Manchester United and Bayern make emphatic Champions League starts: four goals at Old Trafford, five in Munich
Manchester United and Bayern München made strong starts to their 2026/27 UEFA Champions League campaigns. On Thursday, 10 September, the English club defeated Azerbaijan's Sabah 4:0 at Old Trafford, while Bayern beat Norway's Bodø/Glimt 5:0 at the Allianz Arena. Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Benjamin Šeško and Lisandro Martínez scored for United, while the German giants only broke the visitors' resistance after the interval, when Jamal Musiala, Harry Kane, Alphonso Davies and Michael Olise, twice, got on the scoresheet. Both teams therefore immediately collected three points in the league phase of the competition, in which every result has a direct value in the common table of all 36 participants.
For Manchester United, the evening carried additional significance because it marked a return to Europe's premier club competition after three seasons away. UEFA stated before the match that this is United's 26th Champions League campaign, an English record, while their most recent appearance in the 2023/24 season ended with them finishing bottom of a group containing Bayern, Copenhagen and Galatasaray. Sabah, on the other hand, reached the main stage of the Champions League for the first time in the club's short history. The contrast in experience was enormous, but the Azerbaijani champions arrived at Old Trafford after a demanding and successful qualifying journey, which also gave the match a strong historical context.
United started patiently, then broke Sabah before the interval
Sabah tried to remain compact and slow the hosts down in the first part of the match, but Manchester United gradually took control. According to the Guardian report, the visitors showed enough courage in the opening stages to try to move out of their deep block and threaten in transition, but United gradually imposed their quality in midfield. Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans played an important role in maintaining the rhythm of possession, while Patrick Dorgu and the attacking line stretched the visitors' defence. The first goal arrived in the 27th minute, when Matheus Cunha finished a move by the home side and opened the way towards an emphatic victory.
Sabah continued trying to stay in the match after conceding, but the closing stages of the first half decided the contest. Bruno Fernandes doubled the lead in the 42nd minute, and Benjamin Šeško scored in the 45th minute, sending United into the interval with a 3:0 advantage. That sequence of events was particularly difficult for the visitors because, in a short period of time, they lost the possibility of attacking an uncertain match in the second half. United, by contrast, gained room for a more controlled second half, the distribution of minutes and preparation for the congested schedule that follows in domestic and European competitions.
Lisandro Martínez made it a final 4:0 in the 68th minute. United therefore ended the evening with four different scorers and without conceding a goal, which represented an almost ideal return to the Champions League stage for Michael Carrick's team. After the match, the Guardian also highlighted the impression that United looked organised in possession, with greater control in midfield and enough width and verticality to gradually push Sabah towards their own penalty area. Carrick stressed after the match the importance of attacking progress and controlling games, but also warned that the team still needs to eliminate defensive weaknesses that stronger opponents may punish more severely.
Return to the Champions League important beyond the result
The victory over Sabah carries greater symbolism than an ordinary three points at the start of the competition. Manchester United have been trying in recent seasons to return to stability on the domestic and European stages, and the Champions League remains a key platform for the club's sporting status, attractiveness to players and the financial impact of the season. From that perspective, an emphatic result against a debutant was expected, but at the same time it reduced the risk of dropping points early in a format in which all 36 teams are placed in the same table. Goal difference can also become important in the final standings, especially when several clubs finish the league phase with the same number of points.
UEFA states that Manchester United will play eight different opponents in their eight league-phase matches. After Sabah, the schedule includes away trips to Atlético Madrid, Como, Sporting CP and Villarreal, as well as home matches against Roma, Leipzig and Bayern. The Manchester United-Bayern match at Old Trafford on 20 January 2027 will be one of the more high-profile later chapters of the league phase. In such a schedule, three points against a team that reached the competition through qualifying carry great value, but the result against Sabah is only the starting point before considerably more demanding tests.
United's next immediate challenge already comes on the domestic scene. The official club schedule shows that a league derby against Manchester City follows at Old Trafford on 13 September, only three days after the European match. That further explains why establishing an early lead against Sabah was important for workload management. Carrick was able to rotate part of the team and avoid a scenario in which key players would have had to chase the result until the final minutes.
