Mnager John Eustace condemned the alleged racist abuse aimed at midfielder Juninho Bacuna during Birmingham’s 4-1 victory over Huddersfield.
The game was stopped late in the second half when referee Sam Allison went to speak to Eustace and Terriers counterpart Darren Moore after the issue was raised on the field of play.
Speaking afterwards, with his side having won after two goals from Siriki Dembele and one each from Koji Miyoshi and Jordan James, Eustace made his feelings clear.
“I believe that Bacuna was racially abused by one of our fans which is obviously disgusting,” he said.
“It’s not something that we expect in society, let alone football. Birmingham is very proud of how diverse we are as a club and a city and there is certainly nowhere near any room for that at all.
“It’s very disappointing. They have reported it, it’s bang out of order.”
Moore said of the incident: “It’s a shame that it’s going to cloud the game tonight, because from Birmingham’s point of view it’s a good three points for them, but the incident is going to overshadow it.
“The referee stopped the game, called both managers over, said there was an incident in the corner from a home spectator directed at the home player and though the home player didn’t want to report it, our player Tom Edwards heard it. Both players heard it clearly and it’s gone on report.
“They’ve got video evidence and we will let the footballing authorities, referee and match officials get to the conclusion with it.
“It’s not something we condone in the game, but it’s still there and we show our support.”
Eustace was pleased with the performance of Dembele, who opened the scoring in the third minute and added his second in the 64th, sandwiching Miyoshi’s strike after 23 minutes.
Michal Helik pulled one back in the second minute of stoppage time but James had the last word three minutes later.
Eustace said: “The performance was good, it shows that when you are clinical it makes a big difference.
“Performances over the last four or five games have been good, we haven’t got enough points from them and tonight we were very clinical in the final third, which was really pleasing.
“Dems has come in, we have given him a platform to play, it has been very frustrating from everyone that he hasn’t been able to play over the last six or seven games.
“The last two games I’ve had to get him the right minutes to be able to perform.
“Tonight was always going to be a game I wanted to start him in, so it’s been frustrating for me to only use him as a bit-part player in the last few games, but there is a method to my madness.
“We’ve had to protect him in the right way and I thought tonight he was outstanding.”
Moore was far from happy with the Terriers’ display.
“The performance obviously wasn’t the best in terms of what we have set in recent weeks,” he said.
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb in terms of the first goal. When I look at all four goals they were uncharacteristic of us. Goals three and four we were in possession of the ball, gave it away and got punished for it.
“I didn’t think we were clean enough with the ball, I didn’t think our patterns were quite as effective tonight. It’s just a bad night.
“We will learn from this and we will to move on. We suffer together as a group and we quickly apply it because we’ve got a quick turnaround.”
Russell Martin hopes Southampton can kick their Sky Bet Championship campaign on again after putting a bad run of form behind them with a 1-0 win over Stoke.
Stuart Armstrong’s first-half free-kick proved the difference at the bet365 Stadium as Saints secured back-to-back victories, while the Potters slipped to their fifth loss in seven Championship games.
The victory in the Potteries followed a 3-1 triumph versus Leeds last Saturday and the successive wins came after a four-game losing run, with Martin hoping their toughest moment of the season has been and gone.
“I think it’s been two of our best performances, tonight I think was probably our best one, our most complete one,” he said.
“I feel like we should have scored a couple more goals and we limited them to very little really, although they threw everything at us in the end.
“To follow up the effort it took on Saturday to come here and such a tough place, a good team with a really excellent manager, to come here and do what we did, I’m really proud of the boys.
“They’re playing for each other, they’re playing for us and the last two games will hopefully come at the end of the toughest moment we’ll have together.
“I think every team has a tough period and ours has come early on after a good start and playing against a really difficult fixture schedule.
“We found a bit of rhythm now and hopefully we can maintain that.”
Alex Neil, while proud of Stoke’s efforts, voiced frustration at key refereeing decisions including Josh Laurent’s foul on Armstrong for the winning free-kick and Nathan Lowe being bundled over by Jan Bednarek after the break which he felt was a penalty.
He said: “I think all you ever ask your team to do and individual players is to give everything they’ve got and I thought we got that.
“I don’t think we can have any complaints in terms of the efforts of the players.
“We got undone by one moment of quality where the ball ends up in the top corner.
“I think certainly if you look at the foul that they get for their goal and you look at the foul in the box, if you’re going to compare both in terms of contact.
“I think if you look at the two directives at the start of the season, one was based around soft contact for fouls and not buying into soft contact, which I thought for the first foul was really soft, and the other was was timewasting, and I didn’t think any of the directives this evening were carried out well enough in terms of the game at all.”
Luton boss Rob Edwards could not hide his disappointment following Burnley’s late winner, admitting his side should have got more from the game.
Jacob Bruun Larsen’s stunning strike made it 2-1 just one minute after Elijah Adebayo had drawn the Hatters level as the Clarets snatched a first win of the Premier League season.
Edwards said the result hurt after Luton had got off the mark with a 2-1 win at Everton on Saturday.
“I’m obviously really disappointed with the result, we’re down, flat and hurting because of the manner of it (the loss),” Edwards said.
“We pushed, we had set-pieces, we went forward in numbers and were brave, aggressive and didn’t allow them the control they wanted.
“But we come away with nothing and that hurts.
“The lads gave everything. The fans were clapping at the end and if they’re doing that then we’re doing the right things, but everybody will be disappointed because we should have taken something from the game.”
Luton were left to rue missed chances, having taken just one of 18 attempts.
And Edwards admitted his side, who have scored six goals in seven matches, are struggling to find the back of the net.
“We had big chances and openings, so if we weren’t doing that I’d be more worried. But we did create and I think there are positives and we’re going in the right direction,” he added.
“It’s the hardest part of football, scoring a goal, we have to keep arriving, trying to create the chances, be there with good numbers, keep working on technique, which we can practice in training.
“But other than that it’s down to the players to find a way to put it in.
“I thought we pretty much dominated the second half.
“We’ve had 15 shots inside the box tonight and only scored one. That’s proving to be the difficult thing for us at the moment.”
Vincent Kompany was delighted after his side “battled” in the second half to pick up points on the road.
He said: “It was a complete performance in the first half and in the second half it was a battle and we showed character. From our defenders to our midfielders, coming in for second balls.
“Those who know us from the Championship will know we enjoy these type of games as well and it’s not something we shy away from.”
Millwall boss Gary Rowett was delighted with his side’s response to Saturday’s defeat to Swansea as they moved up to 11th in the Championship on the back of a superb defensive display in a 2-0 win at Plymouth.
Zian Flemming put Millwall ahead in the 59th minute and then teed up substitute George Saville for a second goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time to seal victory.
Rowett said: “We needed to respond from our previous game at home, which we weren’t happy about but this is what the Championship is made of.
“You have got to move on very quickly and find a way to win the next game and that’s what we’ve done.”
He said: “When I saw it was Plymouth away, I knew it would be a tough game.
“I have seen them play and seen a lot of their games at home. We saw the Norwich game and they have got a lot of quality and a lot of energy and more importantly a lot of confidence.
“You can feel the excitement and the energy of the crowd. I knew it would be a test for us today and our game plan was to sit a little deeper and see if they can break us down and entice them forward.
“I just felt that would open up some spaces on the transition.
“They are a good side and I think they will win a lot of games here.
“We were diligent and did enough to stop them breaking us down.
“You have to ride out some of those defensive moments of pressure and I felt our forward players would have the beating of their defenders if we got into those transitions spaces.
“You wait for that moment of brilliance and I think Duncan Watmore showed it, lovely touch bought it down, cuts inside and a lovely little flick pass with the outside of his boot and then Zian with a good timing of his run, splits the defence and lifts it over the keeper.
“It’s a good-quality finish. Just at that moment when you think ‘are we going to see it out?’, it’s always nice to get that second one. It doesn’t half make you feel good because you know the game is over then.”
Frustrated Argyle boss Steven Schumacher said: “Obviously we wanted to get a better result than that.
“I felt the way we played, especially early on in the game, the way we passed the ball, the energy and the quality that we showed was really good.
“We got into some dangerous areas but didn’t quite make the most of those opportunities. Some of that was excellent defending from them and some of it was poor decision making from us.
“It was frustrating overall because on the balance of it I thought we definitely deserved something from the game.
“I think we will play worse than that and get a result and as I said, it was not the way we wanted the game to go. Especially once they scored it got harder.
“I think we got in around the back of them a few times in the first half but there was a couple of opportunities where we should have been allowed to continue but the referee pulled the game back on the counter attack.
“Once they got their first goal, I thought they defended their box really well. They weren’t interested in coming out again and did what you expected a Millwall team to do.”
Mikel Arteta defended his decision to play Bukayo Saka as the Arsenal winger limped out of their Champions League defeat to Lens.
The Gunners had taken the lead through Gabriel Jesus but Adrien Thomasson levelled following a David Raya error before Saka hobbled out of the game.
Lens would go on to win 2-1 courtesy of a second-half strike from Elye Wahi but it was the injury to Saka that will have concerned Arteta more.
Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City visit the Emirates Stadium in five days and Saka’s involvement is now in doubt with the England forward having been forced off in the last three games.
Asked if he regretted picking Saka following his issues against both Tottenham and Bournemouth, Arteta replied: “No. It was a knock that he had the other day and he was perfectly fine. It was a back-heel, an action that can produce that kind of injury.
“Let’s see what the extent of it is and afterwards it’s too late. The last few were more knocks than anything else.
“He hasn’t really missed games. We gave him a break against Brentford (in the Carabao Cup) last week and that was all.
“He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off.
“We don’t know anything more. It was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s a worry for us.
“He was really looking forward to playing like every player. It was a big Champions League night. I painted a picture and the type of scenario we were going to face today and they all knew about it.
“But this Champions League is so difficult to win away from home. Today we take a big lesson.”
The defeat ended a forgettable 24 hours for Arsenal after bad weather grounded Arteta and his players at Luton airport for five hours on Monday as their journey to France was delayed.
Now their hopes of avoiding a bumpy ride in qualifying for the knockout stages have also suffered a setback after a turbulent night at a rocking Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
“No, let’s not put excuses,” Arteta said when asked if the preparations for the game had impacted on a poor team performance.
“First of all, congratulations to Lens. They are a really good side. Really well coached. We knew it was going to be a really tough match.
“In the boxes we had four or five chances we didn’t put away and we didn’t defend the boxes well enough.
“It’s true there were moments in the second half we struggled to be more threatening in the final third and find spaces.
“They defended with those numbers really good. That’s something to take for the next game.”
Lens had started the season slowly but won their two Ligue 1 games leading into a first Champions League home game in 21 years and defender Kevin Danso was delighted with the outcome.
“We gave it our all today in front of our own fans,” he said.
“It was a difficult game, Arsenal had a lot of quality and made us sit back really deep, but we kept defending and kept our concentration. Luckily we won the game.
“At home we know how strong we are, in front of our fans. That’s what we always try to do: win at home. I’m a bit gutted about the clean sheet, but we’ll take the three points definitely.”
Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said the 3-0 victory over Hull, which took them to the top of the Championship, was one of the “best performances” of the season.
Wes Burns, Conor Chaplin and Marcus Harness scored the goals and McKenna savoured “a night to enjoy”.
It was only the second defeat of the season for the Tigers, who slipped three places to eighth on goal difference, as Ipswich continued their superb early-season form.
