My Nephew Must be Dying with Joy About his Arsenal Team at UEFA Championship Games

In their last of eight first UEFA games, Arsenal beat Karait Football team from Kazakhstan in a tough 3-2 win, but the big story for Arsenal so far is that they are the only time in UEFA Championship at this stage to win all their games and finished at the top of the table with 24 points.

My family is full of football fans or fanatics to be precise, and back home we go crazy cheering our teams and my nephew the Arsenal guy is always in the receiving end because of their shortage of trophies, but he always stands with Arsenal.

Now they are beating everybody, it is beginning to look like they are getting a big trophy this year. As things stand right now, it will take a miracle for Arsenal not to win either the Premier Lague Championship of EUFA trophy finally.

The Liverpool fans in our family are the nosiest and with Jorgen Klopp winning everything in the world of football in the last couple of years you needed an ear plug to attend any game they are playing when those fellas are around because their noise cheering their team is unbearable.

Arsenal last game against Karait over the weekend was just okay for them because they are looking for the big one.

The only team to come closest to Arsenal in the championship has been Bayern Munich who finished with 21 points and suffered their only loss in a game against Arsenal.

Then of course my fauvorite team, Chelsea did their job and ended up in top 8 and are heading to the big ones with Arsenal and others. Chelsea took care of Napoli at their own home

As always tell football fans out here, Chelsea is the only team in Europe and the Premier League where the majority of those exceptionally distinguished players in their team are not only some of the most talented Black players in football but most of them are Africans born in Europe and elsewhere.

That was the case in Napoli at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Sunday January 28, 2026, in Italy.

For the record here is Clyde Best the first Black Player in English football who played for West Ham in the Premier League scoring 47 goals as a striker for West Ham United between 1968 and 1975.

But the biggest win in the UEFA so far and a game that took a life of its own was Jose Mourinho taking his Benfica team against the kings of football Real Madrid at home and Benfica was up 3-2 to Madrid but they needed and extra goal to make it 4-2 victory so they could beat Marseille to the 24th spot on goal difference which is the last spot to make it to the play-offs.

With less that one minute left in the game Benfica had a corner to take and Jose Mourinho took his goalie to go play in the attack for that corner ball and nobody could believe it when the Benfica goalkeeper headed the very last touch of the ball into the Real Madrid net and bingo it was the biggest party for Benfica and their supporters.

The fact that Mourinho was playing against one of the best teams in the world where he became a superstar as a manager winning big trophies at will was itself a big deal because Madrid with Mpabbe now should be even better but not his time. So, for Jose to beat Real Madid by two goals which his team badly need to move to the next stage is stuff for legends.

Those who know me and know about my madness with football know that it started with Jose Mourinho as Chelsea manager with my beloved Didier Drogba at the club doing amazing things in the Premier League and all over Europe and that was some 30 years ago.

Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada