Borussia Dortmund host Chelsea for the first leg of a Champions League tie that sees two of the world's best prospects go head-to-head.
Jude Bellingham and Enzo Fernandez have a combined age of just 41. Between them, the pair have already stacked up 278 senior club appearances.
Bellingham has played 161 times for Dortmund and Birmingham City, while Fernandez has racked up 117 appearances across spells at Defensa y Justicia, River Plate, Benfica and now Chelsea.
As good as the duo have been for their clubs, they elevated themselves into the "must buy" category for Europe's elite sides with their performances at last year's World Cup.
Fernandez was named the tournament's best young player as he played a key role in Argentina claiming their third world crown, and Chelsea were determined to get their man.
While their efforts early in the January window were frustrated, Chelsea eventually agreed to pay Benfica the full amount of Fernandez's £106.8million (€121m) buy-out clause as he became the crown jewel of their spending spree.
Bellingham, meanwhile, asserted himself as a crucial player in Gareth Southgate's England side, with the 19-year-old's displays in Qatar reminiscent of when Wayne Rooney starred at Euro 2004.
Liverpool, Manchester City and Real Madrid are said to be battling it out for Bellingham, should Dortmund decide to cash in on their talisman at the end of the season.
Should Bellingham be destined for a move back to England, then Wednesday's clash between Dortmund and Chelsea at Signal Iduna Park could just hint at what is to come from two potential Premier League staples.
Lighting up the world stage
While Bellingham was always likely to be on the radar of Europe's biggest sides regardless of whether he had a great World Cup or not, his performances for England will likely do Dortmund's bank balance no harm.
If Bellingham's fine showings in the groups had hinted at his immense talent, then his performance in England's 3-0 victory over Senegal in the last 16 was a coming of age performance on the international stage.
Bellingham did not score but was heavily involved in all three of England's goals to mark him becoming the only teenager, after Michael Owen in 1998, to start a World Cup knockout game for England.
He went off in the 76th minute of that tie having provided an assist – the youngest player to do so for England in a World Cup game since 1966 – and completed 30 of his 33 passes (91 per cent), with eight of those attempted in the final third.
Across the tournament, only Luke Shaw (16) contributed to more open-play shot-ending sequences than Bellingham (15) did for the Three Lions.
Fernandez, on the other hand, has certainly had the limelight thrust on him due to his excellent World Cup.
Not that he had not been excellent at Benfica. However, his stunning goal in Argentina's group stage win over Mexico led to him being a constant starter for the rest of the tournament.
In the final, Fernandez led all players for touches (118), successful passes (77) and tackles (10). His tally of tackles was the most of any player in a World Cup showpiece match since Gennaro Gattuso in 2006 (15).
Combative off the ball, Fernandez won 40 of his 68 duels in the tournament (58.8 per cent), and also proved dependable in possession, completing 410 passes, with his accuracy of 87.6 bettered by only six of his team-mates to play at least 90 minutes in Qatar.
Fernandez played more successful long passes (16) than any other Argentina player, while only Nicolas Otamendi, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo de Paul played more forward passes than his 116.
Thriving at club level
As previously noted, Fernandez had impressed with Benfica before carrying that form into the World Cup.
Only Ricardo Horta (126) had been involved in more open-play shot-ending sequences than Fernandez (122) in Portugal's Primeira Liga prior to the latter's move to Stamford Bridge.
Fernandez ranked third in the competition for goal-ending sequence involvements (14), second for expected goals (xG) sequence involvement (18.8) and second for goal build-up involvements (eight).
From a role at the left-side of Benfica's central midfield, Fernandez was also key to starting moves during his half-season in Portugal. In the Primeira Liga alone he started 23 shot-ending sequences (league rank third), four goal-ending sequences (second) and accumulated 4.8 xG from moves he started (first).
Fernandez has taken little time to settle into the Premier League. He assisted Joao Felix's first Chelsea goal with a wonderfully weighted ball in Saturday's 1-1 draw with West Ham and his tally of 171 passes across the last two games – only four top-flight midfielders attempted more.
No Chelsea midfielder won more duels (12), tackles (nine, six of which he won), touches (209), carries (43), or forward passes (29). Just Fred, of Manchester United, has won more tackles in the last two league games.
The 22-year-old might have a huge price tag to live up to, but he has certainly proved to be one of the most efficient all-round midfielders in Europe this term.