Town got off to a flying start thanks to a strike by Burns in the fifth minute and Chaplin completed a wonderful move to make it 2-0 just before the break. Harness stabbed home the third from close range midway through the second half.
McKenna said: “I thought it was a special performance really. We spoke about it before the game. I felt like we had one in us.
“We’re fit, we’re learning game by game, it was a first home game back in the Championship for a night game and I felt like it had the feel of a really good performance in us.
“I liked so many things about us, the work on the ball to play through the pitch against a really good team.
“It was a night to enjoy. It’s only one night, it’s one game, it’s three points but you can’t take away the fact that everyone associated with the club should enjoy tonight.”
Talking about his team’s goal threat, with a Championship-leading 21 to their name in 10 games, he said: “The players have developed individually to try and have different threats, to try and play through the pitch, to be able to play in behind, combine and be a threat off of crosses.
“It was certainly one of our best performances in the league.”
Hull manager Liam Rosenior was full of praise for their opponents.
Rosenior said: “Ipswich have been outstanding all season and two magnificent goals in terms of the finishes.
“We have now lost two in 10 and we are hard to beat but overall it’s not a crisis, it’s no drama, we learn our lessons and move on to the next one really quickly.
“We are still in a really good place, we have got 16 points from 10 games. The Championship is always so close.
“Chris Hughton (Rosenior’s former boss at Brighton) always said you’re never the best team in the world when you win, you’re never the worst team in the world when you lose.
“You can’t get carried away when things are going really well and we can’t get carried away when things don’t go our way. What we have to do is respond, learn and analyse and make sure we’re better for the next one. It’s about staying the course.”
Jude Bellingham’s dream start to life at Real Madrid continued as his mesmerising solo goal helped the Spanish giants down Napoli to make it two wins from two in this season’s Champions League.
Having grabbed a last-gasp winner to see off Union Berlin a fortnight ago, Bellingham first teed up Vinicius Junior to score after Leo Ostigard had put Napoli ahead at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Bellingham’s fabulous driving run and strike put Real ahead and, although they were pegged back by Piotr Zielinski’s penalty, Federico Valverde’s venomous strike rebounded off Alex Meret as Napoli lost 3-2.
Bellingham’s stunning goal – his eighth in nine matches since moving to the Spanish capital in the summer – threatened to be overshadowed by a contentious penalty awarded to the hosts.
Nacho Fernandez was penalised as the ball inadvertently cannoned off his legs into his arm after he had slid to cut out a cross from Victor Osimhen. While a corner was awarded on-field, referee Emil Bozinovski reversed his decision and gave a spot-kick after being summoned to the VAR monitor.
But Meret’s own goal saw Carlo Ancelotti enjoy a winning return to the side he managed from May 2018 to December 2019 as Real moved on to six points to go top of Group C.
Bellingham was immediately into the thick of proceedings as a long ball allowed Rodrygo to stretch his legs, although the Brazilian was unsettled enough by Stanislav Lobotka to shoot straight at Meret.
Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni blazed over, but Napoli opened the scoring in the 19th minute, thanks in part to Real goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga missing a punch to clear Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s corner.
Although Bernardo Natan’s looping header thudded back off the bar, Ostigard was able to leap over Real defender Dani Carvajal to nod the rebound into an empty net.
The lead lasted eight minutes as Bellingham stretched to intercept Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s clumsy pass deep in Napoli’s half before teeing up Vinicius, who calmly slotted across Meret from an acute angle.
Real then went ahead for the first time in the 34th minute thanks to some magic from Bellingham, who collected on halfway, drove forward into the area and bulldozed his way round Ostigard before tucking a right-footed effort into the corner past Meret for his second Champions League goal in two matches.
Kepa atoned for his earlier error by getting a strong hand to keep out a header from Osimhen, who came out on top in an aerial battle with Antonio Rudiger, to keep Real ahead at half-time.
However, Napoli got the benefit of a questionable VAR decision after Osimhen’s attempted cross was cut out in the area by Nacho, whose sliding challenge ricocheted off his arm and out of play.
