Here are the football results for Wednesday, October 21, 2026: nine matches, 34 goals, and one scoreline that will be talked about all week. Como beat Manchester United 4-1 in the Champions League, LASK Linz won 3-2 at Sporting CP, and Bayern Munich and Arsenal shared a 2-2 draw in Munich. We cover every final score from the Champions League, La Liga and MLS below, with what each result means for the standings.
All scores below are final and were confirmed on October 22, 2026. We have kept this roundup to verified results. We do not list scorers or goal times we could not confirm. Where a match deserves more detail, we explain what the scoreline itself tells us.
The three stories of the day
Como 4-1 Manchester United: the night’s biggest upset
Manchester United went to Lake Como and conceded four times. That is the headline of the day, and it is not close.
Como play at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, a compact ground on the lakeshore that holds a fraction of Old Trafford’s crowd. Their arrival at this level has been one of the most watched projects in Italian football. Beating a club with United’s history by three goals is a statement about how far that project has come.
For United, a three-goal defeat in the league phase hurts in two ways. First, there are no points. Second, the goal difference damage of -3 is the first tiebreaker if teams finish level. In a 36-team table where many clubs end up separated by a single point, a result like this can decide whether a team goes straight to the round of 16 or has to play an extra knockout tie.
The scoreline will also add to the noise around the club. Anyone who has followed recent reporting on Carrick’s job at Man Utd will see this as another difficult night in a season where every result is being judged closely.
LASK Linz win 3-2 at Sporting CP
The second shock came in Lisbon. Sporting CP, one of Portugal’s big three, lost 3-2 at home to LASK Linz from Austria.
Sporting do not lose often at the Estádio José Alvalade, and LASK arrived as clear outsiders on reputation and budget. A five-goal game with the away side scoring three suggests this was open from start to finish. Sporting found two goals but could not stop a side that went at them.
LASK’s three away goals matter more than fans might think. Away goals no longer decide knockout ties, but total away goals scored still appear in the league phase tiebreaker list. We explain that further down.
Bayern Munich 2-2 Arsenal: the heavyweight draw
The best fixture on paper delivered four goals and no winner. Bayern and Arsenal drew 2-2 at the Allianz Arena.
This pairing has history. The two clubs met in the 2023-24 Champions League quarterfinals, when the first leg in London finished 2-2 and Bayern won the return 1-0 in Munich to go through. This time Arsenal left the Allianz Arena with a point, which is a solid return from one of the hardest away trips in Europe.
For both sides, a draw keeps them moving in the league phase without any damage to goal difference. Neither will be fully happy. Bayern rarely drop points at home in Europe, and Arsenal will feel a 2-2 in Munich could have been more.
Champions League results: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Nine league phase matches were played on Wednesday. Home teams won six, away teams won two, and one game was drawn.
| Result | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Como 4-1 Manchester United | FT | Giuseppe Sinigaglia |
| Lille 2-4 Galatasaray | FT | Decathlon Arena – Stade Pierre-Mauroy |
| Aston Villa 3-1 Viking FK | FT | Villa Park |
| Bayern Munich 2-2 Arsenal | FT | Allianz Arena |
| Club Brugge 3-0 Lens | FT | Jan Breydel Stadium |
| Internazionale 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk | FT | San Siro |
| Real Betis 1-0 Feyenoord Rotterdam | FT | Estadio La Cartuja |
| Real Madrid 4-1 RB Leipzig | FT | Santiago Bernabéu |
| Sporting CP 2-3 LASK Linz | FT | Estádio José Alvalade |
Match by match
Como 4-1 Manchester United. The upset of the night, covered above. Como take three points and a +3 goal difference from one game.
Lille 2-4 Galatasaray. The highest-scoring game of the day, with six goals in northern France. Galatasaray’s four away goals are a rare return in this competition. Lille scored twice at home and still lost by two, which says plenty about how open this match was.
Aston Villa 3-1 Viking FK. Villa did what was expected against the Norwegian side at Villa Park. A two-goal margin is a useful boost for goal difference, and Villa Park remains a hard place for visiting teams on European nights.
Bayern Munich 2-2 Arsenal. A point each from the day’s marquee fixture. Covered above.
