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10/21 07:20 CDT Spanish and German soccer royalty collide in third round of
Champions League games
Spanish and German soccer royalty collide in third round of Champions League
games
By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer
It's the best in Spain against German soccer royalty in the latest round of
games in the Champions League.
A rematch of last season's final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund is
the headliner on Tuesday, before Barcelona hosts Bayern Munich on Wednesday in
the next chapter of what has been a fairly one-sided rivalry in Europe's top
club competition.
All four teams have been European champions inside the last 30 years and
they've made mixed starts to this season's revamped format.
Dortmund has won both of their opening matches --- 3-0 at Club Brugge and 7-1
at home to Celtic --- to be the early leader and top scorer of the league
stage, which sees all 36 teams play eight matches: four at home and four away.
Just like last season when reaching the Champions League final against the odds
before losing to Madrid, Dortmund has been far more impressive in Europe than
in the Bundesliga. Indeed, after thrashing Celtic, Dortmund lost at Union
Berlin four days later.
Madrid, meanwhile, is coming off a surprising 1-0 loss at Lille, the defending
champions' first defeat in the competition since the semifinals in the 2022-23
season.
In fact, the second round of matches threw up a few shockers, including Bayern
losing 1-0 at Aston Villa to end its unbeaten run under new coach Vincent
Kompany.
Now Bayern heads to Barcelona in search of a seventh straight win in their
head-to-head, a streak that includes a humiliating 8-2 loss for Barca in the
quarterfinals in 2020. Hansi Flick was in charge of Bayern that night and is
now the coach of Barcelona.
Man City record
If Manchester City beats Sparta Prague at home on Wednesday, the English
champions will set the record for consecutive games undefeated in the history
of the competition --- even stretching back before 1992 into the European Cup
era.
City is currently on 25 matches unbeaten, tied with Alex Ferguson's Manchester
United team from 2007-09.
The last loss for Pep Guardiola's team in the Champions League was the 3-1
defeat against Real Madrid in the second leg of the semifinals in 2022, which
cost City a place in the final that season.
Since then, City has won 17 matches and drawn eight, having won the competition
in 2022-2023 and been eliminated on penalties by Madrid in 2023-24 after
back-to-back draws in the quarterfinals.
Unlikely high-flyer
Of the seven teams on a maximum six points, Brest is undoubtedly the most
surprising.
This is the unheralded French team's European debut --- in any competition ---
after an unexpected third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season. It couldn't be
going any better.
A 2-1 win over Austrian champion Sturm Graz was followed by a 4-0 thrashing of
another Austrian team, Salzburg, in the second round of games.
They will be the easiest opponents Brest is going to face. Now the hard work
begins, with German champion Bayer Leverkusen next up on Wednesday.
Leverkusen won't be heading to Brest, a pretty port city in Brittany, but
Guingamp --- about 114 kilometers (71 miles) away. That's because Brest's
stadium doesn't meet UEFA standards so its home games have been relocated.
Bad starts
With each team playing eight games in the new league system, opening with
back-to-back losses isn't the nightmare start it would have been in the old
format when there were six matches per side in the group stage.
Still, AC Milan, Leipzig, Girona, Salzburg, Sturm Graz, Slovan Bratislava,
Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade will be desperate to get at least one point on
the board in the third round of fixtures.
Salzburg and Young Boys haven't even scored a goal.
One of the eight pointless teams is sure to get off the mark, with tournament
newcomer Girona hosting Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday.
Leipzig could easily be on zero points after three games, though, with
Liverpool visiting on Wednesday --- a match that has more intrigue since former
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was signed as the head of global soccer at Red
Bull, whose international network of clubs includes Leipzig.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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