Premier League clubs begin their Champions League campaign
Newcastle United, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Arsenal all played their first Champions League Group Stage matches this week. We review how they got on.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 The Champions League has returned for another season. Four English clubs have made their
00:04 bows in the first game week of matches in the group stages. We'll start where our background
00:10 shows at the San Siro, where Newcastle United made their 20-year return to the Champions League,
00:16 20 years away from the competition. They faced up against AC Milan at the San Siro.
00:21 And what an occasion, a 0-0 draw for Newcastle after that amount of time away from the competition
00:28 against one of Europe's elite sides. It's a pretty good point away to start off their campaign.
00:34 Of course, as well, on Tuesday, Man City, the defending champions of the Champions League,
00:49 returned to the competition. They were up at home against Red Star Belgrade.
00:55 And after a bit of a nervy start, going a goal behind, not ideal for the defending champions,
01:00 it ended up being quite a comfortable evening, would you say?
01:02 Yeah, really comfortable in the end. Obviously, they had that slight, slight scare. I spoke to
01:08 Michael Plant, whether Man City could go on to win the Champions League again. So,
01:13 let's see what Michael said.
01:15 You would be a brave man to bet against them, I think. They are, look, they are the best team in
01:19 Europe. They are the best team in the world. I don't think anyone doubts that. I just think that
01:22 over a Champions League group season, the best team doesn't always necessarily win,
01:30 given how knockout football works. I think that, I mean, what's really interesting is Pep Guardiola
01:35 is clearly, clearly thinking about this second Champions League. I mean, that's the way his mind
01:40 works. He's just got through the first and he's already thinking about the second one.
01:43 Going across the city of Manchester to the red side, the Red Devils of Manchester United were
01:47 away at Harry Kane's Bayern Munich. And what a game that was, 4-3. Bayern Munich, I think for
01:55 the most part, were in total control of that game and probably could have won by a bit more of a
01:59 margin. But fair play to Man United, they showed resilience to even get themselves into a
02:03 respectable position in that match at times, coming back on a couple of occasions and being
02:07 within only a goal of levelling things up. But things still aren't quite right under Eric Ten Hag,
02:13 are they? No, they're not. And they haven't started incredibly to this season. There's
02:18 been a lot of shake-up. They've lost so many key players in such a short space of time. So,
02:25 it's almost as if Ten Hag's had to really scrap his tactical ideas. Arsenal making their return
02:30 to the Champions League after a couple of seasons away. And they returned with quite an emphatic
02:34 win against PSV Eindhoven, 4-0. The Gunners meant business, didn't they? Yeah, they do. And
02:41 obviously, they've got big standards to live up to. They had a magnificent season last season,
02:46 disappointing to not leave the season with any trophies. We've seen them over the last few years
02:52 be poor and still win an FA Cup or still win a trophy. And they've just got to ensure that they
02:58 are keeping up the standards because, as we've said, there are some incredible teams this year,
03:03 again in Europe.