Right up there with him in that regard is Bellingham, who has been let off the leash somewhat from an attacking standpoint at Dortmund this season.
With BVB no longer able to rely on Erling Haaland goals, Bellingham has been tasked with arriving into the box late to supplement their attack.
Bellingham has featured 27 times for Dortmund this season, second only to Nico Schlotterbeck. He is their top scorer with 10 goals, second for assists (six) and third for chances created (28). He boasts an impressive 19.2 per cent shot conversion rate and has outperformed his xG (7.6).
More of an attacking threat than Fernandez, Bellingham has the other side of the game too: 388 duels is 172 more than any of his club-mates, and he has won 225 of them (Schlotterbeck ranks second with 144); the same goes for tackles, with the teenager attempting 70 and winning 39 – both team highs.
A sign of what's to come
Fernandez is the most expensive signing in Premier League history, and should Bellingham join him in England's top tier next season, it seems likely as though the Birmingham boy would take that record.
They don't play the same role and shouldn't be expected to. Bellingham's game has gone up another level since he was given the freedom and responsibility to provide more attacking threat, and Fernandez can pull the strings from deep.
Bellingham's all-action style mixed with his sharp turn of pace makes for a player that would seem perfectly suited to Liverpool or City, while Graham Potter will be expected to build around Fernandez for years to come – the Argentine did, after all, sign an eight-and-a-half-year deal with Chelsea.
One thing is clear. Bellingham and Fernandez are already outstanding players and both are destined to reach the very top.
Eddie Howe staying grounded after Newcastle’s ‘amazing night’ against PSG
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will not allow Newcastle to get ahead of themselves despite seeing them dismantle Champions League giants Paris St Germain.
The 4-1 victory over the 2020 runners-up at St James’ Park took the Magpies – playing in the competition for the first time in 20 years – to the top of Group F after two games.
However, head coach Howe was refusing to be carried away by a performance and a result which brought back memories of the club’s 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona 26 years ago.
Howe, who inherited a Newcastle side seemingly heading for the Sky Bet Championship less than two years ago, said: “Going from the difficult moment we were in to now, it’s a great lesson for us not to get ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we want to keep going and we take nothing for granted. Amazing night, but we’ve got to continue to work hard from here.
“It goes without saying we hope that gives us that belief that we need to be successful in this competition. Against Milan in our first game, there was an element of us not quite hitting the levels that we expected of ourselves.
“But I think it’s only by doing that you can truly prove to yourself that you can do it consistently, and I think today will go a long way towards proving that.
“But as I said, there are so many difficult games to come in this competition. It’s a small step forward, but there’s still a long, long way to go.
“The next game in this competition will be hugely important, but that goes to the back of our minds now as we focus back on to the Premier League and West Ham.”
The Magpies got off to a dream start when Bruno Guimaraes picked off Marquinhos’ ill-judged ball out of defence and although Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Alexander Isak’s initial shot, Miguel Almiron followed up to score.
Dan Burn made it 2-0 with a towering header six minutes before the break, after a lengthy VAR check, and Sean Longstaff put the Magpies in dreamland five minutes after the restart.
Lucas Hernandez’s 56th-minute header sparked something of a fightback, but ultimately it amounted to little and Fabian Schar smashed home a fourth in stoppage time to cement a remarkable win.
Howe was particularly pleased for Geordies Burn and Longstaff, lifelong supporters of the club they now represent with such distinction.
He said: “I really do respect the Geordies who have had life-long associations with the club and understand what it means to play for Newcastle and have a unique experience, really, so for Sean to score and play how he did and for Dan, they’re amazing moments in their careers.”
A crowd of 52,009 witnessed a remarkable night on Tyneside, although the visiting fans, some of whom briefly caused troubled as they were escorted to the stadium by police, left less than impressed by what superstar Kylian Mbappe and his team-mates produced on the pitch.
Asked if he took responsibility for the performance, PSG boss Luis Enrique said: “Yes absolutely, there’s no doubt about that, I’m the first person to be responsible for what happened this evening. Of course I’m responsible for it.
“I think the outcome of the game was fair, although the scoreline was perhaps a little bit too much in their favour, not really a fair reflection.
“But of course we made such careless mistakes which led to their goals and when you play at this level, you can’t afford to do that.”
