Category: Sports

The Champions League served up its most dramatic night of the season on Wednesday, with a humiliating upset for Manchester United in Italy and a heavyweight draw between Bayern Munich and Arsenal in Germany headlining Matchday 3 of the league phase.

The shock of the night came in Como, where the Italian side thrashed Manchester United 4-1 — a result ESPN described as one of the worst defeats in the club’s European history. Michael Carrick’s side arrived with high expectations and left with questions that will not go away quickly, torn apart by a team playing its first season in the competition.

In Munich, the night’s other marquee fixture lived up to its billing. Bayern Munich and Arsenal drew 2-2 at the Allianz Arena in a back-and-forth contest that neither side could quite win. Harry Kane, honest as ever against his Premier League rivals, said “probably a draw was a fair result overall.”

Real Madrid kept up their perfect start under José Mourinho, beating RB Leipzig 4-1. Goals from Bernardo Silva and Arda Guler on either side of half-time set the tone, and Kylian Mbappé made it 12 goals in 12 games this season before Tidiam Gomis and Yan Diomande struck late for the visitors. Madrid are one of five teams with three wins from three.

Aston Villa are also perfect after three games, beating Viking 3-1. Inter ground out a 1-0 win at Shakhtar Donetsk despite playing with ten men after Alessandro Bastoni’s dismissal — Carlos Augusto’s 77th-minute strike the difference.

Galatasaray earned their first Champions League victory, 4-2 over Lille, with Victor Osimhen sealing it against his old club. Elsewhere, Club Brugge beat Lens 3-0, Real Betis edged Feyenoord 1-0, and LASK celebrated their first-ever Champions League win by beating Sporting CP 3-2.

The results leave the league-phase table taking shape, with the usual giants joined — for now — by some very unlikely company at the top.

Sources: ESPN (https://www.espn.ph/football/story/_/id/50191263/champions-league-live-updates-manchester-united-bayern-arsenal-real-madrid) and UEFA.com (https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/02aa-21e20b093685-f5cf9ebeb7a6-1000–champions-league-matchday-3-wednesday-highlights-and-rou/).

Harry Brook rewrote the one-day record books in Rawalpindi on Thursday, blasting 202 from 116 balls against Sri Lanka to become the first Englishman to score a double century in a one-day international — and the fastest man ever to reach the milestone in the format’s 55-year history.

The England captain reached 200 in just 114 deliveries, beating the previous record of 117 balls set by India’s Shubman Gill against West Indies only last month. His innings, a mixture of scoops, reverse-scoops and flat-batted power, contained 21 fours and 10 sixes, and it carried England to 429 for 4 — the first 400-plus total in an ODI played in Pakistan, and the highest score Sri Lanka have ever conceded.

Brook came in at number four in the 17th over, after openers Tom Banton (50) and Ben Duckett (29) had put on 74. What followed was sustained, almost casual destruction. He added 159 for the third wicket with Joe Root, then 185 from just 79 balls with Will Jacks, who finished unbeaten on 66 from 30 deliveries as England plundered 156 runs from the final 10 overs. Fittingly, Brook reached his double hundred with a deft paddle-sweep for four in the last over, then holed out to deep point off the innings’ final ball, bowled by Janith Liyanage, to warm applause.

The records stacked up quickly. Brook eclipsed Ben Stokes’ 182 as England’s highest individual ODI score. His 202 is also the highest score by a non-opener in ODI history, surpassing Glenn Maxwell’s 201 not out against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup, and he becomes only the fourth captain to score an ODI double century. He is also just the second player, after Chris Gayle, to hold the all-format “3-2-1”: a Test triple century, an ODI double hundred and a T20 international century. His 174 runs against the fast bowlers, from 90 balls, is the most any batter has scored against pace in a single ODI innings.

There was a milestone for Root, too: his 69 from 66 balls made him the first England batter to pass 8,000 ODI runs, in his 197th match.

The context gave the innings extra value. Both England and Sri Lanka went into the match looking for their first win of the tri-series after losing their openers to hosts Pakistan, and England now have a formidable total on the board and net-run-rate momentum to match. With the 2027 World Cup approaching, England’s white-ball rebuild under Brook has rarely looked more convincing.

Sources:
Reuters — https://www.reuters.com/sports/cricket/englands-magnificent-brook-hits-fastest-odi-double-century-2026-10-22/
ESPNcricinfo — https://www.cricinfo.com/series/pakistan-odi-tri-series-2026-27-1550706/england-vs-sri-lanka-3rd-match-1550715/match-report