By Open Chronicle Sports
10 September 2026
The opening matchday of the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League ended with a night that offered almost every version of what the league phase can produce.
There were emphatic statements from established powers. There was a remarkable introduction from a newcomer. There were frustrating draws for clubs who will already feel that points have slipped away. And in Prague, there was the sort of late European drama that can reshape an entire campaign before it has properly begun.
Bayern München demolished Bodø/Glimt 5–0. Manchester United marked their return to the competition with a commanding 4–0 victory over Sabah. Como, playing their first Champions League match, overwhelmed RB Leipzig 4–1. Lens somehow turned a 2–1 deficit after 90 minutes into a 3–2 victory against ten-man Slavia Praha.
Earlier, Fenerbahçe and Roma shared a 1–1 draw in Istanbul, while PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk also finished level.
When the final whistle sounded in Prague, all 18 matches of Matchday 1 were complete. The first picture of the new 36-team league table had finally emerged.
Como’s Arrival Is More Than a Good Story
Como 4–1 RB Leipzig
Of all Thursday’s results, this may be the one that demands the most attention.
Como did not simply win their first Champions League match. They played as though they belonged in the competition from the moment it began.
Martin Baturina scored the first Champions League goal in the club’s history after 15 minutes. Anastasios Douvikas doubled the advantage before half-time, Assane Diao made it 3–0 after the interval and Máximo Perrone completed the scoring in the 90th minute after Andrija Maksimović had briefly reduced Leipzig’s deficit.
The significance lies in the manner of the performance.
Cesc Fàbregas’ side attacked with speed but without losing structure. Baturina and Douvikas combined for the first two goals, Como repeatedly found space around Leipzig’s defensive shape, and their transitions were decisive once the visitors were forced to chase the game.
UEFA named Baturina Player of the Match.
For Leipzig, the problem is more substantial than a bad scoreline. Losing away in Europe happens. Being dismantled by a Champions League debutant raises questions about defensive control and the team’s ability to manage matches when the opposition refuses to respect its reputation.
For Como, meanwhile, the equation changes immediately.
They are no longer merely an intriguing newcomer.
They are a team the rest of the league phase will have to prepare for.
Bayern Turn Patience Into Destruction
Bayern München 5–0 Bodø/Glimt
The scoreline suggests a straightforward demolition. The first half tells a slightly different story.
Bodø/Glimt reached the interval at 0–0, but Bayern’s pressure eventually broke the resistance. Once it did, the match disappeared rapidly.
Jamal Musiala opened the scoring in the 47th minute. Harry Kane headed in the second on 61 minutes before Alphonso Davies made it three. Michael Olise then scored twice, including a stoppage-time fifth, after Bodø/Glimt had been reduced to ten men.
That progression matters.
European campaigns are not built only on spectacular opening periods. The strongest teams also know how to keep applying pressure until an opponent’s structure begins to collapse.
Bayern did exactly that.
Kane’s goal carried additional significance: it extended his scoring run to eight consecutive Champions League appearances.
Olise was UEFA’s Player of the Match, and Bayern leave Matchday 1 with five goals scored, none conceded and an immediate position among the early leaders.
In a format where goal difference can become extremely important across an eight-match league phase, 5–0 is more than a comfortable victory.
It is capital accumulated for later.
Manchester United Make Their Return Look Routine
Manchester United 4–0 Sabah
Old Trafford’s return to Champions League football produced exactly the sort of evening Manchester United wanted.
Matheus Cunha opened the scoring after 27 minutes, Bruno Fernandes doubled the advantage on 42, and Benjamin Šeško struck before half-time. Lisandro Martínez added the fourth in the 68th minute.
The opposition must be taken into account. Sabah entered the match as substantial underdogs.
But United still had to perform.
They did.
Rather than allowing the evening to become anxious, Michael Carrick’s side established control, converted that superiority into goals and avoided the defensive mistake that might have given Sabah a route back into the contest.
Patrick Dorgu was selected as UEFA’s Player of the Match.
There will be much harder European examinations ahead. Yet the league-phase format rewards precisely this kind of performance against lower-ranked opposition: win, build goal difference and move on.
United accomplished all three.
The 4–0 margin also places them immediately among the strongest starters in the 36-team table.
Lens Produce the Night’s Great Escape
Slavia Praha 2–3 Lens
If Bayern and United delivered authority, Lens delivered chaos.
Slavia Praha twice led despite playing much of the second half with ten men after Mikuláš Konečný was dismissed shortly after the interval.
