MADRID (AP) — Rodri made his Barcelona debut in the team’s 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish League on Thursday, while Chelsea and Fulham advanced to the third round of the English League Cup.
Barcelona's match was supposed to feature a tribute to Spain’s World Cup champions but instead it became an act of support for the “estelada” flag, Catalonia’s pro-independence symbol.
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Fulham's Gonzalo Garcia, left, gets past the AFC Wimbledon goalkeeper Nathan Bishop to score their third goal of the game during the League Cup soccer match between Fulham and AFC Wimbledon in London, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Chelsea's Danny Welbeck celebrates scoring during the League Cup soccer match between Chelsea and Luton Town in London, Thursday Aug. 27, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal controls the ball surrounded by Athletic players during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Pau Cubarsi, left, and Athletic Bilbao's Aymeric Laporte challenge for the ball during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Rodrigo gestures during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Rodri, signed from Manchester City after captaining Spain to the World Cup title, came off the bench in the 62nd minute to a warm welcome from the Camp Nou crowd.
“I'm happy to play my first game with Barcelona, happy for the victory, the second in a row for the team,” Rodri said. “It's important to start gaining rhythm. I felt good with my first minutes.”
Rodri is one of eight World Cup winners in Barcelona's squad, but the planned tribute for them ahead of the match didn't take place after one of the club's fans had an estelada flag taken away from him by police before the team’s game at Elche last weekend. He confronted the officers and ended up being hit and detained.
Instead of the tribute, an act supporting the estelada organized by a local group took place with Camp Nou laden with some 10,000 small flags that were handed to fans.
Raphinha and Fermín López scored a goal in each half to give Barcelona its second straight win to start the defense of its Spanish league title.
Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simón — Spain's starter at the World Cup — made a series of outstanding saves to keep Barcelona from scoring more goals.
In the other La Liga game, Osasuna came from behind to win 2-1 at 10-man Celta Vigo.
Danny Welbeck's goal and an own-goal by Hakeem Odoffin gave Chelsea a 2-0 win over third-division Luton in the second round of the English League Cup.
Chelsea coach Xabi Alonso fielded a strong lineup following a 3-2 win at Fulham in the Premier League on Monday, but Enzo Fernandez — reportedly of interest to Man City — was not in the squad.
Luton is coached by 34-year-old Jack Wilshere, the former Arsenal and England midfielder.
In the other League Cup game, Fulham defeated third-tier Wimbledon 3-0 with goals by Emile Smith Rowe, Rodrigo Muniz and Gonzalo García. It was coach Álvaro Arbeloa's first win in charge of the London club.
Mohamed Salah's Trabzonspor was eliminated by Ferencvaros 5-0 on aggregate following a 4-0 away loss in the second leg.
Trabzonspor finished the game with nine men after having Ruslan Malinovskyi sent off in the 13th minute and Sidny Lopes Cabral in the 57th.
Salah, who scored his first goals with his new club over the weekend, was substituted in the second half.
Portugal's Benfica beat Danish side AGF 3-1 on the road to advance 6-2 on aggregate. Gianluca Prestianni, who was disciplined for verbally abusing Vinícius Júnior in the Champions League last season, scored twice for Benfica.
In the Conference League playoffs, Rangers fell to Czech Republic side Jablonec in a penalty shootout.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
Fulham's Gonzalo Garcia, left, gets past the AFC Wimbledon goalkeeper Nathan Bishop to score their third goal of the game during the League Cup soccer match between Fulham and AFC Wimbledon in London, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Chelsea's Danny Welbeck celebrates scoring during the League Cup soccer match between Chelsea and Luton Town in London, Thursday Aug. 27, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal controls the ball surrounded by Athletic players during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Pau Cubarsi, left, and Athletic Bilbao's Aymeric Laporte challenge for the ball during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Rodrigo gestures during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Athletic in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
The ongoing White House construction contributed to radio problems that kept air traffic controllers from hearing calls warning that President Donald Trump's helicopter was getting ready to take off, so they cleared an airline jet to take off just as Marine One took to the air earlier this month, federal investigators said Thursday.
The week before the president's helicopter got too close to that Envoy Air jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, air traffic controllers and Marine One pilots met to discuss controllers not receiving the standard three-minute warning call ahead of Marine One flights, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. They made plans to relay radio calls through someone else if there were future problems but that was also unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident.
Technicians discovered after the fact that the reason Marine One was having trouble talking to the tower at times was because the helicopter shifted to a new location during the White House construction. So the Federal Aviation Administration moved the radio receiver out of a neighborhood near the airport and to the top of the tower at Reagan to fix the problem.
“Even though they were aware of some previous communications issues, they never got at the root cause,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said.
The FAA said in a statement that it took immediate action after the incident by moving that antenna “to improve communications” between the airport and Marine One pilots.
The White House didn't immediately respond to the preliminary report, although the ongoing NTSB investigation does limit what it can say about the incident.
Having both the jet and helicopter in the air at the same time also seemed to violate safety procedures put in place after last year’s midair collision near the busy airport that killed 67 people, but officials stressed that the president was never in danger. The Pentagon also has a longstanding agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide controllers with a three-minute warning before the president’s helicopter takes off that predates last year’s crash.
The NTSB said recordings from the tower showed that the controllers never heard the calls from Marine One's pilot that day warning that the helicopter was getting ready to take off, but separate recordings posted by ATC.com show the helicopter did make those calls.
The helicopter pilots tried to relay their three-minute call through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, but that was also unsuccessful.
The FAA decided after an airliner collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29, 2025, that all takeoffs and landings at the airport would be halted anytime a helicopter passes by on a conflicting route. The airspace near the White House and Reagan is heavily congested with military and commercial aircraft.
The FAA has acknowledged that the helicopter and airliner briefly got too close before the two aircraft started to move away from each other. The airplane quickly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots saw the plane and paused until it safely left the area.
The NTSB said preliminary estimates show the helicopter and plane were just over 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) apart laterally and about 700 feet (215 meters) apart vertically at their closest. The crew of the Envoy Air flight told investigators they received a traffic warning from their collision avoidance system right after they took off, but they never saw the helicopter.
The official FAA recordings from the tower at Reagan did not include the warnings that Marine One was getting ready to head to Andrews Air Force Base with the president aboard that day.
A recording posted by ATC.com showed the Marine One pilot telling the tower that the helicopter was “three minutes to lift” just like the 2013 agreement between the FAA and the military calls for. But the controller seemed surprised a few minutes later when the helicopter took off.
“Uh, Marine One, you said, uh, you’re proceeding as briefed?” the controller asked before giving the helicopter directions and commenting, “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.”
After the controller warned the helicopter about the plane taking off, the Marine One pilot said he saw the traffic and declared, “We’ll be doing a momentary delay.”
Guzzetti, who is a former crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA, said he doesn't fault the controllers because they never heard Marine One's warnings. And once they did realize the helicopter was taking off, they quickly warned the pilots and ordered another plane coming in to Reagan to abort landing and circle around.
“In this case, the controller did absolutely nothing wrong. He did not receive the transmission saying that they were three minutes away from taking off. So he had no reason to hold the airplane that was lining up and waiting,” Guzzetti said.
After last year’s midair collision, it became clear that poor communication between air traffic controllers and the military had been a longstanding issue. During a congressional hearing, it came out that a hotline connecting the Pentagon to the tower at Reagan hadn’t been working for more than three years, and the FAA hadn’t even realized it.
The NTSB said that after this incident involving Marine One, FAA technicians determined that there wasn't adequate line of sight between the radio receiver at the airport and the location where the helicopter takes off at the White House. So those radios were moved from the neighborhood where they had been located to the top of the tower at Reagan. Subsequent tests showed the radios working well after that change.
President Donald Trump arrives on Marine One at the Ellipse near the White House, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump, left, walks from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to South Carolina. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
