UEFA Champions League Matchday Three Review

Action from what was an enthralling and intense round of matches on Matchday Three of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase is now over, and here we review all of the games involving clubs from the Premier League.

The third round of fixtures for this season’s UEFA Champions League’s League Phase has come to an end, and it turned out to be an entertaining, competitive, and intense two days of action across the continent on Tuesday and Wednesday evening earlier on this week.

English Clubs are doing very well in the 2024/25 edition of this highly prestigious competition, with all four having picked up victories in their matches on Matchday Two. Fast forward to the conclusion of Matchday Three, and Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Liverpool have all once again picked up crucial victories from this week’s round of matches.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City once again showed the ruthless side to their game in emphatic fashion, beating Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic 5 – 0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening. As for Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, they managed to follow up their historic triumph against Bayern Munich on Matchday Two with a comfortable 2 – 0 win against Italian Serie A side Bologna at Villa Park.

Meanwhile, Arne Slot and Liverpool were 1 – 0 winners away from home in Germany against RB Leipzig at the RB Arena. Arsenal secured a 1 – 0 victory against Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates Stadium in North London. Both of these matches took place on the evening of Wednesday 23rd October 2024.

Here, we are going to be reviewing the action from all of the Third Round Matches of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase involving the English Clubs, and there will also be a round-up of the other results from the week.

Manchester City (England) 5 – 0 Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) – Etihad Stadium

Match Highlights (Via TNT Sports on YouTube):

We will start with the 2023 European Champions Manchester City, who, led by Pep Guardiola, came into this game against Sparta Prague following a tremendous and ruthless 4 – 0 victory away from home against Slovakian outfit Slovan Bratislava away from home back on Matchday Two of the 2024/25 League Phase.

The Cityzens were able to follow this up with an emphatic 5 – 0 victory at the Etihad Stadium against Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic. Phil Foden (3’), Erling Haaland (58’, 68’), John Stones (64’), and Matheus Nunes (88’ – Pen) were all on the scoresheet for City – this included an incredible back heel finish from star forward Haaland in the second half.

This victory for the Cityzens sees them rise all the way up to 7 points, with the current Premier League Champions now two points off the top after winning two and drawing one of their first three matches from this season’s Champions League.

Aston Villa (England) 2 – 0 Bologna (Italy) – Villa Park

Match Highlights (Via TNT Sports on YouTube):

We now move on to Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, who before this game had beaten Swiss Club Young Boys 3 – 0 away from home and poignantly German Giants Bayern Munich 1 – 0 at Villa Park in the Villan’s first two matchdays of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase.

Jhon Duran was the hero against Bayern in B6, and hopes were high that he could find the back of the net again in the game against Bologna at Villa Park on Tuesday night. In the end, it was to be a comfortable and deserved 2 – 0 victory for Villa, with their goals coming from Club Captain John McGinn (55’) and the aforementioned Jhon Duran (64’).

This result saw them become the only side to have won all three matches until Liverpool joined them following their victory in Germany against RB Leipzig. Aston Villa lead the way at the top of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase standings with 9 points.

RB Leipzig (Germany) 0 – 1 Liverpool (England) – RB Arena

Match Highlights (Via TNT Sports on YouTube):

Next up is the high-profile game between Germany’s RB Leipzig and Arne Slot’s Liverpool going toe to toe at the RB Arena, the home of the Bundesliga club. The Reds had won their first two matches in the Champions League ahead of this game, having comfortably beaten Italian sides AC Milan 3 – 1 and Bologna 2 – 0 respectively.

The winning goal in this game for Liverpool came from their Uruguayan forward Darwin Nunez, who was able to break the deadlock to score in the first half, with almost half an hour having elapsed (27’).

Liverpool rose to second place following this crucial victory in Germany against RB Leipzig, and they are only adrift of top of the table Aston Villa on goal difference alone.

