Former England striker Gary Lineker (Picture: YouTube) Gary Lineker insists Arsenal are ‘one of the favourites’ to win the Champions League but could be denied by Barcelona following the signing of Manchester City legend Rodri. Premier League champions Arsenal kick-started their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win over Serie A side Napoli on Wednesday. The Gunners enjoyed a memorable run to the final last season before suffering a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to back-to-back winners PSG. Lineker believes Arsenal are once again one of the leading contenders to become European champions after a productive summer and strong start to the new season. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. Mikel Arteta bolstered his title-winning squad with the signings of Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, England defender Ezri Konsa and Greece winger Christos Tzolis during the summer transfer window. Arsenal already look like favourites to retain their Premier League crown, with Manchester City the only other team to still boast a perfect record after three games. While Lineker expects Arsenal to go back-to-back in the Premier League, he believes they could be a ‘superstar’ short in the Champions League, where he expects Barcelona to thrive. PSG have won the last two Champions Leagues (Picture: Getty) Hansi Flick’s Spanish champions were minutes away from the Champions League final two years ago before reaching the quarter-finals last season. Barca, who are already three points clear of La Liga rivals Real Madrid, welcomed Ballon d’Or Rodri to the Nou Camp in the summer in a £65m deal from Man City. ‘Arsenal will be one of the favourites but I don’t think overall they’ve got quite the superstars that some of the other big guns in Europe have,’ Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast. Arsenal suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat (Picture: Getty) ‘I do think Barcelona might be quite tasty and take some beating this season now they’ve got Rodri in there as well in that crucial position.’ Ex-Man City defender Micah Richards has also questioned whether Arsenal have the attacking flair to go one better in the Champions League. Arteta tried to sign Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez in the summer but the Brazil icon stayed at Real Madrid while the Argentine striker failed to force his way out of Atletico Madrid. {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'It was beautiful': Arteta hails Arsenal's attack-to-defence display in win against Chelsea","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/07\/2593273995855020828\/480x270_MP4_2593273995855020828.mp4","description":"Arsenal came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium after Morgan Rogers stunned home fans into silence with a volleyed goal 77 seconds into the game.","duration":"T5M27S","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/07\/07\/111091359-0-image-a-53_1788761962819.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-07T07:17:08+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); ‘I’ve got no doubts about them in the Premier League but I’m not sure about Arsenal in the Champions League,’ Richards added. ‘If you go back to last season they were actually favour
Lamine Yamal broke Kylian Mbappe's Champions League record for most goal involvements by a teenager during Barcelona's 5-1 rout of Feyenoord. Lamine Yamal has once again rewritten the Champions League history books. The Barcelona winger set a new benchmark for teenage production in the competition during Barcelona’s 5-1 rout of Feyenoord on Wednesday, moving past a mark previously set by Kylian Mbappe. According to OptaJoe, Yamal had already moved to 21 goal involvements in the Champions League with his assist for Raphinha’s opener, the outright most by a teenager in the competition’s history, one ahead of the previous record of 20 held by Mbappe. He then padded that tally further before full time, first with his own free-kick goal and later with a second assist, this one for Gabriel Jesus, finishing the night with 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 goal involvements in the competition. At 19 years old, Yamal continues to accumulate individual records at a pace few players in the tournament’s history have matched, having also become the third-youngest player ever to score a free kick in Champions League history. 🔵🔴©️ Lamine Yamal wears Barcelona’s captain armband at 19 years old… and scores on free kick.First goal as Barcelona captain. Fifth goal of the season for Lamine in five games. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9eVXJK8G5K— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 9, 2026 Yamal becomes Barcelona’s youngest-ever captain Yamal added another layer to his historic night by wearing the captain’s armband for the first time in an official match, becoming the youngest player ever to captain Barcelona at 19 years and 58 days old, breaking a record held by Bojan Krkic, who led the team in a 2010 Copa del Rey match at 20 years and 56 days old. The armband wasn’t planned to start the game: first captain Raphinha wore it before being substituted in the 71st minute, while second-in-line Pedri had already been withdrawn in the 63rd, and with Eric Garcia suspended and Frenkie de Jong injured, the responsibility fell to Yamal, the club’s fifth captain option this season.
Brazilian scores twice in 5-1 victory at the Camp NouFerran Torres scores hat-trick as PSG thump BratislavaRaphinha let his goals do the talking after being omitted from the Ballon d’Or shortlist, striking twice as Barcelona eased to a 5-1 win over Feyenoord in the Champions League.The Brazilian was a surprise omission from this week’s 30-strong list of candidates for the prestigious award but brushed any disappointment aside to continue his early season hot streak at a rain-soaked Camp Nou. The forward finished brilliantly in the third minute and added a second just before the hour mark to down the Eredivisie side and take his tally to eight goals in six outings at the start of the campaign. Continue reading...
Lamine Yamal scored his first career Champions League free kick in Barcelona's 5-1 rout of Feyenoord, becoming the third-youngest player ever to do so and beating the pace set by both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Lamine Yamal scored his first-ever direct free kick in the Champions League on Wednesday, curling home during Barcelona’s 5-1 rout of Feyenoord in the 78th minute. At 19 years and 58 days old, the Spanish winger became the third-youngest player to score a free kick in the competition’s modern era. Only two players have managed the feat at a younger age: Wayne Rooney, who scored a free kick for Manchester United against Fenerbahce in 2004 at 18 years and 340 days, and Marat Izmailov, who did so for Porto against Anderlecht in 2001 at 19 years and 33 days. Yamal’s effort narrowly edges out Mario Balotelli and Miralem Pjanic, who both scored their first Champions League free kicks in 2009 at slightly older ages. The strike itself was a technical showcase: Yamal curled the ball with his left foot from roughly 20 meters out, threading it between two Feyenoord players in the wall who jumped and shifted to try to block the effort, before it dropped into the bottom corner. The goal made it 4-0 to Barcelona at the time and was his first of the new Champions League campaign. The result added further gloss to what was already a dominant night for Barcelona, who put five past Feyenoord to open their 2026-27 Champions League campaign with three points, with Raphinha scoring twice and Karim Adeyemi and deadline-day signing Gabriel Jesus also getting on the scoresheet. Lamine Yamal took the captain's armband and grabbed himself a goal ©️Don't miss the #UCL on @paramountplus 🍿 pic.twitter.com/2kVihhRd37— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 9, 2026 Yamal leaves Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi behind The milestone also puts Yamal well ahead of the pace set by two of the sport’s greatest free-kick specialists. Cristiano Ronaldo did not score his first Champions League free kick until he was 24 years and three months old, netting a memorable strike from roughly 40 yards out against Arsenal in the 2009 semifinals. Lionel Messi got there earlier, but still well behind Yamal’s timeline, scoring his first Champions League free kick against Dynamo Kyiv in December 2009 at 22 years and nearly six months old. The gap is striking: Yamal reached the milestone roughly five years before Ronaldo and more than three years before Messi did, underlining how the Barcelona academy product continues to outpace two legends of the game.
It was another near-perfect performance from FC Barcelona as they thrashed Feyenoord 5-1 in their first UEFA Champions League match of the 2026/27 season.The Blaugrana got up and running early in the ...
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