April 21.

Inter’s 5-2 thrashing of Roma last weekend marked its first victory since February. Meanwhile, Cesc Fabregas’ Como is unbeaten for nearly two months and is looking to hold on to fourth place and the final Champions League berth.

Players to watch Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu produced one of the goals of the season against Roma with a 30-meter (yard) blast that dipped in under the bar. It was his ninth Serie A goal of the season, to go with three assists.

He also recently helped Turkey qualify for its first World Cup since 2002.

Out of action Juventus center forward Dusan Vlahovic will miss another three weeks with an injured calf muscle after only recently recovering from another muscular injury that occurred in November.

Vlahovic’s injury issues could affect his contract negotiations with Juventus, which is offering a brief extension at a reduced salary.

Off the field Asked for solutions to the national team’s problems, Juventus coach Luciano Spalletti suggested requiring every Serie A club to use at least one Italian under-19 player in its starting lineup.

Spalletti was fired as Italy coach last year after the Azzurri lost their opening qualifier to Norway.

Sports

New Zealand Striker Wood Returns from Injury Ahead of World Cup

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qualifier - Costa Rica v New Zealand - Al Rayyan Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar - June 14, 2022 New Zealand's Chris Wood scores their first goal REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qualifier - Costa Rica v New Zealand - Al Rayyan Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar - June 14, 2022 New Zealand's Chris Wood scores their first goal REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous/File Photo
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New Zealand Striker Wood Returns from Injury Ahead of World Cup

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qualifier - Costa Rica v New Zealand - Al Rayyan Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar - June 14, 2022 New Zealand's Chris Wood scores their first goal REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qualifier - Costa Rica v New Zealand - Al Rayyan Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar - June 14, 2022 New Zealand's Chris Wood scores their first goal REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous/File Photo

Chris Wood is set to return from his lengthy injury spell in a big boost for New Zealand ahead of the World Cup, as well as for his club Nottingham Forest.

The 34-year-old has been sidelined since October due to a knee ⁠injury. He underwent ⁠surgery in December.

His return was confirmed by Forest coach Vitor Pereira in a press conference ahead of the club's Europa ⁠League quarter-final first leg match against FC Porto on Thursday, Reuters reported.

"He's started training with the team and is available for the game," Pereira said on Wednesday.

Wood, who is the All Whites' record goalscorer with 45 goals, played for ⁠New ⁠Zealand when they last qualified for the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. New Zealand are in Group G at the World Cup, where they will face off against Belgium, Egypt and Iran in June.