Bozinovski seemed bemused after being told to wait, but when he was called to the monitor the referee duly awarded a penalty, converted via a post by Zielinski, who scored his 50th Napoli goal.
That moment of fortune lifted Napoli as Kvaratskhelia shot wide before Zielinski saw his stinging drive from distance palmed away by Kepa, with Real forced to soak up some intense pressure on the hour.
Shortly after Ancelotti sent on Luka Modric, Real went close to retaking the lead as Carvajal’s snap shot was parried into the path of Bellingham, who headed the rebound wide, to his dismay.
But Real went ahead with 12 minutes left as Modric’s corner was only cleared to Valverde, who brought the ball down and unleashed a thunderbolt that crashed off the crossbar then thumped off the back of an unsuspecting Meret, who had been beaten for pace by the shot, before nestling in the net.
Ostigard forced Kepa into a save late on as Real rode a few nervy moments to pick up an important win.
Bayern Munich came from behind to secure a 2-1 win over Copenhagen in the Champions League at Parken Stadium.
A shock was on the cards in Denmark when Lukas Lerager opened the scoring for Copenhagen 10 minutes after the break, but Munich were on level terms through Jamal Musiala’s clever strike from outside the area.
The decisive moment of the game came with 83 minutes on the clock when Mathys Tel lashed home from inside the box to break Copenhagen hearts and deny them a point.
The hosts had the first chance of the game through Mohamed Elyounoussi, but his effort from inside the area was well saved by Sven Ulreich.
Munich enjoyed the lion’s share of possession through the early stages before Elyounoussi had another chance for the home side – this time his header went straight into the gloves of Bayern goalkeeper.
Bayern came close to an opener themselves on the half-hour mark, but Joshua Kimmich’s drilled shot from outside the area flew marginally over the crossbar.
It took 45 minutes for the the visitors to register their first shot on target when Leroy Sane found space outside the area, but his whipped left-footed strike was comfortably held by Kamil Grabara.
The visitors went in search of the first goal early in the second half when Kimmich decided to have another go from range, but he was denied by Grabara again.
Much to the surprise of many, the home side opened the scoring in the 55th minute. Viktor Claesson jinked past two defenders before his initial goalbound effort was blocked, only for the ball to fall to Lerager who flashed home from inside the area.
Bayern instantly tried to shift the momentum to avoid defeat and almost got their equaliser eight minutes later, but Konrad Laimer’s header went marginally wide of a post.
Two minutes later, Thomas Tuchel’s side levelled in superb fashion through Musiala’s 67th-minute strike. The forward shifted the ball from left to right before he let fly from just outside the area and into the bottom right corner.
Munich pushed for a winner but Sane’s effort from a tight angle did not test Grabara in the home goal. Copenhagen did not want to settle for the solitary point either and could have regained their advantage, but Elyounoussi’s shot flew just wide of the target.
With seven minutes left on the clock, Bayern turned the game on its head after some fantastic work from Thomas Muller. He opened up the space for Tel, who blasted high into the net from 10 yards to make it two wins from their opening two Champions League games in Group A.
Manchester United fell to a jaw-dropping, error-ridden 3-2 defeat at home to Galatasaray as Erik ten Hag’s side saw their start to the season go from bad to worse in an embarassing Champions League collapse.
Having lost their Group A opener at Bayern Munich and fallen to a fourth defeat in seven Premier League matches on Saturday, the Red Devils reached a new low on a wet Tuesday night at Old Trafford.
Rasmus Hojlund scored a superb second after his opener was cancelled out by Galatasaray’s grinning former United forward Wilfried Zaha, only for Ten Hag’s men to spectacularly unravel.
Kerem Akturkoglu equalised and summer signing Andre Onana’s atrocious pass out straight to Dries Mertens led to a poor Casemiro recovery challenge that saw the Brazil midfielder sent off and a penalty awarded.
