Inter Milan 0-1 Liverpool: Arne Slot needed that. For the Dutch manager, just as important as the vital win was the tiny pocket of loyal Liverpool fans serenading him from the upper echelons of Inter’s towering San Siro yesterday, picking their allegiance in his ugly public bust-up with Mo Salah. The stoic way in which the Dutch manager has dealt with myriad unenviable challenges since he joined the champions has been a seismic human triumph, and a win against one of the toughest teams in Europe showed that even without the Egyptian king, his side have still got it. ❤️

ii. On the USMNT front, Monaco striker Flo Balogun bagged the winner yesterday in his team’s 1-0 victory over Turkish giants, Galatasaray, becoming the first American to ever score in three straight UCL appearances. That’s now eight goals for Flo in his last 14 games for club and country, the man is cooking. 🔥

Another U.S. striker in incredible form is PSV’s Ricardo Pepi, who came on as a sub yesterday and scored his third Champions League goal off the bench in his first-placed Dutch side’s 3-2 loss to Atlético Madrid. 🇺🇸

iii. While we’re on the topic of Americans abroad just absolutely crushing it right now: ICYMI, here’s Christian Pulisic’s two-goal, flu-game performance from Monday in 38 glorious seconds. MJ would been proud. 🤩

iv. Some other great news coming out of CONCACAF land: Canada’s Alphonso Davies suited up for Bayern Munich yesterday for the first time in nine months in their 3-1 win over Portuguese champs, Sporting. Since the star left-back went down with a knee injury in March, the Bavarian giants have won a Bundesliga title and followed that up by losing just one game in all comps so far this season. Adding Davies back into that lineup is simply frightening. 🇨🇦

v. If Liverpool’s much-needed win yesterday has you even more confused after last weekend’s chaos, let Rog and Rory Smith walk you through everything going on with Arne Slot, Mo Salah and the rest of the Reds. You can watch that here. ❤️

vi. Speaking of Rog, make sure to join him and James Horncastle today for “Big Match Breakdown LIVE” on YouTube at 5 p.m. ET immediately after the whistle blows on this afternoon’s round of Champions League games. Come be with us, and join the conversation on Discord for all the action beforehand. 🍻

PS - Watch arguably the greatest football chant of all time by my local non-league Manchester team, West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC, who I actually walked out as a mascot for on my… 28th birthday. Britpop perfection. 🎶

Cheers,
Tommy Stewart

Inter Milan 0-1 Liverpool 🇮🇹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

While Mo Salah successfully went fishing for “u ok?” responses to his gym selfie back in Merseyside, his teammates and new nemesis, Arne Slot, visited last season’s UCL runners-up, Inter Milan. On current form, no one expected the English champs to get anything positive at Inter’s 75,817-seated San Siro fortress, where the Italian giants not been beaten in 18 European matches. But after being fairly matched through most of the bout, Slot’s side took more initiative as substitute Conor Bradley came close in the 80th minute, before fellow fresh-face Florian Wirtz made an even bigger impact by winning a questionable penalty four minutes later. Once VAR had a second look and deemed it so, Dominik Szoboszlai decisively converted the 88th-minute winner. Most have been tempted to tell their boss what they really think of them at this time of year, but if Liverpool can build on this excellent result, Salah might regret lashing out before the Christmas Party.

More: Sometimes Liverpool fans, the signs are right in front of you.

Atalanta 2-1 Chelsea 🇮🇹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Chelsea captain Reece James outfoxed both Atalanta’s defense and the match officials in Bergamo last night when he crafted a first-half goal from a corner that was poked in by João Pedro for the Brazilian’s first in the UCL. But from there, Atalanta sniffed a whiff of vulnerability in Chelsea’s injury-ravaged defense and their sharks circled, as former West Ham frontman Gianluca Scamacca headed in from close range in the 55th minute. The New Balance Arena sounded like Helm’s Deep with war drums and waving flags behind Robert Sanchez’s goal, acting like a gravitational invitation and pulling in Charles De Ketelaere while Chelsea defenders retreated, allowing the Belgian forward to blast it home. In the dying seconds, Pedro was denied an equalizer by goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi and the Blues’ miserable winless streak stretched to four matches while Atalanta jumped to third in the UCL table.

Tottenham 3-0 Slavia Prague 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇨🇿

Mo Kudus paid tribute to club-legend Son Heung-min yesterday by causing chaos for Slavia Prague’s backline, winning the corner that resulted in David Zima’s bizarre first-half own goal. It might be slightly Spursy that a comical OG was the club’s 100th Champions League score, but Thomas Frank won’t care because it opened the floodgates for the home side. Kudus continued his Sonny cosplay by putting away his third goal of the season via an assured penalty, pulling out his celebratory stool once again. After a dry and goalless couple of months, Xavi Simons capped things off by scoring his third in five days, via a penalty won by the Dutch midfielder’s own wizardry. Frank’s guide on how to fix a broken home should be studied, because in less than a week he’s almost doubled Spurs’ 2025 win total at their north London stadium, upgrading it from flimsy tent to sturdy cottage.