Wales defender Ben Cabango limps out of Swansea’s win over Norwich
Swansea centre-back Ben Cabango has given Wales boss Rob Page another injury worry after he limped out of his side’s 2-1 home win over Norwich in the Championship.
Wales are already without Aaron Ramsey and Brennan Johnson for the vital Euro 2024 qualifier with Croatia on October 15 and Swansea boss Michael Duff confirmed Cabango suffered a hamstring issue after he went off in the second half of his club’s victory on Wednesday night.
“Ben did the right thing in coming off. He felt something in his hamstring in the first half and then again later on,” said Duff.
“If he isn’t fit for the weekend, then I don’t think he’ll be able to go off to play for Wales during the international window.”
The win gave Duff’s new-look side a haul of 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four Championship matches having failed to win in any of their opening seven games in all competitions.
“I was delighted with the result and the performance. We started with real intent and the first goal came from a high press,” said Duff.
“Then their goal came from us getting our press wrong. In the second half we defended our box well and got the winner.
“Norwich are one of the best teams in the league and we finished very strongly against them. The fans really got behind us in the added six minutes at the end because our lads were out on their feet.”
Norwich boss David Wagner was “very disappointed” after seeing his side fail to press home their advantage in the second half.
“We didn’t do our job properly in each box, goals change games and we didn’t take our chances,” said Wagner.
“That’s three away defeats in a row now and we lost a game that we could have won. We have to be better in both boxes.
“After two away defeats in a row we knew we had a chance to pick up some points in an important game. It was there for us, but we didn’t do our job.
“Obviously the result is very disappointing. Performance-wise, first half we were not good, second half we were much better.
“Second half we have to kill the game. We had enough very good opportunities until 75-80 minutes.
“After that they put pressure on us with set-pieces. If you don’t kill the game, then one situation can cost you.
“It’s very frustrating that we were not clinical in both boxes today and have not won a game we had opportunities to win at 1-1.”
Mark Robins proud of brave Coventry win over Blackburn
Mark Robins praised his brave Coventry side after they earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Blackburn at the CBS Arena.
Record signing Haji Wright nodded in on 85 minutes after Yasin Ayari’s effort had rebounded off the crossbar.
The Sky Blues had already hit the woodwork twice through Matty Godden and Bobby Thomas, while James Hill’s thunderous effort came back off the woodwork in the first half for Blackburn.
It meant back-to-back wins for the first time this season for Coventry, who beat QPR 3-1 at the weekend thanks to a brace from Ellis Simms.
“We started the brighter of the teams, had loads of energy, tried to execute what we wanted to do and did it pretty successfully to start with,” explained Robins.
“They got control in the second half of the first half and had a lot of possession and they can do that to you.
“You’ve got to be brave, work really hard to try and play through them and if you can do that and the first pass is a really good pass, then you can take out the majority of the team.
“With the pace of Ellis and Haji you can cause them problems and it looked that way. We had the spell in the second half when we created a lot more chances.
“The header is a brilliant header from Haji and he gets a lot of power on it and just waits for the right moment and the timing is perfect.
“It gives us a lead, having conceded a goal at the other end I thought he was going to give. Ben Wilson has got the ball in both hands and he has kicked the ball out of his hands by Moran.
“They are a good side and they will probably get fed up of hearing it, because they have played some really good teams now.
“I think they are a really good team and we’ve done really well to get the three points. Back-to-back wins for the first time this season which is really welcome.”
Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson was defiant after his Rovers side suffered a fourth loss on the bounce, as well as seeing a goal disallowed when Andrew Moran was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of Ben Wilson’s hands before tapping in.
“Disappointed with the result of course, I actually saw a really good team, great spirit and togetherness against a good opponent in an away game,” said the Dane.
“I think we were quite solid in everything we did with the ball, without the ball, we created chances and we had big moments where we probably should have done better.
“We need to be more clinical in the box to get results but I think the boys have played an excellent game so if we keep on doing this then we will get some results.
“From my distance it was a strange situation wasn’t it? The referee had no clue if it was a goal or not, the linesman did nothing and after a short chat suddenly it was a free kick.
“I haven’t seen it back, then after that we have an extremely big moment, maybe one or two against one with the goalkeeper, then we are leading 1-0, but a good performance from my players for sure.
“We are doing a lot of good things, we have been giving too easy goals away, I think we were quite solid today mostly and we have created plenty of goal chances to win games, but of course we need to score.”
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