Club Brugge 3-0 Lens. Brugge produced the only three-goal win with a clean sheet. The Jan Breydel Stadium has been a tough venue for bigger-budget clubs in recent European campaigns, and Lens are the latest French side to leave Bruges with nothing.
Internazionale 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk. Inter did the minimum at San Siro and got the full return. One goal, three points, no goals conceded. Low-scoring home wins are a familiar pattern for Inter in Europe.
Real Betis 1-0 Feyenoord Rotterdam. Betis earned another narrow home win, this time at Estadio La Cartuja, the Seville venue they are using while the Benito Villamarín is rebuilt. Feyenoord travelled south and could not find a goal.
Real Madrid 4-1 RB Leipzig. A three-goal home win for the 15-time European champions. Madrid and Leipzig met in the 2023-24 round of 16, when Madrid won 1-0 in Leipzig and drew 1-1 at home. This one was far more one-sided. For background on the club, see our Real Madrid club profile with history, stadium and honours.
Sporting CP 2-3 LASK Linz. The second upset of the night. Covered above.
What Wednesday means for the league phase table
The Champions League league phase puts all 36 teams in a single table. Each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents. The top eight go straight to the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th enter a two-legged knockout playoff. Clubs from 25th to 36th are eliminated and do not drop into the Europa League.
That format makes goal difference unusually important. Wednesday’s biggest swings in that column were:
| Team | Result | Points | Goal difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Como | Won 4-1 | +3 | +3 |
| Club Brugge | Won 3-0 | +3 | +3 |
| Real Madrid | Won 4-1 | +3 | +3 |
| Galatasaray | Won 4-2 | +3 | +2 |
| Aston Villa | Won 3-1 | +3 | +2 |
| LASK Linz | Won 3-2 | +3 | +1 |
| Internazionale | Won 1-0 | +3 | +1 |
| Real Betis | Won 1-0 | +3 | +1 |
| Bayern Munich | Drew 2-2 | +1 | 0 |
| Arsenal | Drew 2-2 | +1 | 0 |
| Sporting CP | Lost 2-3 | 0 | -1 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | Lost 0-1 | 0 | -1 |
| Feyenoord Rotterdam | Lost 0-1 | 0 | -1 |
| Lille | Lost 2-4 | 0 | -2 |
| Viking FK | Lost 1-3 | 0 | -2 |
| Manchester United | Lost 1-4 | 0 | -3 |
| RB Leipzig | Lost 1-4 | 0 | -3 |
| Lens | Lost 0-3 | 0 | -3 |
This table shows only what changed on Wednesday. It is not the overall standings, which also include Tuesday’s matches and earlier rounds.
Ref's note
Head-to-head does not settle ties in the league phase, because most teams never play each other. If clubs finish level on points, UEFA looks first at goal difference, then goals scored, then away goals scored. That is why Como’s 4-1 is worth more than a scrappy 1-0.
Common myth
“Away goals were scrapped, so they no longer matter.” UEFA dropped the away goals rule for two-legged knockout ties in 2021. In the league phase, total away goals scored is still a tiebreaker after goal difference and goals scored, so Galatasaray’s four in Lille could count later.
If you missed the first half of this round, our coverage of Tuesday’s results from October 20 has every score from the other Champions League games.
La Liga result: Levante 3-1 Athletic Club
Spain had one top-flight game on Wednesday night, and it went the way of the home side.
| Result | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Levante 3-1 Athletic Club | FT | Estadi Ciutat de València |
Levante 3-1 Athletic Club. This was a strong night for Levante at the Estadi Ciutat de València. Athletic Club are one of La Liga’s most consistent sides and a regular in European competition. Losing by two goals in Valencia is a setback they will not have planned for.
For Levante, three points against a team like Athletic is the kind of result that shapes a season. Clubs fighting to stay clear of the bottom three rarely get easy points against Bilbao, so a 3-1 win with a two-goal margin is a real boost.
On the table, Levante add three points and +2 to their goal difference. Athletic take a -2 hit. Unlike the Champions League, La Liga uses head-to-head record as its first tiebreaker between teams level on points, so this result will also count if the two clubs end the season tied.
