Canada Stun The Red Roses, The Brewers Sweep The Dodgers And PSG Run Riot At The Etihad
19 October 2026
This was one of those amazing weeks when the sport just never stopped. It started on Monday night with Coventry City thrashing Newcastle United 4-1, and it didn’t let up. On Wednesday, the Champions League brought PSG to the Etihad, with Aston Villa and Real Madrid alongside on multi-view. On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Brewers completed their sweep of the Dodgers, and in the early hours of Saturday, Canada ended the Red Roses’ unbeaten run in Toronto.
Then came the weekend: Newcastle against Villa on Saturday, five Premier League games on Sunday, and the Panthers and the Chiefs in the NFL to round it off. The one thing we didn’t watch was the opening round of Rugby’s Champions Cup, and we'll explain why at the end.
Champions League: PSG Run Riot In Manchester
After bemoaning that Liverpool against Manchester City wasn’t a contest because of the ongoing Premier League case, it was good to sit down on Wednesday and watch City take on the European champions, Paris Saint-Germain. If the neutral wanted to see City punished on the field, PSG delivered it in a devastating first half. With Pep Guardiola watching from the stands on his first return to the Etihad, they tore through City, scoring three goals in 32 minutes through Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé and Vitinha.
Enzo Maresca made three changes at half-time, and City came charging back. Erling Haaland pulled one back and broke two records in the process: he became the fastest player to 60 Champions League goals, in 60 appearances, 20 fewer than Lionel Messi needed, and passed Sergio Agüero as City’s top scorer in the competition. PSG scored a fourth through Maghnes Akliouche, but City kept going; Haaland scored again, and had Antoine Semenyo and others been more clinical, they could easily have won the match. A terrific game of football.
Multi-view is new this season on both Sky and TNT/HBO Max, and it meant we could also watch Aston Villa thrash Fenerbahçe 6-0 and Real Madrid's remarkable comeback in Rome. They were 3-1 down to Roma and won 4-3, a relief for José Mourinho on his return to the club he used to manage.
Baseball: Small Market, Big Sweep
Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers on reaching the World Series for the first time in 44 years. Milwaukee is the smallest market in Major League Baseball, and the Brewers just swept one of the biggest, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0, in a week. They finished the job with a 6-4 win in Los Angeles on Thursday night. Garrett Mitchell’s sixth-inning home run put Milwaukee in front, pitcher Aaron Ashby closed it out with three scoreless innings, and Jake Bauers was named the series MVP.
The Dodgers were the two-time defending champions and started the season with a payroll of $323 million, more than two and a half times Milwaukee’s. It made no difference. Game 1 of the World Series is in Milwaukee on Friday, against either the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Guardians. The Rays lead that series 3-2.
Rugby: Canada Ends The Red Roses’ Run
Around 430 miles east of Milwaukee, another low-funded team slayed a much richer rival. Canada’s women beat the Red Roses, inflicting England’s first defeat in 41 matches, and it is a clear sign that women’s Rugby is growing stronger and deeper.
Canada had to crowdfund their way to last year’s World Cup in England, where they reached the final but lost to the fully professional Red Roses. After a hard-fought 26-26 draw in Exeter in September, the rematch drew a record home crowd of 18,621 at BMO Field in Toronto, and England led 14-5 at half-time through tries from Maddie Feaunati and Zoe Harrison. For most of the night, the unbeaten run looked safe. But Canada kept coming. DaLeaka Menin’s try kept them in it, and in the 77th minute Shoshanah Seumanutafa came off the bench to score the winner. Canada 24, England 21.
The second Test is in Ottawa on Friday night, with kick-off at midnight UK time, and we strongly suggest you stay up and watch it. It should be another cracker.
Premier League: The Table Takes Shape
Another full programme in the Premier League this weekend, and thanks to Sky’s multi-view on Sunday, we watched five of the games. Seven rounds in, it is still better to wait until ten before drawing conclusions, but the table is taking shape, and you can see who is in good form and who is going to struggle.
