
Here’s Jamie Jackson’s report from Blundell Park. Bye! Again!
And that’s all from me. Stay tuned for news of the draw, which is expected to happen … um … sometime vaguely soonish? Bye!
Grimsby manager David Artell: 'United are on the right track, you can see that'
David Artell has a chat with ITV. He is only vaguely coherent at times, perfectly understandably. But he’s quite kind to Ruben Amorim.
I said to them before the shootout started, it’s a technical thing, it’s a psychological thing. Their techniques are fine. You’re going to feel nervous walking up, butterflies, all the rest of it, don’t worry about that. This is the accumulation of 15 months, 18 months, all in one night.
Look, they’re an unbelievable team. They’ve got an unbelievable manager, and they’re on the right track. You can see that. But we’ve got an unbelievable group of players as well.
Grimsby’s Kieran Green has a chat:
We went 2-0 up and everyone was probably a bit surprised to be in that situation. I know they’ve come back but we’d have took 2-2 going into the death. Them getting the equaliser at the end, we’re the team winning at that point because we’d have took that. Before the shootout the gaffer said, ‘Lads, all the pressure is on them.’ And it was, really.
John Brewin, meanwhile, saw Rangers get a royal whupping in Bruges:
Sunday’s Old Firm derby will see two Europa League teams meet. If Celtic have deep regrets over misfires in Kazakhstan, Rangers suffered a night of near-historic shame in Belgium, utterly incapable of recovering from the first leg performance. By contrast to this horror show, that night of blunder was a creditable showing. Russell Martin’s team made it so simple for an admittedly high-class Brugge side.
Much more here:
A couple of match reports for you. First, Andy Hunter was at the Hill Dickinson Stadium to watch Everton edge out Mansfield:
The first game under the lights at Hill Dickinson Stadium was illuminated by Carlos Alcaraz’s fine finish and the promise of Harrison Armstrong. Everton’s cutting edge may remain a concern for David Moyes in the long term but a potentially awkward tie was eventually navigated in straightforward fashion. Alcaraz broke the deadlock against Nigel Clough’s resolute League One side with an excellent strike from 20 yards. Armstrong, who spent last season on loan at Derby, was the provider and also created Everton’s late second for Beto as Moyes’ team made it two wins from two at their new home.
Much more here:
I went to Sporting Lisbon last season, not long before Amorim left. Speaking to people there, learning about his impact on that team, he seemed like precisely the kind of character United needed as they seek to return to some kind of sporting relevance. Perhaps not.
Twenty-five penalties! What an epic! And what humiliation for Manchester United and Ruben Amorim!
Grimsby Town have won! Penalty shootout: Grimsby 12-11 Manchester United
Bryan Mbeumo sends his second penalty of the shootout into the crossbar, and it’s bedlam at Blundell Park! There are some people on the pitch! They think it’s all over! Which, to be fair, it is.
Updated
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 12-11 Manchester United
Darragh Burns sneaks this past Onana, who gets both hands on it but only helps it into the corner!
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 11-11 Manchester United
Bruno Fernandes isn’t going to be the one to mess up, that’s for sure.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 11-10 Manchester United
Kabia sidefoots into the right half of goal, which Onana helpfully vacates.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 10-10 Manchester United
Pym goes early again, making Onana’s task easy. So back to the beginning.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 10-9 Manchester United
This is just madness. Pym converts coolly!
Updated
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 9-9 Manchester United
Sesko’s penalty is as cool as can be, sidefooted to the right of goal. Now for the keepers!
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 9-8 Manchester United
Tyrell Warren with the 17th successful penalty of the night. We keep going.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 8-8 Manchester United
Pym decides that De Ligt is going down the middle, and doesn’t move an inch as the ball flies about a yard to his left.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 8-7 Manchester United
Evan Khouri puts enough power on his penalty to get it past Onana, who gets a hand to it.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 7-7 Manchester United
Harry Maguire’s penalty is having absolutely no nonsense. Thumped in, no messing. Seven apiece.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 7-6 Manchester United
Jayden Sweeney takes a fine penalty, Onana goes the wrong way again, and now Harry Maguire must score.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 6-6 Manchester United
Kobbie Mainoo’s penalty is probably the best yet, finding the top right corner of the net. Onwards!
