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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
John Brewin

Champions League review: A deluge of goals as youth rules for Barcelona and Bayern

Virgil van Dijk, Dennis Man and Fermin Lopez
Virgil van Dijk, Dennis Man and Fermín López stood out for their respective sides in Champions League action. Composite: LFC/Getty/Shutterstock/Guardian Sport

The big winners

• Barcelona’s youth system. Ahead of Sunday’s edition of El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two clubs won their midweek matches. Real Madrid’s opponents were Juventus, in the type of heavyweight clash the Champions League’s rejig into a 36-team group stage was supposed to throw up on a regular basis. Wednesday’s meeting fell short of classic encounters like 2003’s meeting of Madrid’s Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane with Juve’s Pavel Nedvěd and Alessandro Del Piero. In 2025, Juventus are not the force of yore, though they made Madrid sweat. The sole goal came from Jude Bellingham, England’s great enigma.

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