dpa
Berlin
A Jamie Gittens double gave last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund a 3-0 win at Club Brugge in the revamped Champions League on Wednesday, while Paris Saint Germain left it late to edge Girona 1-0.
English substitute Gittens cut inside on 76 minutes and his deflected effort looped into the net after the hosts had looked the better side. He secured the win on 86 before Serhou Guirassy’s penalty.
“It was not a great performance but we have come away with a win. It is not easy to play here,” Dortmund captain Emre Can told DAZN. “We have a very strong bench who can make an impact and give fresh impetus. Jamie did that.” In a repeat of the 2023 final won by the English side, Manchester City drew 0-0 at home to Inter.
Erling Haaland had chances for City, who saw Kevin De Bruyne go off injured, while Marcus Thurum went close for Inter. City substitutes Phil Foden and Ilkay Gündogan pushed for a winner to no avail.
Japanese duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda were among the scorers in Celtic’s 5-1 win in Glasgow over Slovan Bratislava.
PSG, who have still not won the trophy despite huge investment, netted in stoppage time at home to debutants Girona when Nuno Mendes’ deflected effort went through keeper Paulo Gazzaniga’s legs.
In the early kick-offs, fellow debutants Bologna drew 0-0 in Italy with Shakhtar Donetsk and Sparta Prague beat Salzburg 3-0 at home thanks to Kaan Kairinen, Victor Olatunji and Qazim Laçi.
Sparta coach Lars Friis said: “I loved our goals. This is why we can compete like we did tonight. We love to spend time together, we have good players and good staff. We are all well-aligned.” Brugge unlucky in first half Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin left big signing Guirassy on the bench and went without an out-and-out centre forward in Bruges.
The tactic failed to work at first as the hosts had the better of the opening period and hit the bar.
Sahin replaced Edin Terzic after last season’s final and was managing his first Champions League game.
He threw on Gittens after 68 minutes and the 20-year-old soon made the difference, via a deflection, after a well-worked move.
His second was nearly a carbon copy, Gittens coming off the left into the box and this time finding the net with a low right-footed shot.
The new format does away with the old groups and instead there is one league of 36 teams, with each club playing four sides at home and four different teams away. The league phase lasts until January before the last 16.
UEFA made the change to try to see off the threat of a Super League and have more big sides playing each other. But critics said many of the games so far do not reflect this.
Games are being played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week to showcase the revamp, with the Europa League starting next week.