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 6-5 Manchester United
Geza David Turi goes low to his left, and Grimsby have a slender advantage once more.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 5-5 Manchester United
That, to be fair, is an extremely good penalty. Pym has absolutely no chance, particularly given that he was over on the completely opposite side of goal.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 5-4 Manchester United
Cameron McJannet squirts his shot just beyond Onana’s dive, and now Joshua Zirkzee has to score!
He can't! Penalty shootout: Grimsby 4-4 Manchester United
Pym stands up this time, and Cunha waits for him to commit himself, sees that he hasn’t, has to kick the ball anyway and doesn’t do it very well!
Updated
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 4-4 Manchester United
Henry Brown powers his shot low and just out of Onana’s grasp (diving to his right this time). Now can Cunha win it?
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 3-4 Manchester United
Diogo Dalot’s run-up is a little concerning, but again Pym commits himself extremely early and you can’t really do that and hope to save anything.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 3-3 Manchester United
An excellent, calm penalty from Reece Staunton. Onana seems to like diving to his left a lot more than he likes diving to his right.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 2-3 Manchester United
And Mason Mount strokes home to give the Premier League side the advantage!
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 2-2 Manchester United
Clarke Oduor misses! It’s an excellent save from Onana, who touches the ball onto the bar!
Updated
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 2-2 Manchester United
Bryan Mbeumo takes a slow run-up and by the time he gets to the end of it Pym has already committed himself. The rest is a formality.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 2-1 Manchester United
Darragh Burns’ penalty is Fernandesesque, slotted low to his left while Onana goes the wrong way.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 1-1 Manchester United
Bruno Fernandes sends Christy Pym the wrong way before stroking into the bottom left corner.
Penalty shootout: Grimsby 1-0 Manchester United
It’s not a great penalty, and Onana goes the right way, but he gives it enough welly that it flies in off the keeper’s hand.
Updated
Grimsby will take the first penalty. Jaze Kabia has the ball in his hands.
Also in the Champions League tonight: Copenhagen have beaten Basel 2-0, and 3-1 on aggregate, while a little earlier Qarabag beat Ferencvaros 5-4 on aggregate. Benfica lead Fenerbahce 1-0 in the final match, in the 94th minute, with the Turkish side down to 10 men.
Final score: Grimsby Town 2-2 Manchester United
Penalties incoming! Could Andre Onana, at fault for both Grimsby goals, somehow end the evening a hero? He’ll certainly have the chance.
Manchester United somehow fail to score a winner! The ball drops at the combined feet of Sesko and De Ligt, four yards out, and is then spooned over the bar!
Final score: Club Brugge 6-0 Rangers (Brugge win 9-1 on aggregate)
The final whistle has blown in Belgium, and Rangers are indeed eliminated from the Champions League.
Mick McCann has news of the DFB Pokal: “Just to let anyone know who’s interested FC Bayern have just beaten third division Wiesbaden 3-2 in the first round of the DFB Pokal with the spawniest Harry Kane header in the last minute of injury time after having taken the lead with the softest of penalties in the first half. Just saying".”
This one is also sent to the far post, De Ligt this time the target, but it goes over his head and out of play.
There will be five minutes of stoppage time at Blundell Park. United are pushing for a winner. Nearly two of those minutes have been played, and they’ve got another corner.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Mansfield (Beto, 89 mins)
Everton have also scored an 89th-minute goal, and that should earn them ball No29 in the Carabao Cup draw.
GOAL! Grimsby Town 2-2 Manchester United (Maguire, 89 mins)
Jacob Harry Maguire has rescued Manchester United again! Mount takes that corner for a third time, and Maguire runs in from beyond the far post to head it in!
Updated
United win a corner and Mount sends it into the penalty area only for the referee to stop play with the ball in the air to deal with some shenanigans. Then Mount does it again, and so does the referee.
Copenhagen have scored a second against Basel, a Youssoufa Moukoko penalty, and they lead 3-1 on aggregate, 2-0 on the night, with one minute plus stoppage time to play. That’ll do, surely?
Absolute chaos! United send a corner beyond the far post, Maguire heads it back into the mixer, and then it bounces around for a few seconds looking for all the world like it’s about to be poked into the net, but Grimsby manage to clear!
Nearly a nightmare moment for Grimsby! McJannet has the ball under control, but then it sticks in a puddle, he falls over, and Sesko seizes it. But McJannet recovers and takes it back again with a mildly terrifying but emphatically clean sliding tackle.