MLS result: FC Cincinnati 2-1 D.C. United
The one MLS match on Wednesday went to the home side by a single goal.
| Result | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| FC Cincinnati 2-1 D.C. United | FT | TQL Stadium |
FC Cincinnati 2-1 D.C. United. Cincinnati edged Washington’s club at TQL Stadium. Both teams play in the Eastern Conference, so this is a direct swing in the same standings: three points to Cincinnati, none to D.C. United.
TQL Stadium has become one of the louder venues in the league since it opened in 2021. Cincinnati have built a reputation as a side that makes home advantage count, and a 2-1 win fits that pattern. For D.C. United, scoring once on the road and still losing is the sort of game that costs a team over a full schedule.
A one-goal margin moves goal difference by only one each way. In the Eastern Conference, where several teams are often bunched together late in the season, even that small change can matter.
Wednesday by the numbers
We ran the totals across all 11 games to show how the day played out.
| Measure | Champions League | La Liga | MLS | All games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 9 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Goals | 34 | 4 | 3 | 41 |
| Goals per game | 3.78 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 3.73 |
| Home wins | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Draws | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Away wins | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Home goals | 22 | 3 | 2 | 27 |
| Away goals | 12 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| Clean sheets | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
A few things stand out:
- Home teams dominated. Eight of 11 matches were home wins. The only teams to win away were Galatasaray and LASK Linz, and both did it by scoring at least three goals.
- Goals came easily. Only two of the 11 games finished with fewer than three goals: Inter’s 1-0 and Betis’s 1-0.
- Three teams won by three. Como, Club Brugge and Real Madrid all finished +3 for the night.
- The highest-scoring game was in Lille. Six goals at the Decathlon Arena, and the away side scored four of them.
- Only one draw. Bayern and Arsenal were the only teams to share the points all day.
The bigger picture after Wednesday
Mid-October is when the Champions League table starts to take shape. The league phase is short, with eight games per team. That means every defeat carries more weight than it did under the old six-game group format, where a slow start could be fixed against weaker teams in the same group.
Manchester United, RB Leipzig and Lens all lost by three goals. Recovering from that hit to goal difference takes a heavy win of their own later. Sporting CP lost at home to a team they would expect to beat, which shrinks their room for error.
On the other side, Como, Galatasaray and LASK gave themselves breathing room. Clubs from outside Europe’s richest leagues often target the playoff places from 9th to 24th, and three points away from home is the most valuable result in that race.
Real Madrid’s win was the most routine of the big clubs’ results. Inter and Betis took the efficient route with 1-0 wins. Bayern and Arsenal stayed level with each other, which could matter if they finish close to the top-eight line.
Domestically, Levante’s win over Athletic Club and Cincinnati’s victory over D.C. United were both home wins that tighten the middle of their tables. Neither result settles anything on its own, but both add points the losing sides will want back.
Thursday brings the Europa League and Conference League back into the schedule, and we will have every score from those competitions in our next daily roundup.
FAQ
What was the biggest upset in football on October 21, 2026?
Como’s 4-1 win over Manchester United in the Champions League was the biggest shock. Sporting CP’s 2-3 home defeat to LASK Linz was close behind.
How many goals were scored in the Champions League on October 21, 2026?
There were 34 goals across nine Champions League matches, an average of 3.78 per game. Lille 2-4 Galatasaray was the highest-scoring match with six goals.
Which teams won away from home on Wednesday?
Only two: Galatasaray, who won 4-2 at Lille, and LASK Linz, who won 3-2 at Sporting CP. Every other winning team was playing at home.
How does the Champions League league phase decide qualification?
All 36 clubs share one table. The top eight go straight to the round of 16, teams in 9th to 24th play a two-legged knockout playoff, and the bottom 12 are eliminated. If teams are level on points, goal difference is the first tiebreaker.
Is VAR used in Champions League matches?
Yes. VAR is used in every Champions League match, and it can review goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards and cases of mistaken identity. If you want the full explanation of the meaning of VAR and how reviews work, our dedicated guide covers it.
What was the score in La Liga on Wednesday, October 21?
Levante beat Athletic Club 3-1 at the Estadi Ciutat de València. It was the only La Liga match played that day.
What was the MLS result on October 21, 2026?
FC Cincinnati beat D.C. United 2-1 at TQL Stadium. Both clubs are in the Eastern Conference, so the result moves both teams in the same standings.
