Big Midweek: Man City v PSG, Man Utd at Atletico Madrid, Liverpool chance to bounce back…
Now we’re talking. If the return of club football at the weekend wasn’t enough to banish the boredom of the international break, here we have a full round of European fixtures to give us another quick adrenaline boost.
Matchday two of the Champions League takes place over Tuesday and Wednesday, then there’s a Thursday full of Europa and Conference League games. And it’s going to be like this for the next couple of weeks. Hurrah.
So, what’s standing out to us this Big Midweek?
Game to watch: Manchester City v PSG
Objectors to state-backed football clubs, look away now. Or just look from the corner of your eye, because everything else aside, this is the standout Champions League game this week.
Manchester City made relatively light work of Liverpool in their first game since being found guilty of 114 breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. A red card to Ryan Gravenberch when the game was goalless helped, but City came away from Anfield with a well-deserved 3-0 win.
It served as a reminder that while all the background noise continues to hum, and with the appeal process ongoing, it will be business as usual for City’s current crop of players.
Now top of the table, even if that is with an asterisk for some, City have a perfect record in the league they theoretically risk being booted out of.
Their Champions League campaign started positively enough too, with a 2-0 win away at Porto. But the level of challenge is about to increase.
We’re not talking about opposition hostility here. Other rival fanbases will do a better job than Liverpool with their array of banners and (mostly basic) chants on Sunday, but PSG’s success is cut from the same cloth as City’s.
But the sheer force of that PSG success has been a sight to behold in the past couple of years. Luis Enrique’s side have won the Champions League back to back and their pursuit of three in a row began with a 6-1 win over Slovan Bratislava that put them top of the League Phase table after matchday one.
These teams will be two of the favourites to compete for Old Big Ears by the end of the season, making this an eye-catching early clash. In terms of star quality on the pitch, no other fixture this week can quite compete – even if it does all feel a bit murky.
Team to watch: Manchester United
Things don’t get any easier for the under-pressure Michael Carrick. After Manchester United returned with a gut-wrenching draw at home to Spurs, they now travel to the Spanish capital to face Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Diego Simeone’s side seem to have shaken off their mixed start to the season, making it four wins on the spin by beating Alaves on Saturday.
Coming back from the Metropolitano with any kind of positive result looks a tall order for United, but they’re going to need to turn things around soonish.
The last meeting between United and Atleti was a narrow aggregate win for the Spaniards in the 2021/22 round of 16. Given this is only matchday two of the league phase, it could be a close game again, but if Carrick has his wits about him, he’ll know that this is the kind of game United need to start showing some fight in.
Keep an eye out for a potential first United start – not to mention Champions League debut – for Carlos Baleba and how that affects their midfield.
Manager to watch: Andoni Iraola
A first defeat in the Liverpool hotseat for Iraola on Sunday against City, and thus Wednesday’s trip to face LASK represents the first chance to see how he responds to a setback with his current team.
On paper, Liverpool will be heavy favourites against their Austrian hosts. But the balancing act of playing twice a week will also come into play; Liverpool will be drained after finishing the City game with 10 men, and they have a potential banana skin against unbeaten Brentford coming up at the weekend.
How will Iraola shuffle Liverpool’s line-up? Will any fringe players take the chance they get? Or will he go with the tried and trusted to get Liverpool back on track as soon as possible?
The ongoing absences of Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, Dominik Szoboszlai and others certainly don’t help.
We imagine Iraola will have half an eye on the subsequent Brentford game, but losing to LASK would be more embarrassing than losing to City.
He will have to find the right balance as he continues adapting to his relatively new challenge of being a European-level manager. It’s not gone brilliantly so far…
READ: Liverpool’s absent creativity on and off the pitch among 10 biggest disappointments of season so far
Player to watch: Harry Kane
With all due respect to Bayern Munich’s opponents on Tuesday night, we expect goals from Kane against Viking.
To be fair, we expect goals from Kane against pretty much anyone. There was that weird thing where he didn’t score in his first two games of the new Bundesliga season, but that was very much an anomaly.
Augsburg kept Kane at bay over the weekend, but he’ll be looking to make it two (or more) from two in the Champions League after scoring against Bodo/Glimt on matchday one.
At exactly the same time, Viking were losing 3-1 to Stuttgart, whose Ermedin Demirovic scored a hat-trick. Could Kane follow suit?
It was a fruitful international break for Kane, who matched Peter Shilton’s all-time record for England caps. Six goals from four games served as evidence of his continued potency. He’s still England’s main man.
Winning the Champions League must be a burning desire for a club so used to dominating in Germany. Bayern’s chances will be assessed from tougher games than Tuesday’s, but it’s a chance for them to lay down a marker.
Europa League game to watch: Lyon v Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace were a bit miffed at not being permitted into the Europa League last season after winning the 2024/25 FA Cup, but their clinching of the Conference League last season earned them their place this time around.
UEFA’s measures against multi-club ownership were to blame for them originally being refused entry into the Europa League, with John Textor being involved – at the time – with both Palace and Lyon.
Now, with Textor no longer having anything to do with either club, Palace and Lyon are free to be in the same competition. And, as fate would have it, they are due to meet each other directly on Thursday. Does it count as a revenge mission?
Palace go into the game on the back of a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest, the club who took their place in last season’s Europa League and who peppered their goal on Sunday to no avail.
Lyon, on the other hand, are emerging from a 2-1 loss to 10-man Lens.
Both sides won their opening Europa League fixture this season and it’s a close call who’ll be the one to make it two wins from two.
EFL game to watch: Stoke City v Middlesbrough
Second travel to fourth in the Championship on Tuesday. Hosts Stoke and visitors Middlesbrough both won by single-goal margins on Saturday and now go head to head.
Boro’s Will Lankshear is the joint-top scorer in the Championship so far this season, but only one of those goals has come on the road, something he will be out to improve.
The Championship table is bound to chop and change as the season progresses, usually more than the average league, but this is a chance for either side to showcase their credentials for staying in and around the promotion places.
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