Joshua Zirkzee is on, and Amad Diallo has gone off. There are eight minutes plus stoppage time to be played.
If Grimsby don’t win this, that Cameron Gardner offside decision will merit further discussion. It couldn’t have been more marginal, and would have all but ended the contest.
I think we can fairly safely say that Brighton will have ball No32 in tonight’s Carabao Cup third-round draw. But who will have No31? The numbers in full:
1 Arsenal
2 Aston Villa
3 Barnsley
4 Bradford City
5 Brentford
6 Burnley
7 Cambridge United
8 Cardiff City
9 Chelsea
10 Crystal Palace
11 Doncaster Rovers
12 Huddersfield Town
13 Lincoln City
14 Liverpool
15 Manchester City
16 Millwall
17 Newcastle United
18 Nottingham Forest
19 Port Vale
20 Reading
21 Sheffield Wednesday
22 Southampton
23 Swansea City
24 Tottenham Hotspur
25 Wigan Athletic
26 Wolverhampton Wanderers
27 Wrexham
28 Wycombe Wanderers
29 Everton or Mansfield Town
30 Fulham (surely)
31 Grimsby Town or Manchester United
32 Brighton & Hove Albion (certainly)
GOAL! Grimsby Town 2-1 Manchester United (Mbeumo, 75 minutes)
United are back in the game! Mbeumo runs at the defence, cutting in from the right, and once he reaches the vicinity of the area he curls a low shot inside the far post. A lifeline!
Four minutes to play at the Kassam Stadium and Tom Watson has scored a sixth for Brighton.
Grimsby have the ball in the net again, but the flag is up and it won’t count! Gardner was played through and finished excellently, and that looked close.
I have been to Grimsby only once, and that was when I was still at school. They had a good team at the time – Clive Mendonca up front, as I recall. I have only the haziest memory of the match. I think Keith Dublin may have been guilty of a defensive howler.
Updated
Mbeumo sets up De Ligt for a shot, a combination which would be much more effective the other way around. The Dutchman hammers the ball over the bar.
Mason Mount comes on for United, ending Ayden Heaven’s personal, um, difficulties.
There’s a lot of standing water on the pitch at Blundell Park, but they play on. Fernandes has an excellent shot from 25 yards, which is well saved.
Ruben Amorim is currently moving little player-representing tokens around a laminated pitch map, which seems like a completely absurd thing for him to be doing.
It has now stopped raining in Grimsby. There was no more rain left.
Updated
GOAL! Club Brugge 6 (SIX)-0 Rangers!
Based on the first 13 minutes of the second half Grimsby seem more likely to extend their lead than United are to reduce it. It would be quite something if Rangers manage to escape the evening with only its second most embarrassing result. Talking of which: “Currently in Bucharest to watch Aberdeen tomorrow night and hopefully they don’t screw up like the entitled two did yesterday and currently,” writes Richard Gibbs. “Would like to see Brugge take their foot off the gas, Sevco get a couple of late goals and Martin stays for another month. Delete that they’ve just scored again.”
It’s currently 6-0 there, and 9-1 on aggregate, Christos Tzolis with their first goal of the second half.
Updated
Another goal for Brighton, 4-0 up at Oxford now with Stefanos Tzimas slotting in the latest.
It is absolutely pouring at Grimsby now, the kind of rain that is so thick and heavy that on television it looks like fog. Grimsby continue to bother United, and have just won themselves a corner. Grimsby lead 7-0 on corner kicks!
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Mansfield!
Carlos Alcaraz has broken the deadlock at the Hill Dickinson Stadium and very nicely taken it was too, sidefooted in from the edge of the area.
Updated
What a chance for Grimsby! So much space on the left for Green, who pulls back to Burns, who should really have scored but his shot deflects wide.
Updated
A big goal in Copenhagen, where Andreas Cornelius has given the home side the lead against Basel: it’s 1-0 there, and 2-1 on aggregate. Elsewhere Benfica lead Fenerbahce 1-0 both on the night and on aggregate. The only Champions League game that isn’t on a knife-edge is the Rangers one, which couldn’t possibly be less knife-edgy.
Brighton have scored again, Diego Gomez with the latest in the 60th minute to put them 3-0 up at Oxford.
Manchester United’s half-time changes: Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Matthijs de Ligt are coming on. Fredricson, Dorgu and Ugarte have gone off.
