Milan striker Olivier Giroud believes it will be a "special game" when he lines up against former club Chelsea in the Champions League.

Giroud returns to Stamford Bridge for the first time since departing the Blues on a free transfer at the end of the 2020-21 season.

The 36-year-old spent three-and-a-half years with the Premier League side; scoring 39 goals in 119 appearances across all competitions.

He notably scored 11 times - then the highest tally by a French player during a single European season - as Chelsea won the Europa League in 2019, while adding another six during their Champions League-winning campaign two years later.

And Giroud is excited to be returning to the English capital, where he also scored 105 goals in 253 appearances for Arsenal between 2012 and 2018.

"I think it'll be a special game for the team because it's a great Champions League match-up," the France international told Milan Channel.

"It's also personally for me, as I spent nine years in London playing for Arsenal and Chelsea, so I expect it to be a great game.

"It's always a pleasure when the people you met while playing for your former clubs have so much respect for you, also because I want to be seen not only as a good player on the pitch, but also a good person off it.

"I have many friends in London. Chelsea have just one point so far, so they will play aggressively and in an energetic way, aiming for the win, so we expect a tough game.

"I have a lot of hope for our Champions League journey this season. I am very proud of this squad and I think we can do well with this group of players in the Champions League.

"This match can also give the team great confidence if we win, to boost us for the next games."

Having collected four points from their opening two games, Milan will remain top of Group E with victory at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea are targeting their first win of the campaign under Graham Potter.

Head coach Stefano Pioli has urged the Rossoneri to asset their authority on the contest as they look to launch a genuine title challenge, with the most recent of their seven triumphs coming in 2007.

"Chelsea won the Champions League a short time ago. From there, it has strengthened again, and the level is very high," he said. "But we want to try to be there, at that level.

"Chelsea changed coach, and so we’ll face a highly motivated team. Very simply, either we dominate the game, or the other team will dominate us.

"We want to take control of the match, knowing full well we are up against an opponent with great quality, who have a rapid attacking unit with good technique, so we have to be solid and focused in defence.

"What matters though is that we play with our spirit and try to attack, to be dangerous, because that’s what we can do and what we want to do.”

Paris Saint-Germain head coach Christophe Galtier believes his players will have to show they can "play under pressure" if they are to take three points from Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Benfica.

The fixture sees two sides with 100-per-cent records so far in Group H face off, with PSG top by virtue of scoring more goals than their Portuguese counterparts.

Both teams also lead their domestic leagues and are yet to lose a game so far this campaign, suggesting the match in Lisbon could be an exciting and tight affair between two sides in excellent form.

And Galtier acknowledged the challenge that faces his players, telling reporters at Tuesday's pre-match press conference: "What we are going to have to do, to perform well and beat Benfica, is have this ability to play under pressure.

"This team will come and get us, it's the DNA of the club and their coach. It puts enormous pressure on us. We have to be much more effective on an offensive level.

"It's a team that has been undefeated since the start of the season. It's very interesting to watch them play, very well organised, with quality. They bhave significant collective strength.

"I'm not surprised that they're at this level. Today, Benfica can claim to be a favourite of this group."

Benfica's strong start has been aided by their excellent home form, having won all seven of their games at the Estadio da Luz in all competitions.

But Galtier is confident his players will be able to cope, adding: "There will be an extraordinary atmosphere. This stadium is growing very strong, but I have players who have a lot of experience, a lot of experience in relation to that.

"Will we be able to play and play well with public pressure? Will we be able to do it? I think we have the qualities. We can also be very dangerous."

Kalidou Koulibaly knows his "time will come" under Graham Potter at Chelsea, while the centre-back admitted he misses his former club Napoli despite choosing to leave.

The Senegal international ended an eight-year stay in Naples as he moved to Stamford Bridge in July for a reported £33.8million (€40m), signing a four-year contract with the Premier League side.

Thomas Tuchel, backed heavily in the transfer market by new owner Todd Boehly, was the man to sign Koulibaly before the Chelsea chairman dismissed the German and brought in Potter.

Koulibaly has been overlooked for the first two games of Potter's tenure, but the 31-year-old remains confident he will soon get his chance.

"It's true I haven't played yet with the new manager, but I'm easy, I know my time will come," Koulibaly told reporters.

"We have a lot of games and I will give everything in training. I am a big worker and when I don't play, I like to put all my energy into my work.

"At the moment, I am working good and trying to give my best in training to show him he can use me on the pitch and play my first game for him."

While the former Napoli defender remains patient for his chance to impress, Koulibaly acknowledged he misses life in Italy.

"I expected this. It is hard to move eight years of my life to come to London. I know that I have reached a big club, one of the best clubs in the world, so everything is hard," he continued.

