After decades wait for Champions League games, Sparta beats Salzburg and Bologna holds Shakhtar
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
Posted 9/18/24
Long-time absentees from top-level European soccer had a good evening against the Champions League regulars in their return to action Wednesday. Sparta Prague was playing in the main stage of the …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
After decades wait for Champions League games, Sparta beats Salzburg and Bologna holds Shakhtar
Sparta's Victor Olatunji scores his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Sparta Prague and Salzburg in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Posted
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
GENEVA (AP) — Long-time absentees from top-level European soccer had a good evening against the Champions League regulars in their return to action Wednesday.
Sparta Prague, playing on the main stage of the competition for the first time in 19 years, brushed aside Salzburg 3-0 after taking the lead in less than two minutes.
Bologna had to wait 60 years and held Champions League veteran Shakhtar Donetsk to a 0-0 draw in Italy. Bologna did most of the attacking after the Ukrainian champion had a penalty saved in the fourth minute.
They were the two early kickoffs on the second evening of the new Champions League format which replaces the traditional group stage. Now, 36 teams each play eight different opponents through January and are ranked in a single league table to decide which teams advance to the knockout phase.
Manchester City hosting Inter Milan, in a repeat of the 2023 final won by the English Premier League champion, was the standout of four games later Wednesday.
Sparta got the fastest start so far when Finland midfielder Kaan Kairinen followed up a loose ball to score with just 108 seconds on the clock.
Nigerian forward Victor Olatunji made it two in the 42nd, shooting low and accurately from a tight angle, and Albania midfielder Qazim Laçi added a third in the 58th.
It was a losing start in the Champions League proper for Salzburg coach Pep Lijnders, who was assistant to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool before leaving with his long-time boss in the offseason.
Salzburg had to advance through two qualifying rounds in August — because its 10-year title run in Austria was ended by Sturm Graz — but Sparta came through three, and already played six games in the competition.
Bologna was playing in just its third-ever game in the competition, and first since a preliminary round exit 60 years ago when the European Cup was open only to national champions.
Facing a penalty kick for Shakhtar in just the fourth minute, goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski dived to his right to hold playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov’s shot.
Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk repeatedly denied Bologna with saves from the home team's 18 attempts on goal.
Bologna still plays in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara that has been its home for almost 100 years. It staged games at the 1934 World Cup, and again in the 1990 tournament.