Updated
Various Manchester United substitutes are warming up at half-time, and some kind of change-up is surely inevitable. Can Grimsby cling on to this? Can Andre Onana cling on to anything?
Half-time mailbag!
“If Man Utd lose tonight it will be easy to write the competition off but look at the level of the side playing tonight,” writes Kevin Wilson. “That is still a team filled with internationals. Amorim hasn’t turned it around, the results aren’t improving and if they’re not beating Grimsby, what makes you think he will? This just hasn’t worked.”
“I had to download my sports channel’s app, so that I could rewind back to the replays and understand what happened for that second Grimsby goal,” writes Kári Tulinius. “I’m still not sure how Onana made such a horlicks out of this, or what the defenders were doing, seasoned pros one and all. How much money will Manchester United throw at Donnarumma, and how will they manage to ruin the best goalkeeper in the world?”
“Grimsby have missed the memo!” moans Hamish Williams. “Manchester United will have to make a managerial change if this keeps up, and that would ruin it for everyone. Not even Big Sir Jim can ignore this. You’re supposed to beat them, not embarrass them!”
Half time: Grimsby Town 2-0 Manchester United
The halftimely whistle blows, and Ruben Amorim has 15 minutes to do some kind of vaguely competent managing and turn this thing around.
GOAL! Club Brugge 5-0 Rangers (Brugge lead 8-1 on aggregate)! An excellent cross this one, and a bullet header from Aleksandar Stankovic. Not even half-time, and Rangers are being thrashed.
Updated
GOAL! Club Brugge 4-0 Rangers (Brugge lead 7-1 on aggregate)
Another for Joaquin Seys, who steals in at the back post to volley a right-wing cross into the roof of the net. I think this will be the last Brugge goal to get a big shouty headline, there might just be too many of them.
Grimsby currently lead Manchester United 8-7 on touches inside the opposition penalty area. Their lead is not down to luck. United enjoy a spell of possession, but create nothing with it.
GOAL! Club Brugge 3-0 Rangers (Brugge lead 6-1 on aggregate)
Joaquin Seys has the easiest of finishes to put Club Brugge in full, complete and overwhelming control of their tie against Rangers, and he converts calmly.
Updated
If you happen to live in the UK, you may enjoy Grimsby’s two goals here. You may also not enjoy them, depending on your allegiances:
The SCENES at @officialgtfc!#EFL | #CarabaoCup pic.twitter.com/AsT1SVJWAA
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) August 27, 2025
GRIMSBY HAVE ANOTHER! ⚽️⚽️
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) August 27, 2025
Absolute bedlam at Blundell Park! 💥#ITVFootball | #MUFC | #GTFC | #CarabaoCup | @officialgtfc pic.twitter.com/kZrlapfxMz
GOAL! Club Brugge 2-0 Rangers (Brugge lead 5-1 on aggregate)
A corner from the right, and Hans Vanaken heads it in. This couldn’t be any more done or any more dusted.
Updated
GOAL! Grimsby Town 2-0 Manchester United (Warren, 30 mins)
This is not a drill. Grimsby take a corner on the left, play it short, swing it in, and Onana completely messes up his attempt to deal with it. He rushes out, makes no contact on the ball, and it drops to the feet of two Grimsby players, of whom Tyrell Warren completes the formalities.
Updated
Grimsby have the ball in the net again! But the referee spots a handball – the ball bounced up into Gardner’s arm – and it won’t count!
Meanwhile in Belgium, Brugge’s Christos Tzolis sends a 25-yarder swerving into the meat of the crossbar, off which it rebounds to safety.
GOAL! Grimsby Town 1-0 Manchester United (Vernam, 22 mins)
Manchester United are losing to Grimsby Town! It’s a fine move, ending with Burns lifting a pass from right to left where Charles Vernam was running untracked into the area, and he took a touch before lashing in at the near post!
Updated
As if Celtic being knocked out yesterday and Rangers heading the same way tonight wasn’t enough bad Champions League news for one city, Glasgow City have been knocked out of the Women’s competition. Here’s PA Media:
Glasgow City’s hopes of reaching the Women’s Champions League were ended as Austria Wien recorded a 2-0 second qualifying round victory. There was little between the two sides in the first half as Glasgow competed well at the Franz Horr Stadium in Vienna. Katharina Schiechtl fired the Austrians ahead four minutes after the interval with a direct free-kick. Glasgow stayed in the game and Sofia Maatta went close to an equaliser 12 minutes from time. The tie was put beyond Glasgow in the third minute of stoppage time after Almedina Sisic set up fellow substitute Maria Olsen. Emily Whelan almost claimed a consolation for the Scottish visitors when her effort bounced off the woodwork with almost the last kick of the match.
