Champions League trend watch: French clubs rise as Celtic and Atlético stumble | Champions League

Going up

Aston Villa – There wasn't a dry eye in the house – at least among the home fans – as Aston Villa celebrated victory over mighty FC Bayern Munich. For the German giants, who suffered a group stage defeat for the first time since 2017, Vincent Kompany's coaching experience at this level could come into question. But praise Villa's manager. Like last season in the Premier League at Burnley, Unai Emery put in a performance for Kompany and of the two world champion goalkeepers it was Emi Martínez who outshone Manuel Neuer on Wednesday night. As in the 1982 European Cup final, Villa beat Bayern 1-0. The goal came from a player who shares his surname (so to speak) with Birmingham's most famous pop group. Jhon Durán's beautiful first-time finish got Neuer on his feet. “I never saw where the goalkeeper was,” admitted Durán. He was almost sold in the summer but has scored six goals this season, five of them as a substitute. The Colombian, once with Chicago Fire, is a brilliant finisher, a true wildcard player who can join the already dangerous forward line of talented Englishmen such as Ollie Watkins, Jaden Philogene, Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey. Pride and emotion grew in Villa Park, England's second largest city.

Lille – Ligue 1 on the rise? Only PSG let down the team that was overwhelmed by Arsenal on Tuesday night, although Monaco only managed a late goal to salvage a rain-soaked draw at Dinamo Zagreb. The French league, struggling financially and struggling to sell TV rights abroad, got off to a good start in the group stage, with Lille posting perhaps the club's best result in European football. Their winning goal against Real Madrid came from an ice-cold penalty from Jonathan David. Rémy Cabella, who Newcastle fans may remember from his time on Tyneside, was at the helm in midfield and Lille won with dignity against the defending champions. Kylian Mbappé came on as a substitute for Endrick in the 57th minute, but that had little success against the club his little brother Ethan plays for. Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior were eliminated from Bruno Génésio's team.

Brest – The club's first season in European football remains a dream: this week there was a 4-0 win at Red Bull Salzburg. Abdallah Sima, a striker on loan from Brighton, scored twice in a devastating counterattack performance. The fact that Brest's first two games were against Austrian teams – they beat Sturm Graz in the first game – is a knot in the draw system. But Leverkusen, their next opponent, should be on their guard.

Slipping

Celtic – The Glaswegians were in second place in the table after the first matchday, but are starting to worry about whether they can make it into the top 24 after the second week. The question marks against Celtic and Brendan Rodgers' record in Europe's top league returned against Borussia Dortmund. To use an apt Scottish term, they were “overwhelmed” by Dortmund 7-1. It could have been more. “After the first two goals it was very easy to make the breakthrough,” said Dortmund’s youngest English star Jamie Gittens with understatement. Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half hat-trick and Dortmund became the third team, after Barcelona in 2016 and PSG in 2017, to score seven goals against a Rodgers' Celtic team in the Champions League. What did you learn from it? Rodgers was adamant: “Are we going to go ahead and just wait and see? No, we’re not going to do that.”

Young boys – Switzerland's revised group stage system had the unfortunate result of exposing the top club in Swiss football. Barcelona – Young Boys 5-0 was, unfortunately, a game of men against boys, similar to the opening defeat against Aston Villa. Their presence at the bottom of the table, along with that of Slovan Bratislava, poses an existential question to the new format. What happens to teams that become whipping boys? With no trap door to the Europa League these days, what are the prospects for the smaller lights as the table takes shape and the hopeless hopefuls at the bottom coalesce? There is already a risk that the last few weeks will be less competitive.

Atletico Madrid – Perhaps the credit for Benfica's 4-0 win in Lisbon goes to Bruno Lage's side: Kerem Aktürkoğlu's fine goal sparked a famous victory and Ángel di María rolled back the years. Although Atléti have struggled away from home – they have won just one of their last 10 Champions League away games – the manner of the defeat was striking. Diego Simeone's men conceded more goals than they have conceded in their entire La Liga season so far. One explanation was the absence of key summer signing Robin Le Normand due to a “traumatic brain injury” he sustained in the Madrid derby last weekend. he was outstanding.

A good week for

Jérémy Doku (Manchester City) – Tuesday's visit to Slovan Bratislava gave Pep Guardiola the chance to experiment with his Manchester City squad and rest a few sore legs. Matheus Nunes played as a central midfielder as a possible solution to Rodri's absence. James McAtee, another local youth product, scored his first European goal. Most noticeably, Guardiola broke the trend of inverted wingers, deploying Savinho on the left and Doku on the right. This led to a record-breaking performance by the Belgian with 26 touches of the ball in the opponent's penalty area against Slovan Bratislava. According to Opta, this was the highest since records began in 2008.

Mehdi Taremi (Inter) – The source of Inter's continued success in Serie A is strong recruitment, including a willingness to sign experienced players who still have something to prove. Beppe Marotta was CEO during Juventus' golden decade. He doubles as Inter's head of recruitment and Taremi, the Iranian signed on a free transfer from Benfica at the age of 32, appears to be the latest hit. Two assists and a late penalty, his first Inter goal, sealed a thrilling performance from a player who starred in Portugal and now provides competent assists to Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram. Martínez, the Inter captain, gave Taremi the chance to take the penalty against Red Star Belgrade as a reward for his overall performance in the 4-0 win.

Francisco Conceicao (Juventus) – Something is moving at Juventus under Thiago Motta. The club has returned to the era of shrewd signings rather than vanity projects, and Conceição was loaned out by Porto after his father was sacked as coach. He wears the same No. 7 Juventus jersey as Federico Chiesa and Cristiano Ronaldo before him. Conceição replaced the injured Nicolás González after 12 minutes at Leipzig and made good use of his chance, confirming a talent he had shown in his cameo appearances at Euro 2024. He ended up scoring the winning goal in a dramatic 3-2 comeback against a team that had to deal with goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio's red card in the 59th minute. Dušan Vlahović's brilliant equalizer was followed by Conceição's lightning-quick run, which ended with his second goal in five days.