More: Spurs fans, grab some Kleenex and watch Sonny’s overdue farewell speech from yesterday.

Elsewhere in the Champions League: Bayern Munich 3-1 Sporting, PSV Eindhoven 2-3 Atlético Madrid, Barcelona 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Kairat 0-1 Olympiacos, Monaco 1-0 Galatasaray, Union SG 2-3 Marseille

F.C. Copenhagen are Denmark’s Frankenstein football team, an amalgam formed in 1992 between Kjøbenhavns Boldklub and Boldklubben 1903 to create a financially stable super club with a stronger identity. They’re one of the country’s most successful teams, amassing a total of 16 league titles and 10 Danish cups, having reached the last 16 of the UCL twice, an adventure never bettered by any other club from Denmark.

Nicknamed “Byens Hold” (The Team of the City), FCK’s “Sektion 12” ultras are famous for their militant capo-lead chants, masterpiece tifos and intense atmosphere in their 38,190-capacity Parken Stadium they call the “Theatre of Nightmares.” They’re currently struggling at fifth in the Danish league under 37-year-old manager and former player, Jacob Neestrup, but it’s worse in the UCL, where they’re 29th. Luckily, today they face Villarreal’s Yellow Submarine, who are winless in their last eight Champions League matches.

AMERICA, let’s do this. After collecting all of your nominations, it’s now time to crown the rightful champion of America’s Best Soccer Bar 2025/26, powered by our partners at Michelob ULTRA! Below are the 10 most-nominated bars, listed in alphabetical order. The voting window closes Dec. 29, so make your voice heard by hitting the button below and by spreading the word! Once voting wraps, we’ll reveal the winner… and yes, we’ll celebrate accordingly.

Top 10 Nominees:

Real Madrid vs. Manchester City (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇪🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This box-office billing comes at a serendipitous time for Pep Guardiola, who finds his old enemy in disarray. While Real Madrid are four places above Manchester City at fifth in the UCL table, they’ve only won one of their last five domestic matches as Xabi Alonso‘s days look increasingly numbered. These monsters can’t seem to avoid each other, meeting in each of the last four seasons in the knockout rounds of this prestigious competition, and 14 times overall, with Los Blancos winning five and City four.

Bayer Leverkusen vs. Newcastle (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇩🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Eddie Howe will be hoping not much has changed since the last time these two sides met 22 years ago, when Newcastle did a 3-1 double over Leverkusen, who have only lost one of their last six UEFA competition matches against English sides, keeping four clean sheets in the process. Only a point divides them in the climactic stages of the UCL league round, and while the Magpies’ recent form is better than the home side’s in the league, Leverkusen are revitalized since Kasper Hjulmand quickly resuscitated them post-Erik ten Hag catastrophe.

Club Brugge vs. Arsenal (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇧🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Arsenal tread a similar path to Harry Waters in “In Bruges,” heading from London to Belgium with violence on the agenda after a critical 2-1 loss to Aston Villa at the weekend. Mikel Arteta’s men are still top of the Premier League and UCL tables, and even with the touted eight changes he could make to his side, Club Brugge could be a useful punching bag, particularly for a goal-deprived Viktor Gyökeres. It’s an ideal time to meet the Belgian club, who are currently in free-fall having just sacked ex-manager Nicky Hayen on Monday after a run of two wins in seven games.

🗓️ You can find the full list of today’s UCL fixtures here.

Win a pair of Furon v9 boots signed by Bukayo Saka and check out the ‘7egacy Edition’ at newbalance.com/soccer.

To have a chance at winning, take the survey HERE.

It’s time for us to pick a legendary Champions League lineup and you tell us who the missing player is. This week, we want to know who Tottenham’s other striker was when they overcame Ajax in that 2-3 semi-final second-leg victory in 2019?

Email us (or reply to this newsletter) with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch!

Our last winner: Congratulations to Brandon Reinhard, who correctly identified that Granit Xhaka was Arsenal’s center-midfielder when they lost 5-1 to Bayern Munich in the 2017 second leg in the round of 16 at the Emirates. We love the math here, Brandon:

“Midfield, on a yellow? Got to be Xhaka. Seeing this line up gives me flashbacks and makes me appreciate how good the Gunners have it right now. Hoping for a substantially different result today.”

Get in touch and we’ll send your patch in the post! 📬

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