The goalkeeper – guilty of a costly gaffe in Munich – was relieved to see Mauro Icardi strike the spot-kick wide, but the striker swiftly made amends as United fell to a third Old Trafford loss of the campaign
Arsenal suffered a turbulent night in the Champions League as Bukayo Saka hobbled off during defeat in Lens.
Bad weather grounded Mikel Arteta and his players at Luton Airport for five hours on Monday as their journey to France was delayed.
Now their hopes of avoiding a bumpy ride in qualifying for the knockout stages have also suffered a setback after Lens came from behind to record a 2-1 victory at a rocking Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
Gabriel Jesus thought he had given the Gunners lift-off when he broke the deadlock with his 22nd Champions League goal.
However, hopes of an easy night veered off course as an error from goalkeeper David Raya led to Adrien Thomasson levelling before Saka limped off hurt for the third time in nine days.
Elye Wahi then hit the winner with 20 minutes to go to open up Group B as Arsenal now face a tricky trip to Europa League holders Sevilla later in the month.
This was a first home Champions League game in 21 years for Lens and their fans were not going to miss the opportunity to enjoy the occasion.
A huge tifo, flares and a wall of sound greeted kick-off and their team certainly set about Arsenal in the opening exchanges, with Kevin Danso firing just wide after collecting a corner.
Despite the rapid start from the hosts, Arsenal struck first through Jesus’ tidy finish into the bottom corner after Saka had been gifted the ball by a sloppy backpass.
The noise inside the stadium remained despite Lens falling behind and the vociferous support were rewarded with an equaliser.
Raya, stood outside his box, looked to play a ball into midfield but the Arsenal goalkeeper’s pass was intercepted and moments later he was beaten by a fine curling strike from Thomasson to level the contest.
For the third game in a row, Saka then limped off injured having gone down off the ball.
He recovered after coming off late against Tottenham and Bournemouth but was replaced by Fabio Vieira here with the visit of Manchester City just five days away.
Leandro Trossard forced a smart save out of Brice Samba in the Lens goal at the start of the second-half as Arsenal looked to retake the lead.
The Ligue 1 side, though, started to take control of the game and Abdul Samed’s shot into the side-netting just after the interval was a warning for the visitors.
With the game opening up, Takehiro Tomiyasu had a great chance to turn home a corner but could only shoot straight at Mendy.
Lens would take the lead through Wahi, whose sweeping finish past Raya came after another break down the right flank.
Arteta responded with an immediate triple substitution as Ben White replaced Oleksandr Zinchenko with the ineffectual pair of Trossard and Kai Havertz taken off for Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson.
Despite the alterations, Samba was largely untroubled for the remainder of the night, punching clear a Smith Rowe drive with Arsenal unable to create a clearcut chance to rescue a point.
Danny Care insists England will resume their World Cup quest armed with inspiration from Europe’s stirring Ryder Cup victory.
Care was among four England players to send a good luck message to Luke Donald’s team from a golf course in Le Touquet, where Steve Borthwick’s squad are based ahead of the final Pool D game against Samoa.
Europe emerged 16½-11½ winners against the United States on Sunday and for Care one aspect in particular stood out about their performance.
“Team spirit is the reason the best teams are successful,” the veteran Harlequins scrum-half said.
“I don’t know many environments where you wouldn’t have a good team spirit and the team ends up winning a tournament or a league or a trophy at the end of it.
“I was an outsider watching the Ryder Cup but they looked more aligned and close than the American team did.
“You could see it, you could feel it just watching on the screens. You could see how much it meant to them. That’s definitely something we’re trying to harness – how much it means to us.
“Europe hung in together, fought for everything. Those little half points that they saved. We can definitely take some inspiration from those lads.
“The golf they played was unbelievable. We haven’t shown much of that in Le Touquet, some of our lads!”
England have forged their own winning path so far in the World Cup, polishing off Argentina, Japan and Chile with plenty to spare.
