GENEVA – Long-time absentees from top-level European soccer had a good evening against the Champions League regulars in their return to action Wednesday.
Sparta Prague, playing on the main stage of the competition for the first time in 19 years, brushed aside Salzburg 3-0 after taking the lead in less than two minutes.
Bologna had to wait 60 years and held Champions League veteran Shakhtar Donetsk to a 0-0 draw in Italy. Bologna did most of the attacking after the Ukrainian champion had a penalty saved in the fourth minute.
They were the two early kickoffs on the second evening of the new Champions League format which replaces the traditional group stage. Now, 36 teams each play eight different opponents through January and are ranked in a single league table to decide which teams advance to the knockout phase.
Manchester City hosting Inter Milan, in a repeat of the 2023 final won by the English Premier League champion, was the standout of four games later Wednesday.
Sparta got the fastest start so far when Finland midfielder Kaan Kairinen followed up a loose ball to score with just 108 seconds on the clock.
Nigerian forward Victor Olatunji made it two in the 42nd, shooting low and accurately from a tight angle, and Albania midfielder Qazim Laçi added a third in the 58th.
It was a losing start in the Champions League proper for Salzburg coach Pep Lijnders, who was assistant to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool before leaving with his long-time boss in the offseason.
Salzburg had to advance through two qualifying rounds in August because its 10-year title run in Austria was ended by Sturm Graz, but Sparta came through three, and had already played six games in the competition.
Bologna was playing in just its third-ever game in the competition, and first since a preliminary round exit 60 years ago when the European Cup was open only to national champions.
Facing a penalty kick for Shakhtar in just the fourth minute, goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski dived to his right to hold playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov’s shot.
Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk repeatedly denied Bologna with saves from the home team’s 18 attempts on goal.
Bologna still plays in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara that has been its home for almost 100 years. It staged games at the 1934 World Cup, and again in the 1990 tournament.
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