"I do miss Napoli and Naples but it was my choice. I wanted to come here to London, I wanted to come and join this club, one of the best in the world.

"We knew it would be difficult, everybody says so. Even some of the best coaches in the world said so because everyone knows that to go from Italy to England is difficult.

"But I was ready to take on this challenge. At the moment, we are going through a process that is normal and I am working very hard. I like it here and I'm very happy to be there. 

"But we all have to work. I think my time will come. I am easy, I know that it's a normal process. So I have to keep on working, stay passionate and my time will come."

Koulibaly will hope to get a chance in Potter's starting XI when Chelsea host Milan on Wednesday, the Blues aiming for their first win at their third attempt in Champions League Group E.

"I think today the most important thing is that Chelsea have to win the game tomorrow because I know we didn't start well in the Champions League with a defeat and draw," he added.

"I am not worried about anything, I just want Chelsea to win the games as we did at the weekend.

"We showed a lot of good things this weekend and I am really happy for the team and everybody because we have a good team spirit and it's difficult when you change a manager.

"But you see this team is going up and up and I hope that tomorrow we will show a lot of good things to win the game."

N'Golo Kante's fitness is a more pressing issue than whether the Chelsea midfielder needs a contract extension, says Graham Potter.

The France international, whose current deal runs through the end of this season, has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since August.

Kante has struggled with a succession of fitness issues since helping to guide his country to success at the World Cup in 2018, though his experience has been invaluable when fit.

Questions therefore have been asked about his future, but ahead of Chelsea's Champions League clash with Milan on Wednesday, Potter says his main concern is helping the 31-year-old back to full fitness.

"My focus at the moment is to help him rehabilitate in a good way so that he is available for us and on the pitch," Potter told reporters.

"When he is on the pitch, he is a huge asset for us. The other thing is between the club and him. My focus is to help him get fit and enjoying his football.

"There are not many players in world football like N'Golo, so the quicker he is back the better."

Kante could talk to foreign clubs about a pre-contract agreement from January 1, though it is not yet known whether Chelsea would seek to table a new deal for the former Leicester City man.

Leroy Sane scored twice in an emphatic 5-0 win against Viktoria Plzen as Bayern Munich made it a record 31 Champions League group games without defeat.

Reigning Czech champions Viktoria are without a point at the midway stage in Group C and found themselves three goals down after 21 minutes at the Allianz Arena.

Serge Gnabry and Sadio Mane netted after Sane had opened the scoring in Tuesday's contest as Bayern cruised towards a third win out of three in this season's competition.

Sane's second was swiftly followed by a strike from substitute Eric Choupo-Moting, with Bayern settling for five goals ahead of their big Bundesliga clash with Borussia Dortmund.

Bayern were without Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich, who tested positive for COVID-19, but were ahead inside seven minutes thanks to Sane's powerful shot from 18 yards.

Gnabry, fielded through the centre of Bayern's attack, slotted home a second six minutes later with a clinical finish after being played in by Leon Goretzka at the end of a counter.

Some poor Plzen defending allowed Mane to waltz through and score a third for Bayern, who had a Jamal Musiala goal ruled out before half-time due to an offside infringement.

Sane doubled his tally after controlling Mane's pass with a sublime first touch and firing past Marian Tvrdon, with that proving to be his final meaningful act before being replaced.

It was left to Choupo-Moting to round off the scoring prior to the hour mark with a shot that went in off the post following another precise pass from Goretzka. 

The Ryder Cup is "bigger than any individual player", says Europe captain Luke Donald, while Team USA skipper Zach Johnson has confirmed Tiger Woods will feature in some capacity.

Next year's tournament, set to take place at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome between September and October, is the first to come amid the bitter LIV Golf breakaway in the sport.

Donald succeeded Henrik Stenson after the latter was sacked for defecting from the PGA Tour, while Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith are among those who have also moved to the Saudi-backed league.

Questions have been raised over whether LIV Golf players will be considered for teams, with Zach Johnson indicating they would not be eligible for the USA, but Donald has now spoken of his hope the tournament will "unify" golf.

"The Ryder Cup is bigger than any individual player, and it's a great way to unify everyone," Donald said.

"I think it will continue to do that. What's so great about the Ryder Cup is that it does garner an interest in a new generation of players and fans to this game. "

Woods, an eight-time Ryder Cup veteran with Team USA, will be involved, even if he is not a playing member.

"I can tell you right now, I don't know whether he'll be here next year, but he will be part of this team in some capacity. He already is frankly," said Zach Johnson.

"I can't put this mildly; he loves the Ryder Cup. He wants to be a part of it as best he can. He and I will be in constant communication."

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is excited to see the team progress with Kenny Pickett as the starting quarterback, confirming the change ahead of their Week 5 game against the Buffalo Bills.