Even with Samoa left to play they have qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners to continue an impressive revival since losing three of their four warm-up Tests in August.
“Sometimes you have to go through some bad stuff to get to the good stuff,” Care said.
“Maybe our bad stuff was those warm-up games, to get us to look at ourselves and go ‘Right, we need to pull together a little bit’. It’s going to take everyone to win this.”
England play Samoa in Lille on Saturday, with Borthwick naming his starting XV on Thursday evening.
Jacob Bruun Larsen’s dramatic winner snatched Burnley their first Premier League win of the season – a 2-1 victory at Luton.
The Dane’s goal-of-the-season contender came after Lyle Foster’s opener had been cancelled out by Hatters striker Elijah Adebayo.
Rob Edwards’ side were left to rue missed chances once again as they failed to build on Saturday’s 2-1 win at Everton.
Carlton Morris set the tone in the opening seconds when he closed down goalkeeper James Trafford’s clearance and minutes later his strike from inside the box went narrowly wide as the hosts looked for an early opener.
Burnley were second-best for the first 20 minutes, but Vincent Kompany’s men rode the storm and began to enjoy some success.
Clarets forward Zeki Amdouni tested Thomas Kaminski with a header from a corner that forced an acrobatic save from the Belgian to keep the score level.
This came shortly before Josh Brownhill had fired a warning shot from distance which narrowly avoided Kaminski’s top corner.
The chance of the half came in the 33rd minute. Alfie Doughty found wing-back partner Issa Kabore and he sent over a cross in search of Morris but the ball fell kindly for Chiedozie Ogbene, whose diving header was inches away from nestling inside Trafford’s post.
However, it was Burnley who struck first in time added on in the first half.
Sander Berge did well to find Foster and he beat Tom Lockyer in a foot race to tuck his effort away.
The Hatters almost equalised when Doughty’s inch-perfect corner found the head of Morris and his glancing header went inches wide.
Substitute Adebayo found the head of Jacob Brown who was denied by Josh Cullen on the line as the tide began to turn with 25 minutes to go.
After Morris was denied a penalty, his header missed the target once again as it started to feel like it was not going to be the Hatters’ night.
But it was Adebayo who grabbed Luton the goal they deserved after 84 minutes.
Reece Burke got on the end of a deep cross and provided the knockdown to the striker, who sorted his feet out and tapped home to level.
But their joy was short-lived as Burnley scored a second a minute later to stun Kenilworth Road into silence.
Bruun Larsen cut inside and produced an outstanding curled effort which found the top corner in front of the away fans.
Luton searched for a second equaliser during seven added minutes but it was not to be and Burnley held on for the win to move up to 18th in the table.
Barcelona boss Xavi insists his side are “ready” for their first away game in the Champions League against Porto on Wednesday.
Barca were victorious in their opening game in the competition after they ran riot with a 5-0 win over Antwerp thanks to goals from Robert Lewandowski, Gavi, Jelle Batille’s own goal and a Joao Felix double.
Xavi’s side will be looking to make it two wins from two with victory at the Estadio do Dragao which would put them in an early comfortable position of qualifying from the group stages, something they failed to do in the competition last year.
Xavi knows the size of the task in front of his team but thinks they are prepared for the challenge.
He told Barca TV: “This is the Champions League. We are ready and excited to play tomorrow.
“We have in front a very difficult club in this stadium. It will be tough and really difficult because they play well, a good team with a good coach, very intensive, but we are ready.
“We are really excited and let’s see tomorrow.”
Felix has enjoyed a bright start to life in Barcelona since making the loan switch from Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid, notching three goals in his first six matches.
The forward will come up against a team from his native Portugal but insists “it is just another game”.
He added: “It may be special because it is a Portuguese side and more family and friends will be in the stands, but this is just another game that we aim to win.
“We want to take the Champions League step by step. Our aim is to get through the group and this is probably the toughest game of the group stage.”
