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Man City and Inter Milan draw 0-0 in the low-scoring Champions League. PSG scores late to beat Girona

By GRAHAM DUNBAR, AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — Where have all the gates gone?

The 0-0 draw between Manchester City and Inter Milan in the rematch of the 2023 final, after Bologna and Shakhtar Donetsk also failed to score, crowned an untypically low-scoring evening on Wednesday for the Champions League.

One day after 28 goals were scored on Tuesday, only 13 goals were scored in six games, nine of which were scored by FC Bayern Munich alone.

How unusual was that? Two 0-0 draws after just 12 of 144 matches in the new league phase are already half of the total of four draws in 96 matches a year ago in the now-abolished group stage format. Across the entire competition last season, an average of three goals per game was scored.

Paris Saint-Germain and Girona were also struggling until the Spanish debutants’ goalkeeper, Paulo Gazzaniga, made a terrible mistake in the 90th minute – letting a cross from Nuno Mendes slip through his own legs – and gifted them a 1-0 victory.

“We won’t get where we want to be overnight,” said Girona coach Míchel. “It requires hard work.”

Borussia Dortmund needed late goals from substitute Jamie Gittens (twice) and Serhou Guirassy with a penalty in injury time to win 3-0 at Club Brugge.

The new format welcomed new faces and long-absent friends to Europe’s premier football competition.

Sparta Prague rose to the challenge of their first game at this stage of the Champions League in 19 years with a 3-0 win against Salzburg.

Bologna waited 60 years for its comeback and deserved more for its attacking ambitions against Champions League veteran Shakhtar. The Ukrainian champions were denied a penalty in the fourth minute by Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.

Slovan Bratislava were defeated in their first match since 1992/93, the first season of the Champions League’s renaming from the old European Cup. Georgian defender Guram Kashia made his debut in the competition at the age of 37.

They were unable to hold off Celtic, who won 5-1 in Glasgow. Irish internationals Liam Scales and Adam Idah, Japanese strikers Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda and Belgian Arne Engels scored the goals for the Scottish champions.

“The quality of the goals was sensational,” said Celtic coach Brendan Rodgers after the 1967 European Cup winners’ fourth win in just their 33rd Champions League match.

On a rare Thursday, Champions League matches will take place, with Barcelona traveling to Monaco, Atalanta hosting Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen traveling to Feyenoord.

The new format will open with six games each over three consecutive nights. By January, 36 teams will play against eight different opponents each and will be ranked in a single league table to decide which teams will advance to the knockout phase.

Man City achieves rare clean sheet at home

Fifteen months after Man City beat Inter 1-0 in Istanbul to win the European Cup for the first time, nothing separated the English and Italian champions.

Ilkay Gündogan missed two late chances for coach Pep Guardiola’s team and was unable to convert two header opportunities.

It was the first time City had failed to score at home in an elite European tournament since a 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon in March 2022, and only the second time at home in all competitions since then. The other was a 0-0 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League in March.

But the result allowed City to extend their six-year unbeaten home run in Europe to 32, beginning with a 2-1 defeat to Lyon.

“I am satisfied with our performance, I liked everything,” said Guardiola.

Dortmund somehow manages to keep a clean sheet again

Dortmund’s defense kept six clean sheets on the way to the final of last season’s Champions League, winning the title with two late goals.

Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel somehow managed to keep out Brugge despite 18 attempts on goal, including a close-range shot from Hugo Vetlesen that hit the crossbar in the 12th minute. Vetlesen’s attempt ended a mad streak of four shots in seconds following a corner that Kobel parried with a diving save.

Thanks to the Swiss goalkeeper’s five saves, Dortmund only had to pay for its wastefulness in front of goal in the 76th minute, when Gittens’ shot was deflected by two defenders and then flew past Simon Mignolet into the Bruges goal.

Salzburg’s heavy burden

Few clubs will play more international games this season than Salzburg under their new coach Pep Lijnders, Jürgen Klopp’s former long-time assistant at Liverpool FC.

Salzburg had to survive two Champions League qualifying rounds in August – as their ten-year title run in Austria was ended by Sturm Graz – and will play at least three more games at the Club World Cup in the USA in June.

Due to its consistent results in the past four Champions League seasons, Salzburg was among the twelve European teams that qualified for the new edition of the FIFA club tournament, but was knocked out of the race in Prague.

“Some of our players played their first game for the club,” said Lijnders. “It’s a new team that we have to build.”

Sparta have already survived three qualifying rounds and six matches en route to this stage and got off to a strong start on Wednesday, scoring a goal inside two minutes to set the stage for an easy win.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.