Danijel Šturm scored both of the Czech side’s goals. Abdallah Sima supplied Lens’ first response, but when Šturm struck again, Slavia appeared to have produced one of Matchday 1’s most resilient victories.
They were still leading 2–1 after 90 minutes.
Then everything changed.
Florian Thauvin equalised and Ruben Aguilar completed the comeback in the 93rd minute, transforming what looked like defeat into three points. UEFA named Thauvin Player of the Match.
This is where the new Champions League format becomes fascinating.
A draw would have given Lens one point. Defeat would have left them with none.
Instead they leave Prague with three.
Across eight league-phase matches, those two additional points could eventually represent the difference between elimination, a knockout play-off place and even direct qualification.
For Slavia, it is difficult to imagine a more painful way to begin.
Fenerbahçe and Roma Leave Points Behind
Fenerbahçe 1–1 Roma
There are draws that feel useful and draws that leave both teams wondering what might have been.
This falls closer to the second category.
Neither Fenerbahçe nor Roma managed to establish the early advantage that three points would have provided, leaving both in the crowded middle of the league table after one match.
Archie Brown’s performance for Fenerbahçe earned him UEFA’s Player of the Match award.
A point in isolation is hardly damaging. The problem comes from the mathematics of the league phase.
With only eight matches available, home fixtures carry particular importance. Dropped points cannot simply be recovered over a traditional 34- or 38-game campaign.
Both clubs therefore move forward without immediate damage — but without much margin gained either.
PSV and Shakhtar Reach the Same Conclusion
PSV Eindhoven 1–1 Shakhtar Donetsk
The early match in Eindhoven produced another stalemate.
For Shakhtar, an away point represents a potentially valuable foundation. For PSV, the interpretation is inevitably less comfortable: home matches are where teams expecting to reach the knockout phase generally need to maximise their return.
Sergiño Dest was named Player of the Match by UEFA.
One match does not define a Champions League campaign.
But the new format places greater pressure on every individual result. A home draw that appears harmless in September can look much more expensive when the qualification line becomes clear later in the winter.
The First League Table Already Tells a Story
The greatest change created by the 36-team Champions League is that Thursday’s results cannot be viewed independently.
Every goal contributes to the same table.
That makes the scale of the victories significant.
Paris Saint-Germain’s 6–1 win over Slovan Bratislava, Bayern’s 5–0 demolition of Bodø/Glimt, Barcelona’s 5–1 victory against Feyenoord, Manchester United’s 4–0 success and Como’s 4–1 win immediately give those clubs valuable goal-difference advantages.
Sporting CP also emerge from Matchday 1 in a strong position after their 3–1 victory over Galatasaray on Wednesday, while Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Aston Villa, Real Betis and others begin with three points.
The important distinction is that the league phase does not merely ask whether a team wins.
How it wins can matter too.
Goal difference and goals scored can become decisive when clubs finish level on points. That means Bayern’s fifth goal, United’s fourth and Como’s late fourth were not decorative additions to comfortable victories.
They potentially have competitive value months from now.
Three Different Messages From Thursday Night
The final evening of Matchday 1 produced three particularly powerful messages.
Bayern reminded Europe that experience, patience and elite attacking quality remain an intimidating combination.
Manchester United showed that their return to the Champions League can begin with control rather than drama.
But Como supplied the most intriguing message of all.
The Champions League may still be populated by giants, but reputation guarantees nothing once the ball starts moving.
Their 4–1 victory over Leipzig was not the result of surviving for 90 minutes and stealing a historic goal.
Como attacked. Como controlled important phases of the match. Como scored four.
And then there was Lens, proving another enduring truth about this competition: a match that appears finished sometimes isn’t.
At 90 minutes in Prague, Slavia were heading for three points.
Three minutes later, Lens had all of them.
That volatility is precisely why the opening round matters.
Matchday 1 Is Over. The Real Race Begins Now.
After three nights and 18 matches, every one of the 36 clubs finally has a result beside its name.
Some already possess a cushion.
Others already have ground to recover.
Bayern, Paris, Barcelona, Manchester United and Como have acquired both points and significant goal difference. Sporting have begun strongly. Lens escaped with a victory that could prove enormously valuable.
Fenerbahçe, Roma, PSV and Shakhtar have something on the board, but no early separation.
Leipzig, Bodø/Glimt and Sabah have something more uncomfortable: a heavy defeat whose consequences extend beyond the loss of three points.
That is the brutal arithmetic of the league phase.
There are only eight matches.
Thursday night closed Matchday 1.
It also made every match that follows more important.