Fenerbahce Blow a Two-Goal Lead in the 90th Minute as Slavia Snatch a 2-2 Draw, and Guirassy's Double Gives Dortmund a 2-1 Win at Sabah

ISTANBUL · BAKU · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026

The early window of Champions League Matchday 3 offered the same lesson in two time zones: an early lead is a loan, not a possession. In Istanbul, Fenerbahce scored twice in the first 11 minutes against Slavia Prague, spent the rest of the evening failing to score a third, and were punished in the 90th minute by a substitute who had been on the pitch for four minutes — Pavel Kacor turning home Emmanuel Ayaosi's delivery to finish a 2-2 draw that felt, from the home end, like a defeat. In Baku, Borussia Dortmund needed their most reliable habit to survive the competition's most unlikely hosts: Serhou Guirassy scored in the 10th minute, Sabah's Aden McCarthy headed a 39th-minute equaliser that the Baku Olympic Stadium celebrated like a winner, and Guirassy volleyed the actual winner eight minutes after half-time for a 2-1 victory that was worth three points and very little comfort.

Fifteen minutes of chaos, then 75 minutes of regret in Istanbul

The opening quarter of an hour at the Sukru Saracoglu was the wildest of the matchday so far. Flashscore's report records that it was one of Fenerbahce's Champions League novices, Oguz Aydin, who broke the deadlock on four minutes, stepping in off the right and curling an inch-perfect effort into the top corner beyond the fingertips of Jakub Markovic, with Milan Skriniar credited with the assist on the fixture record. Seven minutes later Nelson Semedo found Mason Greenwood in the area, and Greenwood took one touch to steady himself before volleying home for 2-0. At that point the only question in the building was the margin. Then Matteo Guendouzi, inexplicably in Flashscore's word, played a blind pass straight to Lukas Provod on the edge of the area on 15 minutes, and Provod swept it home to halve the deficit and change the entire emotional weather of the night.

What followed was a study in a team declining to finish its own work. Guendouzi whistled an effort just over the bar in partial atonement, Aydin whipped another shot narrowly wide, and after the restart Provod was given too much space on the edge of the area and dragged a left-footed effort wide as Slavia's belief grew. On the hour, Flashscore noted, only a stunning last-ditch block from Archie Brown denied Wiktor Nowak an equaliser. Fenerbahce brought on Romelu Lukaku, the serial goalscorer, for Vedat Muriqi just past the hour, but the attacking display stayed timid, and when Lukaku did get his chance in the closing minutes he blazed a right-footed effort wildly over the bar — the miss that left the door open.

Kacor walked through it. Introduced in the 86th minute, the substitute stole a march on Semedo at the far post in the 90th minute and turned home Ayaosi's teasing delivery, a flying finish that TNT Sports' live blog described as no less than the Czech champions deserved. The numbers underline the sting: this is now a nine-match winless run for Fenerbahce in the Champions League main draw, per Flashscore, in what is already a nightmare start to their first main-draw appearance since 2008/09 — and Slavia, for their part, left with a point despite stretching their own winless run in the competition proper to 22 matches. Greenwood, named Flashscore's man of the match, had done his part by the 11th minute. Nobody in yellow and navy did quite enough after it.

Sabah land their punches, Guirassy lands the last one

If Fenerbahce's was a story of a giant careless with a lead, Baku's was about a giant made to earn one. Sabah are, as The Times' live coverage put it, the fourth-lowest ranked team ever to play in this competition — UEFA rank them 244th in Europe, they were founded nine years ago, and they arrived in the league phase through all four qualifying rounds, as iDiski Times noted. None of that looked relevant once the game started. VAVEL's report had Kaheem Parris causing an early scare inside three minutes, and although Fabio Silva twice tested Stas Pokatilov, it was a spill that opened the scoring on 10 minutes: Felix Nmecha's strike was parried by Pokatilov straight into Guirassy's path, and the rebound was tucked in from close range, as both VAVEL and Bundesliga.com's liveticker recorded.

Sabah's response was the best advertisement the league phase format will get all season. Joy-Lance Mickels curled a finish into the top corner around the half-hour only for a marginal offside to rule it out, and on 39 minutes the equaliser that counted arrived: Tymoteusz Puchacz swung in a free-kick from the right and McCarthy, the 22-year-old South African centre-half, rose to glance his header past Gregor Kobel. Soccer Laduma recorded it as McCarthy's first goal for the club and his first in the Champions League, in his third consecutive start in the competition — a former Kaizer Chiefs academy product scoring against Borussia Dortmund. Parris then forced Kobel into another save before half-time, and for a few minutes the upset was not a romance but a live possibility.

Dortmund's experience told eight minutes after the restart, the way experience is supposed to. Joey Veerman crossed towards the back post and Guirassy buried a first-time side-foot volley — his fourth goal in this season's competition, already matching his total from the previous campaign, per Flashscore, and, on The Times' count, his 26th goal in 23 Champions League starts for Dortmund. He nearly completed a hat-trick soon after, denied at point-blank range by McCarthy of all people, and the closing stages offered one scare apiece: Silva struck wide when through, substitute Orphe Mbina shot off target from a similar position, and Marcel Sabitzer saw a strike deflected out for a corner as Dortmund closed the game down. Flashscore's verdict framed the result plainly: a 2-1 win that ends a three-game winless run in all competitions for Dortmund and moves them onto six points from three league-phase matches, while Sabah's first home defeat of the season — and the end of a perfect home record in Europe this term — leaves them on three points, with a performance nobody in Baku will file under failure.

What the early window leaves behind

Two matches, seven goals, and a table picture that sharpened in opposite directions. Dortmund did what contenders are supposed to do on the awkward trips: they were second-best for stretches in Baku, rode out a debutant crowd's best night, and left with the points because their striker needed two chances and took both. Sabah, beaten for the first time at home this season, have now scored in a famous win over Slavia and a narrow defeat by Dortmund, and nobody left in this league phase will treat the trip to Azerbaijan as a formality again. Fenerbahce's arithmetic is colder. Two goals in 11 minutes at home against a side that has not won in this competition in 22 main-draw matches should be a platform; instead it became the setup for a 90th-minute equaliser, a nine-match winless run of their own, and an Istanbul crowd that watched the late slate kick off knowing exactly which of Tuesday's results it would still be thinking about in the morning.