Pickett replaced Mitch Trubisky at half-time of Sunday's defeat to the New York Jets and, despite the loss, caught the eye with a display that included two rushing touchdowns – making him the first QB since 1970 to score multiple rushing TD's in his first game.

Tomlin was initially coy on Pickett's future following the game against the Jets but, ahead of a challenging trip to face the Bills, he confirmed that the rookie will get his chance to start.

"There are a lot of things to be excited about, there are a lot of things to have urgency with. We have no reservations of what Kenny is going to be capable of in terms of our schematics," he said in Tuesday's press conference.

"We have a level of concern about the environment we are taking him into, you have concerns about any quarterback you take into that environment against that defence and at that venue.

"Kenny has shown us maturity at every moment throughout this process. He's older than most rookies and that was obvious to us leading up to the draft process. The things we value in him from a draft perspective, he's fluid and quick, his decision-making, a pro-like anticipation and things of that nature have proven to be true.

"That's why we took him when we were given the opportunity to do so. Since we acquired him, he has done nothing but fortify that thought process and make some plays, during team development and in pre-season.

"He has continually got better even after the regular season started. We can see the progress; we can see his maturity and readiness. We're excited for him and about him, but we have work as a collective, so we prepare with an edge knowing that."

Tomlin made it clear that while Trubisky's display against the Jets in the first half was a factor in the decision, the blame does not lie solely at the feet of the number two overall draft pick in 2017, who penned a two-year deal with the Steelers in March.

"Often QB gets too much credit, too much blame. We haven't moved the ball fluid enough to our liking, we haven't put enough points on the board, the QB is a component of that but not the only one," he added.

"We've all got to absorb the responsibility and what we haven't done, including myself. When you make a QB change, you're sensitive to that component of it. I don't want to dump responsibility of what transpired at Mitch's feet, that's not fair to him.

"In an effort to be better, to score more points, to move the ball more fluidly, we decided to go to Kenny in hopes that he would provide a spark for us. Hopefully that's a catalyst for us."

Jamie George will miss England's November internationals after he was ruled out for 10 weeks with a foot injury.

The hooker will be sidelined until early in December due to damage done in Saracens' Premiership win over Leicester Tigers last Saturday.

George will play no part in the Red Rose's Tests against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

Eddie Jones had already lost Leicester centre Guy Porter and Harlequins hooker Jack Walker to injury.

Courtney Lawes, Sam Underhill, Anthony Watson, Maro Itoje and Alex Dombrandt are among the other England players who are unavailable due to injury.

RB Leipzig boss Marco Rose brushed off fresh speculation about Christopher Nkunku's future after the France international was strongly linked with Chelsea.

Reports have suggested Nkunku's Leipzig contract contains a £52.4million (€60m) release clause, and Chelsea are said to be keen suitors of the prolific attacker.

Nkunku scored 35 goals and added 20 assists in all competitions during a remarkable individual campaign last term, and has already scored six times in the Bundesliga this season.

With Nkunku likely to play a pivotal role when Leipzig attempt to get off the mark in the Champions League against Celtic on Wednesday, Rose is ignoring transfer rumours.

"It's speculation, we don't comment on it. It doesn't bother us, it doesn't interest us," the former Borussia Dortmund coach said.

Chelsea head coach Graham Potter took a similar stance ahead of the Blues' Champions League clash with Milan, saying: "As I've said before, my answer is I don't speak about players that aren't Chelsea players.

"If you want to ask me about any Chelsea players, I'm quite happy to speak about them. It was the same at Brighton. You get linked with a lot of players; there's a lot of names out there.

"As you can imagine, it gets escalated at a club like Chelsea. I'll speak about Chelsea players and not comment about anybody else."

Nkunku has been involved in eight Champions League goals since the start of last season (seven goals, one assist) – twice as many as any of his Leipzig team-mates (four – Emil Forsberg and Andre Silva).

However, the versatile 24-year-old is yet to score or assist in the competition this campaign, with Leipzig suffering back-to-back losses against Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid.

Should Leipzig be beaten on Wednesday, it will represent the second consecutive Champions League campaign in which the Bundesliga outfit have started with three losses, and Rose is wary of the threat posed by Celtic.

"They have a team which is very active on the pitch, with a lot of pace. They are very attacking with a clear idea," Rose said.

"They are hard-working. They have two or three lads from Japan. It's fun watching them. It's just a great team and not a team that thinks defensively or about parking the bus.

"It will be our task to put them in difficulties. We will find spaces and we will try to take advantage."

Julen Lopetegui pledged to stay professional until the last at Sevilla amid suggestions he will lose his job before the weekend.

