A round-up of Wednesday's league stage matches in the UEFA Champions League.
Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a Europa League night to remember by scoring the first hat-trick of his career as the midfielder inspired them to a 3-1 home win over Belarus champions BATE Borisov on Thursday.
Portugal had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Spain in a heavyweight friendly on Wednesday after hammering the crossbar twice and missing a last-gasp open goal.
IMAGES from Europa League matches played on Thursday.
Rattled by embarrassing domestic defeats, Chelsea looked jittery before Olivier Giroud settled their nerves with a close range tap-in shortly after halftime at StamfordBridge following good work by N'Golo Kante and Willian in the build-up.
Bayern Munich dismantled Arsenal 5-1 in UEFA Champions League Group F on Wednesday after a sensational first-half performance to close on the knockout stages with two matches left.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Manchester United ended their one-year Champions League hiatus in emphatic style when Wayne Rooney struck a hat-trick in a 4-0 destruction of Club Bruges that sent the three-times winners through 7-1 on aggregate on Wednesday.
Photos from the Champions League matches played across Europe on Tuesday
Napoli's Marek Hamsik enjoyed a memorable return to his former club Slovan Bratislava, scoring one and creating another, in a 2-0 victory on Thursday as the Italians joined five others who made it two wins from two in the Europa League group stage.
A summary of Tuesday's matches in the UEFA Champions League.
Kurt Zouma and Eden Hazard scored the goals the goals in a match that saw Diego Costa play central character.
The Champions League group stages took on a less predictable look after Thursday's draw, helped by UEFA's decision to tweak the seeding system.
New AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic is known for his hot temper and iron will and fans will hope those traits inspire rather than alienate his players as he bids to turn around the fortunes of Italy's fallen giants.
RB Leipzig marked their first appearance in the Champions League knockout round with a deserved 1-0 victory at last season's runners-up Tottenham Hotspur
Holders Sevilla maintained their Europa League challenge with a 1-0 win over Rijeka in a winner-takes-all clash on Thursday.
Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has been 'deeply affected' by last week's Paris attacks and might not be in the right frame of mind to play in Saturday's Premier League game against West Bromwich Albion, manager Arsene Wenger has said.
A round-up of Tuesday night's matches in the UEFA Champions League.
Chelsea struck the woodwork twice but could not find a breakthrough in an entertaining 0-0 Champions League draw at Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday that left everything to play for in Group G.
A summary of Friday's night's qualifying matches for Euro 2020.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Real Madrid failed to win their Champions League group for the first time in four years when a late goal by substitute Marco Reus allowed Borussia Dortmund to equalise and clinch a 2-2 draw.
Arsenal fear Sanchez injury loss could be 'big blow'.
Jose Mourinho's Chelsea turned from domestic whipping boys back to European stalwarts on Wednesday, beating his former club Porto 2-0 to top Champions League Group G.
Everton have agreed to sign Barcelona's Colombia centre back Yerry Mina for an initial 30.25 million euros ($34.97 million) and have also taken the club's midfielder Andre Gomes on loan, the Spanish champions said on Thursday.
Images from Champions League matches played across Europe on Tuesday
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A round-up of Thursday night's matches from the Euro 2020 qualifiers.
Tottenham Hotspur's Erik Lamela scored a stunning 'rabona' goal to light up Thursday's Europa League ties, wrapping his left boot round the back of his right leg 20 metres out and blasting the ball into the top corner.
A weekend of surprise results across Europe's big leagues saw Bayern Munich's unbeaten run come to an end, Napoli knocked off top spot in Serie A and Manchester City toppled in the Premier League where Leicester City are the new leaders.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Two goals from Thomas Mueller and one from substitute Mario Goetze helped Bayern Munich kick off their Champions League campaign with an impressive 3-0 victory over Olympiakos.
Images from Champions League matches played across Europe on Tuesday
Jose Mourinho suffered a nightmare homecoming as Porto, the club he led to the Champions League title in 2004, inflicted a 2-1 defeat on his woefully out-of-sorts Chelsea side in Group G on Tuesday.
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