Sabah's defeat does not erase their historic journey to Old Trafford
Although they finished with four goals in their net, Sabah's arrival in Manchester was one of the most unusual and interesting events of the opening round. Ahead of the league phase, UEFA highlighted that the club was founded only in 2017 and became the youngest club to qualify for the league or former group stage of the Champions League. The team from Masazir won their first Azerbaijani league title last season and retained the national cup, while their European progress was achieved in only the ninth year of the club's existence. In a very short period, Sabah therefore travelled from being a new project on the domestic scene to playing a match at one of Europe's most famous stadiums.
The journey through qualifying was particularly dramatic. According to UEFA's official review, Sabah overturned a 2:1 defeat by Aarhus in the third qualifying round and won the return leg 4:0, advancing 5:2 on aggregate. In the play-offs against Hapoel Beer-Sheva, they lost the first match 2:1 and had to produce a comeback in the return leg. Sabah eventually won 5:2 after extra time and advanced 6:4 on aggregate. UEFA particularly highlighted Tellur Mutallimov's goal in the 94th minute, which kept the Azerbaijani team in the tie before they completed the comeback in extra time.
The defeat at Old Trafford therefore has to be viewed in the context of a major jump in the level of competition. In the remainder of the league phase, Sabah face Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund, Viking, Barcelona, Villarreal, Napoli and Arsenal. It is a schedule in which the debutants will have the opportunity to test themselves against different footballing schools and clubs with incomparably greater European experience. The 0:4 result in Manchester showed the difference in quality and squad depth, but it does not change the fact that qualification for the league phase itself is the greatest European achievement in the club's history.
Bayern waited until the second half, then scored five goals
In Munich, the development of the match was different. Bodø/Glimt survived the first half without conceding, and Bayern went into the interval at 0:0 despite the expected territorial superiority. The Norwegian team had already shown in previous seasons that they can cause problems for renowned European opponents, and Bayern warned before the match about the organisation and intensity of Kjetil Knutsen's side. Coach Vincent Kompany pointed out at the time that Norwegian teams regularly display great running power and that Bodø/Glimt are well organised both with and without the ball.
The visitors' resistance collapsed almost immediately after the teams returned from the dressing rooms. Jamal Musiala scored in the 47th minute to open the game up, and Harry Kane made it 2:0 in the 61st minute. Alphonso Davies added the third goal in the 77th minute, effectively settling the winner. Michael Olise then marked the closing stages with two goals, in the 83rd minute and the second minute of stoppage time, for the final 5:0. According to post-match reports, Olise was among the standout players of the contest, and his performance further emphasised the depth of Bayern's attacking quality at a point when the Norwegian defence could no longer cope with the hosts' tempo.
The final score may suggest that the match was one-sided from the beginning, but the goalless score at half-time tells a different story. Bayern had to increase the speed of their ball circulation and the aggression of their attacks in order to break down Bodø/Glimt's disciplined block. More space opened up after the first goal, and the home side exploited it ruthlessly. Five goals in one half were also a powerful response to the previous Bundesliga match against Schalke, in which Bayern, according to the official club report, failed to score despite 83 percent possession and drew 0:0.
Olise and Bayern continued an exceptional run in Champions League opening matches
Bayern entered this European season with a rarely seen continuity of successful starts. Official club statistics before the match stated that the Munich team had won their opening Champions League match in each of their previous 22 seasons in the competition, following a defeat by Deportivo La Coruña in the 2002/03 season. The victory against Bodø/Glimt extended that run, while the 5:0 result further confirmed the club's ambition to finish the league phase among the top eight. Board member for sport Max Eberl publicly set precisely that goal before the start of the competition, which would allow Bayern to qualify directly for the round of 16 and avoid an additional play-off.
The German giants also maintained an exceptional European home run. Before this round, Bayern had last lost a home match in the group or league phase of the Champions League in December 2013, when Manchester City won 3:2. Ahead of Bodø/Glimt's visit, the club cited a run of 38 such home matches without defeat, including 36 victories. That statistic further explains the scale of the task facing the Norwegian representatives, regardless of their notable European results in recent seasons.