After a promising start under Matthias Jaissle, Newcastle United’s season is starting to fall apart. Their opponents on Saturday, Aston Villa, are heading in the opposite direction. Villa sold Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Youri Tielemans in the summer, had little to spend and made a poor start, but Unai Emery has embraced the challenge of rebuilding his team. Off the back of a 6-0 win against Fenerbahçe, they followed up with a solid 1-0 win at St James’ Park. The evening was made worse for the Geordies by the man who scored it. Johan Manzambi had agreed to join Newcastle in the summer before choosing Villa instead, and he headed the winner.
Newcastle were booed off at half-time and at full-time. Jaissle said his side dominated, but they managed one shot on target, and he will quickly learn that he can’t hoodwink the St James’ Park crowd with that kind of statement.
On Tuesday, after Manchester United lost 2-0 to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, Lisandro Martínez publicly criticised the club’s recruitment and the technical director, Jason Wilcox. He apologised on Thursday, started against Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday and went off at half-time with a thigh injury. United led 1-0 at that point through Bryan Mbeumo, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin headed Leeds level. Leeds remain unbeaten at Elland Road since March, United are winless in five league games, and Michael Carrick remains under pressure.
Brighton’s stunning start continued with a 5-0 thrashing of their local rivals, Crystal Palace, their fourth league win in a row. It included the goal of the weekend and an early contender for goal of the season: Diego Gómez scored from the halfway line, 51 metres out, the longest-range Premier League goal since Wayne Rooney’s in 2017. Losing a derby by that margin is not quickly forgotten, and Pierre Sage may not be in the Palace job much longer.
Having qualified for Europe last season, Bournemouth and Sunderland are both feeling the extra workload, and both started the weekend in the bottom four. Bournemouth won 2-0, their first league win of the season, against a Sunderland side down to ten men after 17 minutes. Sunderland are now 19th, and the Europa League’s league-phase format means they have to stay in it until at least the end of January. That could seriously affect their chances of survival. One to watch.
Finally, the City Ground, where Nottingham Forest played the champions, Arsenal, in a dull game of football until the 80th minute, when substitute Noni Madueke scored with a deflected shot. That sparked Forest into life. In stoppage time, centre-back Murillo dribbled past four players and curled wide, and then Ezri Konsa, one of the players Villa sold in the summer, made a superb sliding tackle to deny Liam Delap. Arsenal are three points behind City. Despite City’s perfect start, are the Gunners the real league leaders?
NFL: A Third Of The Way Through
One of the strangest sentences to write in October is this: we are a third of the way through the NFL season. The Philadelphia Eagles will be hoping their remaining 11 games bring an upturn in fortune. They have now lost four in a row after a 25-14 home defeat to the Carolina Panthers, a week after losing in London with one second on the clock. Without Jalen Hurts, who is on injured reserve, the Eagles started Tanner McKee at quarterback, and Bryce Young outplayed him, throwing two touchdowns.
The Kansas City Chiefs, on the other hand, have had a terrific start to the season. Patrick Mahomes has led them to five wins from five, the latest a 22-6 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at Arrowhead, and the Chargers are still looking for their first win.
European Rugby: Two Bad Decisions
The Investec Champions Cup squeezed in an earlier than usual first round this weekend, and with the exception of Northampton Saints, every English team failed to win. The Saints beat Cardiff 28-12, helped by Cardiff making nine changes because they play the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship five days later. That is bad scheduling from the authorities.
Another bad decision is the choice of broadcast partner. The competition is on Premier Sports, an Irish-founded subscription channel, and for many Rugby fans it is one subscription too many.
Two separate decisions that show why Rugby’s administrators need to work more closely with one another for the good of the whole sport. Rugby sits in sport’s second tier, and it needs more fans to progress.
A Fan’s View: A Diary of a Sporting Weekend runs every Monday on This Sporting Planet, the world’s view of sport.