Arsenal (England) 1 – 0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) – Emirates Stadium

Match Highlights (Via TNT Sports on YouTube):

Finally, we move on to Arsenal, who came up against Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk in their most recent Champions League Match on Matchday Three in this season’s competition. Ahead of this game, the Gunners had drawn 0 – 0 away from home against Italian outfit Atalanta, before beating French Champions Paris Saint-Germain comfortably 2 – 0 at the Emirates Stadium on Matchday Two.

The only goal of the game came through a first half own goal from Shakhtar Donetsk Goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk (29’) in what was a crucial 1 – 0 victory for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. Leandro Trossard did have a big chance to score himself, but his penalty was saved well by the visitors’ Goalkeeper, Riznyk (77’).

The Gunners are now up to 9th place with 7 points. They are only two points adrift of the top, and they are only outside of the top eight on goal difference.

Other Results

Below is a full round-up of the other results from the enthralling third week of action in the League Phase of this season’s UEFA Champions League.

• AC Milan (Italy) 3 – 1 Club Brugge (Belgium) – Christian Pulisic (34’) & Tijjani Reijnders (61’, 71’); Kyriani Sabbe (51’).
• AS Monaco (France) 5 – 1 Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) – Takumi Minamino (20’, 70’), Breel Embolo (45+4’), Wilfried Singo (54’), & Maghnes Akliouche (90+7’); Cherif Ndiaye (27’ – Pen).
• Paris Saint Germain (France) 1 – 1 PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) – Achraf Hakimi (55’); Noa Lang (34’).
• Juventus (Italy) 0 – 1 Stuttgart (Germany) – El Bilal Toure (90+2’).
• Girona (Spain) 2 – 0 Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) – Miguel Gutierrez (42’) & Juanpe (73’).
• Sturm Graz (Austria) 0 – 2 Sporting CP (Portugal) – Nuno Santos (23’) & Viktor Gyokeres (53’).
• Real Madrid (Spain) 5 – 2 Borussia Dortmund (Germany) – Antonio Rudiger (60’), Vinicius Junior (62’, 86’, 90+3’), & Lucas Vazquez (83’); Donyell Malen (30’) & Jamie Gittens (34’).
• Atalanta (Italy) 0 – 0 Celtic (Scotland).
• Brest (France) 1 – 1 Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) – Pierre Lees-Melou (39’); Florian Wirtz (24’).
• FC Barcelona (Spain) 4 – 1 Bayern Munich (Germany) – Raphinha (1’, 45’, 56’) & Robert Lewandowski (36’); Harry Kane (18’).
• Atletico Madrid (Spain) 1 – 3 Lille (France) – Julian Alvarez (8’); Edon Zhegrova (61’) & Jonathan David (74’ – Pen, 89’).
• Benfica (Portugal) 1 – 3 Feyenoord (Netherlands) – Kerem Akturkoglou (66’); Ayase Ueda (12’) & Antoni Milambo (33’, 90+2’).
• RB Salzburg (Austria) 0 – 2 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) – Sandro Kulenovic (49’) & Bruno Petkovic (84’).
• Young Boys (Switzerland) 0 – 1 Inter Milan (Italy) – Marcus Thuram (90+3’).

Next Up for the Premier League Clubs

Below is a list of the matches to come on Matchday Four of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League’s League Phase for the English Clubs, which gets underway on Tuesday 5^th November:

• Liverpool (England) vs. Leverkusen (Germany) – Anfield, Tuesday 5^th November 2024, 20:00 KO.
• Sporting CP (Portugal) vs. Manchester City (England) – Estadio Jose Alvalade, Tuesday 5^th November 2024, 20:00 KO.
• Club Brugge (Belgium) vs. Aston Villa (England) – Jan Breydelstadion, Wednesday 6^th November 2024, 17:45 KO.
• Inter Milan (Italy) vs. Arsenal (England) – San Siro, Wednesday 6^th November 2024, 20:00 KO.

This was yet another week of enthralling action in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League League Phase, with Unai Emery’s Aston Villa and Arne Slot’s Liverpool being the only two clubs in the competition this season to currently possess a 100% record.

Excitement and anticipation are already building ahead of the fourth round of action in the League Phase of the 2024/25 Champions League.

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