{"id":927197,"date":"2026-10-13T23:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927197\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T23:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:56:15","slug":"champions-league-news-2026-australian-gianni-stensness-scores-against-bayern-munich-nestory-irankunda-assist-in-sporting-cp-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927197\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League news 2026 | Australian Gianni Stensness scores against Bayern Munich; Nestory Irankunda assist in Sporting CP win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forgotten Australian player Gianni Stensness put his name up in lights in the Champions League<\/a> on Wednesday (AEDT), slotting the opening goal against German giants Bayern Munich<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stensness, 27, who represented the Socceroos<\/a> twice during the 2022 World Cup qualifiers for his only two caps, needed two minutes to put Viking FK on the scoreboard, nailing a header from close range. <\/p>\n

\"Stensness<\/p>\n

Stensness scored the opening goal against Bayern Munich.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Stensess ran straight to the corner to celebrate his efforts with teammates, marking a memorable moment in his career and also the club\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

Viking had never featured in a Champions League draw until the 2026-27 season, making their tournament debut against Vfb Stuttgart, which ended in a 3-1 loss. <\/p>\n

To add to the celebrations of scoring the opening goal, the Norwegian top-flight team managed to gain a 2-0 lead over Bayern Munich heading into half-time. <\/p>\n

A Harry Kane<\/a> penalty in the 54th minute turned momentum back in favour of the Bundesliga champions, with the English star later nailing a goal in open play. <\/p>\n

With scores levelled up, Bayern Munich found a chance for Luis Diaz to hit the back of the net. The club then lost Michael Olise to a red card for lashing out. <\/p>\n

Viking\u2019s Herman Haugen smashed a goal in the final minute of regular time to equalise, securing a 3-3 draw. <\/p>\n

Stensness was not the only Australian star who put on a show during the Champions League matchday, with Nestory Irankunda making a statement of his own. <\/p>\n

Irankunda has become a regular starter for Portuguese powerhouse Sporting despite intense competition for wing spots and he repaid the manager with a classy assist against French club RC Lens, setting up teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez to draw first blood. <\/p>\n

The Australian star received the ball on the left, coming in towards the box before crossing it to the open Suarez, who made no mistake with the tap in. <\/p>\n

It marked the second consecutive Champions League game in which Irankunda had provided an assist, with Sporting putting Lens to the sword 2-0.<\/p>\n

Sporting head coach Rui Borges gave Irankunda credit post-game. <\/p>\n

\"Nestory<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda put in a starring performance against Lens.\u00a0Daniel Weir\/Sports Press<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s played well and today he played a great game,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes from the English second division and wasn\u2019t used to playing in the Champions League. I gave him a hug because he was laughing. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a clown \u2013 in a good way. He\u2019s always laughing and happy. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe made the best decision in coming to Sporting, and we are very happy with a young player who has a lot of potential. I have no doubt that he will have an increasing impact on the team\u2019s decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second match day of the Champions League first phase will continue on Thursday (AEDT), with Manchester City and Paris Saint German set to face off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forgotten Australian player Gianni Stensness put his name up in lights in the Champions League on Wednesday (AEDT),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-927197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}