Midweek Brief: 8/26/2026

Theron Norrington

Aug 26

8 min read

Issue No. 6 | European Qualifying, Premier League Matchweek 1, WNBA playoff spots

The stories worth your time. Every Wednesday.

The Champions League delivered chaos, the Premier League returned with a statement, Vietnam defended its regional crown, and the WNBA playoff picture is finally complete. Meanwhile, the U.S. Open has already given us one of the most bizarre and star-studded tennis stories of the year.

Here’s your midweek roundup.

LASK steal the show this week after a 5-1 win in the second leg to advance to the Champions League.

Champions League qualifying: absolute chaos

If the Champions League qualifying playoffs were supposed to be a calm final hurdle before the league phase, somebody forgot to tell the teams.

Seven places in the 2026/27 league phase were decided this week, and several of the ties produced results that will be remembered for a long time.

LASK complete one of the great comebacks

This is the story of the round.

LASK entered the second leg against Celtic 3-0 down, meaning they already had a mountain to climb. Then, in the 21st minute, Callum McGregor scored for Celtic, stretching the aggregate lead to 4-0.

It looked over.

It absolutely was not.

Moses Usor pulled one back in the 32nd minute before Robert Ljubičić scored early in the second half. Then American striker Samuel Adeniran made it 3-1 on the night in the 58th minute, putting LASK within one goal of forcing extra time.

And then came the madness.

Florian Flecker equalized in stoppage time, sending the tie to extra time at 4-4 on aggregate.

LASK weren't satisfied with simply completing the comeback.

Adeniran struck again in the 109th minute, putting LASK ahead for the first time in the tie and completing a 5-1 second-leg victory and 5-4 aggregate win.

From four goals down on aggregate to Champions League football.

For Celtic, it's one of the most painful European collapses in the club's history. For LASK, it's their first-ever Champions League league-phase appearance.

And for Adeniran? Two goals in one of the biggest games of his career.

Sabah pull off another comeback

LASK weren't the only team pulling off the improbable.

Sabah entered their second leg against Hapoel Beer-Sheva trailing 2-1 from the first leg. They eventually won the second leg 5-2 after extra time, advancing 6-4 on aggregate.

Azerbaijan's Sabah, a club founded less than a decade ago, have now reached the Champions League league phase for the first time.

Two teams that looked dead in their respective ties are now heading into Europe's biggest club competition.

Bodø/Glimt keep rolling

Bodø/Glimt made considerably easier work of their tie.

After beating NEC Nijmegen 3-1 in the first leg, the Norwegian champions completed the job with another 3-0 victory, winning 6-1 on aggregate.

That means Bodø/Glimt will play in the Champions League league phase for the second consecutive season, continuing one of the most impressive European rises in recent Scandinavian football.

Fenerbahçe finally return

Fenerbahçe have waited a long time for this.

After drawing Lyon 1-1 in Istanbul, the Turkish giants traveled to France and won 2-1, advancing 3-2 on aggregate.

It ends an 18-year wait for Champions League league-phase football. Fenerbahçe's last appearance at this stage came in 2008/09, and they had subsequently suffered nine qualifying eliminations.

A long wait is finally over.

AEK Athens cruise through

There was no comeback required in Athens.

After a goalless first leg against Levski Sofia, AEK exploded in the second, winning 4-0.

Luka Jović opened the scoring before Barnabás Varga added two more in the first half. Răzvan Marin then completed the rout from the penalty spot.

AEK return to the Champions League league phase for the first time since 2018/19.

Viking stun Dinamo Zagreb

Viking entered the second leg level with Dinamo Zagreb at 2-2.

They left it with a place in the Champions League.

The Norwegian side won 3-1, overturning Dinamo and advancing 5-3 on aggregate. After conceding early, Viking responded with a penalty from Zlatko Tripić before Edvin Austbø and Tobias Moi completed the turnaround.

Slovan survive extra time

Slovan Bratislava also needed extra time.

After a 1-1 first leg, Celje and Slovan played out another tight contest, with Slovan eventually winning 2-1 after extra time to take the tie 3-2 on aggregate.

Hull City runaway as victors in the first match week return to the Prem.

Premier League: Matchday 1 goes completely off script

The Premier League is back.

And if Matchday 1 is anything to go by, this season is going to be chaos.

Hull City 2-0 Manchester United

Manchester United traveled to newly promoted Hull City expecting three points.

Instead, they got embarrassed.

Semi Ajayi opened the scoring before Nobel Mendy doubled Hull's advantage, giving the Tigers a 2-0 halftime lead that they never surrendered.

For Hull, it was their first-ever Premier League victory over Manchester United.

For United, it was an awful way to start a season in which they were expected to challenge near the top after finishing third last season.

Hull's victory was given just an 11% probability by Opta before kickoff.

Yeah. Nobody saw that coming.

Brentford 3-0 Tottenham

Tottenham's new era got off to a miserable start.

Brentford comfortably dispatched Spurs 3-0, with Keane Lewis-Potter and Vitaly Janelt scoring before halftime and Michael Kayode adding a third shortly after the break.

Tottenham didn't even manage a first-half shot on target.

For a club that spent heavily over the summer, it was a particularly concerning opening performance.

Brighton 4-0 Aston Villa

Brighton didn't just beat Aston Villa.

They obliterated them.

The Seagulls scored four times in the opening 31 minutes. Victor Lindelöf's own goal opened the floodgates, Maxim De Cuyper added another, and Jack Hinshelwood scored twice in just over a minute.

Villa then went down to ten men before halftime after João Gomes was sent off.

Final score: Brighton 4, Aston Villa 0.

Not exactly the start the Europa League winners wanted.

Chelsea survive five-goal thriller

Chelsea also started with a win, but they had to work for it.

The Blues edged Fulham 3-2 in a frantic West London derby.

João Pedro scored after just 31 seconds before Fulham equalized. Morgan Rogers restored Chelsea's lead and Cole Palmer added a third, before another Fulham goal made the final stages nervy.

New Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso gets three points on his competitive debut.

But judging by Matchday 1, absolutely nobody is safe.

Vietnam win their 4th ASEAN title, a rising footballing federation ambitious for the next Asian Cup.

Vietnam defend the ASEAN crown

Vietnam are champions of Southeast Asia once again.

And somehow, the final was almost as chaotic as the Champions League playoffs.

Vietnam entered the second leg against Thailand holding a 2-0 first-leg advantage. Thailand came out aggressively and took the lead in the 12th minute.

Then came the bizarre stuff.

Vietnam equalized through an own goal before Thailand regained the lead in the 85th minute.

But in stoppage time, Thailand scored another own goal.

Final score:

Vietnam 2-2 Thailand

Vietnam win 4-2 on aggregate.

The result gives Vietnam their second consecutive ASEAN Cup title and fourth overall.

Even crazier: Thailand have now scored four own goals across the knockout stages of the last two ASEAN Cups, with three of those coming against Vietnam.

Vietnam don't care how they got there.

They're champions again.

The Dallas Wings become the final team to clinch a playoff spot, sitting currently 8th in the league.

WNBA: The playoff field is finally set

The WNBA playoff picture is officially complete.

All eight playoff spots have been clinched, meaning the final stretch of the regular season is now almost entirely about seeding.

And there is still plenty to play for.

As of August 26:

Minnesota Lynx, 31-8
Golden State Valkyries, 26-11
Las Vegas Aces, 26-13
Atlanta Dream, 25-13
Indiana Fever, 25-14
New York Liberty, 23-15
Washington Mystics, 23-15
Dallas Wings, 23-16

The biggest storyline might be the race at the top.

Minnesota has built a substantial lead, but Golden State, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Indiana are all within striking distance of the top two seeds.

And then there's Dallas.

The Wings have officially secured their playoff spot after a season that looked completely different at various points. They currently sit eighth at 23-16.

With only a handful of games remaining before the league pauses for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, the playoff field is set, but the bracket is absolutely not.

The WNBA returns from the break September 17, meaning every game before then suddenly matters a whole lot more.

Elina Svitolina, Gael Monfils advance to the mixed doubles semifinals in New York.

The U.S. Open is already getting weird

The main singles tournament hasn't even gotten going yet, but the U.S. Open has already delivered one of the biggest stories of the tournament.

Serena Williams + Carlos Alcaraz

Yes.

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz actually played mixed doubles together.

The unlikely superstar pairing received a wild card and immediately became one of the biggest attractions of the tournament. They won their opening match before reaching the quarterfinals, where they eventually lost to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 5-4(4), 4-1.

It was Serena's return to the U.S. Open after four years away, while Alcaraz was returning from a wrist injury that had kept him out since April.

And Serena isn't finished in New York.

She and sister Venus have received a wildcard for the women's doubles tournament, marking another reunion for one of the greatest doubles partnerships in tennis history.

And the men's draw is wide open

Defending champion Alcaraz is returning, but the men's field looks considerably different this year.

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is out injured, while Alexander Zverev enters as the top seed and one of the favorites after winning his first Grand Slam at Roland-Garros earlier this year.

For once, the U.S. Open doesn't feel like it's automatically destined for the same handful of names.

And that could make New York very interesting.

The Chinese film has taken storm, becoming a meme throughout the country and now internationally too.

The $200 movie that became an ROI phenomenon

Forget Hollywood.

One of the wildest movie stories of 2026 is coming out of China.

Niu Lai, a micro-budget animated film created by a mother-and-son team, reportedly cost just $200 to make.

And somehow, it's become a box-office phenomenon.

The film initially earned almost nothing. Then social media discovered it.

What followed was completely unexpected: audiences began embracing the film's extremely rough animation, amateurish presentation and homemade charm. What initially looked like a disaster turned into a cult sensation.

The film has now grossed millions of dollars in China.

Using the widely reported $200 budget, one current calculation puts its gross at roughly 36,921 times its production cost, equivalent to an ROI of about 3.69 million percent. That would comfortably surpass Paranormal Activity, whose famous budget-to-box-office ratio has long been held up as one of cinema's greatest financial miracles.

There is an important caveat: the $200 figure isn't independently audited. Different reports have put the film's budget at anywhere from tens of dollars to several thousand dollars.

But even if the higher estimates are used, the story is still extraordinary.

Niu Lai is essentially the opposite of the modern Hollywood blockbuster.

No $200 million budget.

No massive marketing campaign.

No famous cast.

Just a tiny production that the internet decided it wanted to see.

And suddenly, everyone is talking about it.

THE MIDWEEK TAKEAWAY

This week had a little bit of everything.

LASK erased a four-goal deficit.

Sabah came back from behind.

Fenerbahçe ended an 18-year Champions League drought.

Hull City embarrassed Manchester United.

Brighton destroyed Aston Villa.

Vietnam defended its ASEAN crown through two Thai own goals.

The WNBA playoff field is set.

Serena Williams teamed up with Carlos Alcaraz.

And a $200 animated movie became a box-office sensation.

Theron Norrington

Founder & Editor, OffTheRecord