Bayern will visit Viking, Atlético Madrid, Lille and Manchester United in the remainder of the league phase, while Arsenal, Slavia Prague and Real Betis will come to Munich. The schedule brings several matches against clubs from the very top of European football, so an emphatic start has practical value both from the perspective of points and goal difference. In a competition in which teams are no longer separated into traditional groups, every big victory can affect the position in the common table right up to the final round in January.
Bodø/Glimt back among Europe's elite after a qualifying journey
For Bodø/Glimt, the appearance in Munich marked the beginning of a second consecutive season in the Champions League league phase. During qualifying, UEFA stated that the Norwegian club, after their debut appearance in 2025/26, had again secured a place among the 36 participants through the league qualifying path. In the third qualifying round, Bodø/Glimt beat Union Saint-Gilloise 6:5 on aggregate, after which they defeated N.E.C. Nijmegen twice in the play-offs, 3:1 away and 3:0 at home, for a 6:1 aggregate score. Those results showed that the Norwegian team did not arrive in Munich merely as underdogs, but as a club that had already gained serious experience in European qualifying.
Bayern nevertheless showed just how great the difference is between successfully progressing through qualifying and playing away against one of the leading candidates to reach the latter stages of the competition. Bodø/Glimt will seek their first points in the following rounds against Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Lille, LASK, Lens, Atlético Madrid and Club Brugge. The home matches at Aspmyra will be particularly important, where the Norwegian club traditionally tries to take advantage of familiar conditions and the artificial surface. A 0:5 defeat in Munich is a difficult start, but the format with eight different opponents leaves enough matches to change the overall picture.
New format further increases the value of emphatic victories
The 2026/27 Champions League is the third season played under the system of a single league phase with 36 clubs. According to UEFA regulations, each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents, four at home and four away. All clubs are placed in a single table, a win is worth three points, a draw one and a defeat none. The top eight teams after eight rounds progress directly to the round of 16, clubs placed ninth to 24th play a play-off for the remaining eight places in the round of 16, while teams from 25th to 36th place end their European season.
That is precisely why the opening victories of Manchester United and Bayern carry broader significance than simply making a good impression on the first evening. High-scoring results create a positive goal difference, but also allow teams to enter the following rounds without the early pressure of making up for lost points. UEFA's calendar provides for eight league-phase rounds from 8 September 2026 to 27 January 2027, after which the standings and play-off pairings will be definitively formed. The closing stages of the competition will lead towards the final on 5 June 2027 at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid.
Thursday's opening round also produced other results that demonstrated the breadth of the new format. Fenerbahçe and Roma drew 1:1, as did PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk, while Como convincingly defeated Leipzig on their competition debut. Lens won in Prague against Slavia. In such an environment, United's 4:0 and Bayern's 5:0 immediately pushed them towards the top of the early table, although after only one round the standings have limited value and can change quickly.
For Manchester United and Bayern, however, the most important message of the first European evening is clear: both teams completed their task without any uncertainty over the result and kept clean sheets in the process. United turned their return to the Champions League into an evening with four different scorers, while Bayern, after a patient first half, demonstrated their attacking power with five goals in the second. Sabah and Bodø/Glimt now turn to their next opponents and the search for their first points, while the favourites showed from the very start how high the bar will be set in the battle for direct qualification among the top 16.
Sources:
- UEFA - official information on the format, schedule and rules of the 2026/27 Champions League league phase. (link)
- UEFA - overview of opening-round matches and the 2026/27 league-phase schedule. (link)
- UEFA - facts and historical context ahead of the Manchester United-Sabah match. (link)
- UEFA - Sabah profile and information on the club's first qualification for the Champions League. (link)
- UEFA - qualifying and play-off results, including the journeys of Sabah and Bodø/Glimt to the league phase. (link)
- The Guardian - report and course of the Manchester United-Sabah match, including the scorers and the context of the home team's performance. (link)
- FC Bayern München - official facts and statistical context ahead of the match against Bodø/Glimt. (link)
- FC Bayern München - match preview, team form and Vincent Kompany's statements ahead of the contest. (link)
- Bulinews - report on Bayern's 5:0 victory against Bodø/Glimt, including Michael Olise's contribution. (link)