The first midweek edition of The Assist is here to celebrate the start of this season’s UEFA club competitions. Matchday 1 in the Champions League is spread across the next three nights while both the Europa League and Conference play catch up next week.
The José Mourinho derby
The 36-team league-phase extravaganza was introduced to create more eye-catching encounters earlier on in the competition, and straight away, the fixture generator has served us up the José Mourinho derby as Real Madrid host Inter this evening.
Mourinho won the treble with Inter back in 2009/10
Returning for a second spell at the Bernabéu in June after previously leaving the club 13 years ago, the mercurial Mourinho has been tasked by Florentino Pérez with bringing silverware back to Madrid following a trophyless campaign last term.
The Portuguese maestro's first opponents in this year’s Champions League are Inter - the club Mourinho won the competition with in 2010 when they beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Bernabéu as part of the Nerazzurri’s historic treble.
Inter, who have seamlessly started their Serie A season with three straight wins, will aim to heap more pressure on Mourinho after Madrid suffered a controversial 1-0 loss to a Troy Parrott-inspired Real Betis in LaLiga four days ago, with Kylian Mbappé missing a stoppage-time penalty.
Trouble in paradise at PSG?
Holders Paris Saint-Germain are the team to beat in the Champions League, having won the previous two editions, but they’re currently in domestic turmoil following a dreadful start to their Ligue 1 title defence.
Back-to-back European Champions PSG are winless in Ligue 1
The Parisians sit 13th with just two points and have failed to win any of their opening three Ligue 1 matches for the first time since 2012/13. Head coach Luis Enrique described last week’s 2-1 defeat at home to Monaco as “inexplicable” and desperately needs a reaction from his underperforming side.
It presents the Champions League as a welcome and much-needed tonic for PSG to kickstart their stuttering season. First up for PSG are Slovakian side Slovan Bratislava, led by three-time Premier League winner Yaya Touré in his first managerial role.
In their previous Champions League campaign in 2024/25, Slovan finished second-bottom, losing all eight games. Despite PSG’s dodgy form, an upset at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night is definitely ambitious but not impossible.
The Premier League eyes European dominance
The Premier League is the overwhelming superpower in European football, given its financial muscle and breadth of quality, but can an English club be crowned the continent’s best side come May?
Arsenal are the Premier League’s frontrunners and they’re out for revenge after losing the final on penalties to PSG in May. The Gunners’ redemption arc begins on Wednesday, when they travel to southern Italy to play Napoli.
Mikel Arteta is ready to go again in the Champions League
Following their recent Europa League triumph, Aston Villa are competing in just their second-ever Champions League campaign this century, and a new era has dawned at the club due to a series of big-name departures and the arrival of 10 new signings. An away clash against Club Brugge awaits Emery’s new-look Villans this evening.
Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City are also in action tonight as they prepare to face Porto at the Estádio do Dragão, while Liverpool host Atlético Madrid on Wednesday and Manchester United play their first Champions League fixture since 2023 as they entertain Azerbaijani outfit Sabah FK at Old Trafford on Thursday. This trio of previous English winners within the last 20 years are all expected to comfortably finish in the top 24 of the league phase this time around.
The Europa League gets underway next week, with the Conference League kicking off next month, and there are some riveting storylines from around the continent in both competitions.
Bournemouth dare to dream on first crack at Europe
In 2009, Bournemouth were almost relegated to non-League. Now, they’re about to play in the Europa League, having clinched European qualification for the first time in their 127-year history.
The man who booked their maiden European voyage, Andoni Iraola, won’t lead them on it, but the Cherries have replaced him with another seasoned continental campaigner: Marco Rose, who took Borussia Monchengladbach to the last 16 of the 2020/21 Champions League.
European football comes to Dorset
Bournemouth begin their Europa League campaign with a trip to Real Sociedad before hosting Sturm Graz at the compact but homely Vitality Stadium, the third-smallest ground in the competition.
And there’s arguably no Cherries player more looking forward to their European adventure than veteran captain Adam Smith, who has made more than 400 appearances for the club – beginning with a loan spell in League One 15 years ago.
The four-pronged Norwegian invasion
For the first time since the 1999/2000 season, Norway is represented by two clubs in the Champions League: 2025/26 upstarts Bodø/Glimt and national champions Viking, appearing in the competition for the first time in 34 years.
The Viking FK are coming!
Glimt get their toughest game (on paper) out the way first, heading to six-time European champions Bayern Munich - who they’ll hope to upset like they did fellow former winners Manchester City and Inter last term - while Viking also travel to Germany to take on Stuttgart.
What’s more, for the first time since the 1998/99 campaign, there are Norwegian clubs in three UEFA competitions proper, with Lillestrøm and (FotMob’s local team) Brann qualifying for the Europa League and Conference League respectively.
Lillestrøm’s Europa League opener sees them entertain one of the competition’s most intriguing participants: Portuguese minnows Torreense.
Surprise package Torreense make European debut amid domestic struggles
In one of the most uplifting stories of the 2025/26 season, Torreense shocked giants Sporting to win the Taça de Portugal for the first time in their history – while playing in the country’s second tier (they haven’t actually played top-flight football since 1992).
As such, the club from the small city of Torres Vedras are competing in Europe for the very first time – also lining up the likes of Sunderland and former European champions Celtic in the Europa League.
Unfortunately, with their 2,431-capacity Estádio Manuel Marques not meeting UEFA requirements, they’ll have to play their home Europa League fixtures 193 miles away at the Estádio Algarve in Faro – but, as they showed last season, they’re more than capable of succeeding against the odds.
Second tier Torreense are in the Europa League
Tuesday: In this special opening week of Champions League action, it’s six games per night for the next three nights. Alphabetically speaking, AEK Athens’ home tie vs. Austrian side LASK is the first on the slate but Club Brugge vs. Aston Villa is also an early kick off.
In the later games, we’ll get that heavyweight meeting between Real Madrid and Inter plus Porto vs. Manchester City, and 2024 finalists Dortmund are at home to Villarreal.
Wednesday: Freescoring Barcelona (17 goals scored in four LaLiga games so far) start their latest crack at the top prize at home to Feyenoord in one of the two early games. It’s Norwegian champions Viking away to Stuttgart in the other.
Liverpool face Atlético at Anfield, just as they did last season. And Napoli welcome Arsenal to the Diego Maradona. The rest of our attention may be on back-to-back Champions PSG as they face Slovan Bratislava.
Thursday: A couple of Serie A surprise packages now get to reap the benefits - with current leaders Roma starting their UCL campaign at Fenerbahçe, and first time qualifiers Como heading to RB Leipzig.
Ballon d’Or Men’s club of the year nominees Bodø/Glimt face a daunting trip to Bayern Munich, coincidentally one of the other candidates for that particular award.
And Sabah FK, the Azerbaijani champions, make their Champions League debut at Manchester United’s Old Trafford. It really doesn’t get much bigger than that for a side formed as recently as 2018!
Attacking Zones: Work out where the threat is coming from!?
Long-term readers will know that we’re using this section of the newsletter to introduce you to the new features we’ve added to the app for this season, the latest is our visual guide to Attacking zones.
This is something that gives you an extra indication on how an individual game is going, indicating which area of the pitch a team is focusing their attacks, and through which players the threat most likely to come.
Take this example from Sunday’s heated London derby between Arsenal and Chelsea, which shows the emphasis the Gunners put on the right flank occupied by Bukayo Saka, and Chelsea’s attempts to counter straight down the middle of the pitch.