Porto opened their campaign with a 3-1 win against Shakhtar Donetsk and have not faced Barcelona in the Champions League for 23 years.
Boss Sergio Conceicao said: “Let’s go into the game thinking that we can and should win. With confidence. The respect we have for our opponents doesn’t have to make us afraid of anything.
“All teams have weaknesses that can be exploited. We have to be solid in defence and then take advantage of any weaknesses (in Barcelona) to win the game.”
The audio recording of the discussion between the match officials that led to Luis Diaz’s goal being wrongly disallowed has been made public, with VAR Darren England swearing twice upon being told of his mistake.
Diaz was incorrectly adjudged to have been offside on the field after netting in the first half of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday, a decision which was not over-ruled by England and his assistant Daniel Cook.
Liverpool asked for a recording of what happened and Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has taken the step to publicly release the communication into how the bungled verdict was reached.
PGMOL said England “lost sight of the on-field decision” due to “a lapse of concentration and loss of focus”.
In the recording, England says “check complete, check complete. That’s fine, perfect” before the replay operator and then Cook question whether the correct decision has been made.
“Offside, goal, yeah. That’s wrong that, Daz,” Cook is heard saying.
England swears upon realising the error and then says “they’ve restarted the game. Can’t do anything, can’t do anything” as the replay operator makes repeated calls to delay the match.
England then issues another expletive before the tape finishes, the end of an incident in which PGMOL, the referees’ body, admitted immediately after the match that a “significant human error” had occurred.
Liverpool said “sporting integrity has been undermined”, while they released a statement the following day indicating they would explore their options given the “clear need for escalation and resolution”.
PGMOL said in a statement accompanying the audio: “After the on-field officials had disallowed the goal for offside, the checking phase and process started and was carried out correctly by the VAR.
“In a lapse of concentration and loss of focus in that moment, the VAR lost sight of the on-field decision and he incorrectly communicated ‘check complete’, therefore inadvertently confirming the on-field decision. He did this without any dialogue with the AVAR (assistant VAR).
“The match then restarted immediately. After a few seconds, the replay operator and then the AVAR queried the check-complete outcome with the VAR and asked him to review the image that had been created, pointing out that the original on-field decision had been offside, but this was not communicated to the on-field team at any point during the match.
“The VAR team then gave consideration as to whether the game could be stopped at that point, however the VAR and AVAR concluded that the VAR protocol within the laws of the game would not permit that to happen, and they decided intervention was not possible as play had restarted.”
England and Cook have not been included among the officials for duty in the coming weekend’s Premier League fixtures.
The pair had already been replaced for the remainder of their matchweek seven duties – England was due to be fourth official at Nottingham Forest v Brentford on Sunday, with Cook scheduled to be assistant referee for Monday’s Fulham-Chelsea clash.
PGMOL has vowed to learn from this incident, stressing accuracy over all else, including efficiency, to its video match officials and, from now on, a VAR must confer with their AVAR in the check process before relaying the final decision to the on-field officials.
The Premier League announced a wider review of VAR, amid scathing criticism in the fallout of what happened at the weekend, is set to be held in conjunction with the PGMOL.
A Premier League spokesperson said: “It is clear that there were not only human errors but systemic weaknesses in the VAR process. We accept PGMOL’s immediate recommendations to ensure that such failures are not repeated in the future.
“However, a wider review to seek consistently higher standards of VAR performance will be conducted by the Premier League and PGMOL, supported by other stakeholders, and where necessary further recommended actions will be brought forward and implemented.
“We have communicated fully with Liverpool FC on this matter and have shared PGMOL’s findings and relevant footage of the incident with all Premier League clubs.”
England and Cook have come under further scrutiny since Saturday after it was reported they were part of a refereeing team in the United Arab Emirates two days before the Tottenham-Liverpool match.
PGMOL added: “PGMOL and The FA have also agreed to review the policy to allow match officials to officiate matches outside of FIFA or UEFA appointments.”
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