Fifteen minutes played at Blundell Park and there has so far been one shot on target, Grimsby leading Manchester United 1-0 on those. No actual goals, though.
RED CARD! Rangers go down to 10 men!
A long ball and a suicidally high defensive line combine to undo Rangers. Tzolis looks set to run clear, until Max Aarons pulls him back and brings him down. And that is the very definition of a professional foul.
Updated
GOALS! Brighton and Fulham double their leads!
Raul Jimenez for Fulham and Brajan Gruda for Brighton, both of whom now revel in 2-0 leads.
GOAL! Club Brugge 1-0 Rangers (aggregate score 4-1)
And that is surely curtains for Rangers! It’s a splendid cross from the left, and Nicolo Tresoldi stoops at the near post to power in the header!
Updated
Rangers will have to learn how to deal a bit better with the pace of Carlos Forbs on the right of the Brugge attack, because scything him down in full flight is not a long-term solution. They give away a free-kick, which is curled out of play.
There have already been a couple of Carabao Cup goals, both in 7.45pm kick-offs: Olivier Boscagli has given Brighton the lead at Oxford, while a George Tanner own goal has handed Fulham the advantage at home to Bristol City.
Updated
BONG! The time is 8pm, and the football has begun (those games that hadn’t already begun)!
A few minutes before kick-off o’clock, and teams are emerging from tunnels!
Qarabag qualify for the leaguey bit of the Champions League!
Fireworks explode over the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium after Clement Turpin blows the final whistle – Qarabag lost 3-2 to Ferencvaros, but won 5-4 on aggregate to claim their place in the leaguey bit!
Carabao Cup teams
The starting lineups for tonight’s four Carabao Cup games are here:
Everton v Mansfield
Everton: Travers, Coleman, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko, Garner, Armstrong, McNeil, Alcaraz, Grealish, Barry. Subs: King, Beto, Ndiaye, O’Brien, Dibling, Dewsbury-Hall, Iroegbunam, Onyango, Campbell.
Mansfield: Roberts, Knoyle, Bowery, Cargill, Blake-Tracy, McDonnell, Reed, Moriah-Welsh, Hendry, Dickov, Evans. Subs: Mason, McLaughlin, Sweeney, Hewitt, Lewis, Maris, Bolton, Dwyer, Gardner.
Referee: Thomas Bramall.
Fulham v Bristol City
Fulham: Lecomte, Castagne, Diop, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Reed, Cairney, Traore, Wilson, Smith Rowe, Jimenez. Subs: Leno, Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Berge, Lukic, King, Iwobi, Rodrigo Muniz.
Bristol City: Lumley, Tanner, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Knight, Bird, Hirakawa, Stokes, Bell, Armstrong. Subs: Thomas, Randell, Roberts, Twine, Cornick, Sykes, Mehmeti, Jakobsen, Mayulu.
Referee: Lewis Smith.
Grimsby v Man Utd
Grimsby: Pym, Rodgers, Warren, McJannett, Sweeney, McEachran, Gardner, Green, Khouri, Burns, Vernam. Subs: Auton, Staunton, Amaluzor, Brown, Soonsup-Bell, Kabia, Turi, Oduor, Rose.
Man Utd: Onana, Fredricson, Maguire, Heaven, Dalot, Mainoo, Ugarte, Dorgu, Diallo, Cunha, Sesko. Subs: Bayindir, Heaton, de Ligt, Leon, Casemiro, Fernandes, Mount, Mbeumo, Zirkzee.
Referee: Tony Harrington.
Oxford Utd v Brighton
Oxford Utd: Ingram, Placheta, Spencer, Moore, Long, Currie, Phillips, Vaulks, Brannagan, Mills, Mark Harris. Subs: Cumming, ter Avest, Sibley, De Keersmaecker, Snowden, Luke Harris, Prelec, Bradshaw, Goodrham.
Brighton: Steele, Veltman, Boscagli, Igor, Hinshelwood, Coppola, Milner, Gomez, Gruda, Kadioglu, Howell. Subs: McGill, Tzimas, Lamptey, Watson, Baleba, Kostoulas, O’Riley, Tasker, Simmonds.
Referee: Oliver Langford.
Alex Toth has just scored an absolute screamer to put Ferencvaros 3-2 up at Qarabag, and they need one more goal in the last 10 minutes or so to take the game into extra time.
Champions League teams
Qarabag and Ferencvaros are currently drawing 2-2 in the early kick-off, with Qarabag therefore nursing a 5-3 aggregate advantage. The lineups for the late Champions League games, meanwhile, are here:
Benfica v Fenerbahce
Benfica: Trubin, Dedic, Antonio Silva, Otamendi, Dahl, Rios, Barrenechea, Aursnes, Barreiro, Akturkoglu, Pavlidis. Subs: Soares, Obrador, Ivanovic, Schjelderup, Prestianni,
Henrique Araujo, Tomas Araujo, Gouveia, Oliveira, Veloso, Santos, Prioste.
Fenerbahce: Livakovic, Muldur, Skriniar, Oosterwolde, Nelson Semedo, Amrabat, Fred, Brown, Szymanski, En Nesyri, Talisca. Subs: Egribayat, Yuksek, Djiku, Duran, Demir, Kahveci, Under, Munir Mercan, Elmaz, Aydin, Akcicek, Soyuncu.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
Club Brugge v Rangers
Club Brugge: Mignolet, Sabbe, Spileers, Mechele, Seys, Stankovic, Nwadike, Forbs, Vanaken, Tzolis, Tresoldi. Subs: Jackers, Romero, Reis, Vetlesen, Sandra, Meijer, Nilsson, Skoras, Siquet, Audoor, Diakhon, Furo.
Rangers: Butland, Aarons, Djiga, Souttar, Meghoma, Cameron, Aasgaard, Rothwell, Antman, Danilo, Gassama. Subs: Kelly, Wright, Tavernier, Barron, Dessers, Diomande, Fernandez, Raskin, Moore, Gentles, Curtis, Hutton.
Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany).
Copenhagen v Basel
Copenhagen: Kotarski, Huescas, Hatzidiakos, Gabriel Pereira, Lopez, Larsson, Mattsson, Lerager, Achouri, Cornelius, Elyounoussi. Subs: Runarsson, Gadeberg-Burr, Garananga,
Claesson, Moukoko, Robert, Suzuki, Zague, Sarapata, Meling, Delaney, Clem.
Basel: Hitz, Tsunemoto, Barisic, Vouilloz, Schmid, Metinho, Leroy, Soticek, Shaqiri, Otele, Broschinski. Subs: Salvi, Pfeiffer, Koindredi, Bacanin, Ajeti, Ruegg, Kacuri, Cisse, Ze, Rexhaj, Akahomen, Kaio Eduardo.
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania).
Hello world!
Not quite so many matches tonight as there were yesterday, but it’s about quality not quantity and after Celtic stunk out Tuesday evening there’s definite room for improvement there. We’ve got just four Champions League fixtures to keep an eye out for, one of which started a while ago, and precisely the same number of Carabao Cup games. And they are:
Champions League play-off second leg (kick-offs 8pm BST unless stated)
Benfica v Fenerbahce (0-0 after first leg)
Club Brugge v Rangers (Brugge won the first leg 3-1)
Copenhagen v Basel (the first leg was drawn 1-1)
Qarabag FK v Ferencvaros (5.45pm BST, Qarabag won the first leg 3-1)
Carabao Cup second round (7.45pm BST kick-offs unless stated)
Everton v Mansfield
Fulham v Bristol City
Grimsby v Man Utd (8pm)
Oxford Utd v Brighton
Also tonight: Celta Vigo v Real Betis in La Liga (8pm), Bayern Munich play a first-round German cup tie at Wehen Wiesbaden (7.45pm), Hamilton Academical host Edinburgh City in the Scottish Challenge Cup (7.45pm), and Hibernian play a Women’s Champions League qualifying semi-final against Fortuna Hjorring (7.30pm).
And while we wait for all of that:
It’s all looking very grim for West Ham, says Jacob Steinberg:
Football Daily: Pafos lead a hipster takeover of the Champions League
Some women’s Champions League qualifiers have already been played and Tom Garry was monitoring them
The Knowledge investigates outbreaks of specific scorelines in major league gameweeks. This is information we all need, obviously.
Spurs want to spend loads of money on a footballer
QUIZ! QUIZ! QUIZ!