The former Porto, Spain and Real Madrid head coach is reportedly set to be replaced by Jorge Sampaoli after Wednesday's Champions League home game against Borussia Dortmund.

Sampaoli led Sevilla in the 2016-17 season before leaving to take charge of the Argentina national team.

He spent last season in France with Marseille, and Spanish sports newspaper Marca reported he will sign a two-year contract with Sevilla.

Lopetegui is apparently poised to pay the price for his team's slow start to the season, which has seen them collect just five points from seven games, putting them already 10 points adrift of fourth place, which is currently held down by Real Betis.

A 2-0 loss to Atletico Madrid on Saturday looks to have been the final straw, with the transfer window departures of star defenders Diego Carlos and Jules Kounde having severely weakened the Andalusians.

Finishing fourth last season gave Sevilla a place in the Champions League, and Lopetegui is determined to make a dignified exit, if the Dortmund game does prove to be his last at the helm.

He said on Tuesday: "Look, in order to respect my own responsibility, I will not express any opinion about what has happened in the last few months.

"I prefer to keep it for myself as a part of the responsibility I have as a coach of a big club like Sevilla. So tomorrow I will approach the game with my highest energy. This is what I did for my previous 169 games [at Sevilla] and I will do it for the 170th.

"You cannot reach 170 games just by chance at such a demanding team as Sevilla. Obviously you must win a lot in order to stay for 170 games, and we did it. So I will not change either my speech or my attitude as a part of my responsibility."

Lopetegui added: "I will keep loyal to what I have done here previously, because I think I must rise to the challenge at such a demanding club and of course, to not disappoint our fans, as they only deserve the best from every single person working at this club.

"From my end, I will give my best given the responsibility I have, as I have been doing throughout my 169 games here and tomorrow I will do it again without any doubt."

Sevilla have failed to score in their last three Champions League games, with their last goal in the competition coming in November 2021 against Wolfsburg.

This season they have lost 4-0 to Manchester City and drawn 0-0 with FC Copenhagen. Sevilla have never previously failed to score in four consecutive games in European competition.

Alan Shearer expects Erling Haaland to break his record for the number of goals scored in a single Premier League season – should the Manchester City striker remain fit.

Having made a big impact during spells in Austria and Germany with Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund respectively, Haaland has already set a number of records at new club City.

The Norway international became the first player in Premier League history to score hat-tricks in three successive home matches with his latest treble against Manchester United on Sunday.

The 22-year old has 14 goals in his first eight appearances in the competition, which is just one fewer than City's top-scorer Kevin De Bruyne managed across the entirety of last season.

Haaland is averaging a goal every 48 minutes in the Premier League – the best rate of any player to have scored more than once in the competition's history.

One long-standing record which may now be in his sights is Shearer's return of 34 goals in the 1994-95 campaign, which matched the record set by Andy Cole the previous season.

While Haaland will have two games fewer to chase down that 34-goal tally, Shearer accepts his – and Cole's – record is now under threat.

"If he stays fit, he's breaking it," Shearer told the Premier League's official website after naming Haaland in his Team of the Week.

Shearer also selected James Maddison in that team after the midfielder scored twice in Leicester City's 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Monday.

Maddison has been directly involved in 26 Premier League goals since the start of last season, a tally only Harry Kane (34) can better among English players.

Newcastle United great Shearer suggested the 25-year-old should be part of Gareth Southgate's World Cup plans, having not featured for his country since November 2019.

"Are you watching Gareth Southgate?," asked Shearer, who scored a record 260 goals across his Premier League career.

Massimiliano Allegri says Juventus' Champions League clash with Maccabi Haifa is a "must win" following their difficult start to the 2022-23 season.

A 3-0 victory over Bologna in Serie A over the weekend saw the Bianconeri finally snap a winless streak that started in August, having lost their first two European games to Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica.

But that result has not fully masked the struggles of a side that have looked ill at ease with themselves this term, off the pace all too frequently at home and abroad, with them yet to claim a Champions League win this term.

The visit of the Israeli Premier League champions – the lowest ranked side in the competition by UEFA Club Coefficient – therefore represents a match in which they must prevail to further stem their troubles.

"We must win, but we don’t need anxiety," Allegri cautioned. "One game does not solve all the problems. Hopefully, we'll win.

"It's not an easy game. Maccabi played well in Lisbon [a 2-0 loss to Benfica] and played an even match with PSG [a 3-1 loss]. They press high, and it's going to be tough. We have to respect them.

"It's useless to think about the other teams if we don't win both games against Maccabi. Tomorrow is our most important Champions League game."

Allegri added that he expects to rotate players amid a heavy fixture schedule through October, as teams race towards the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup next month.

"Surely, we will change something," he noted. "We have a packed fixture list. I can rotate a bit during the game."