Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on Tuesday scored seven and both Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven hit six in big victories while Arsenal crushed Atletico Madrid 4-0 on a prolific night of UEFA Champions League action.
Erling Haaland was among the scorers in Manchester City’s 2-0 win at Villarreal as a total of 43 goals rained down across nine games.
However, it was champions PSG who stole the show with their 7-2 win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in Germany.
Photo: Reuters
Desire Doue scored twice in between goals by Willian Pacho and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for PSG in the first half which saw Alejandro Grimaldo miss a penalty and Aleix Garcia net from the spot for Leverkusen.
Both sides had a man sent off in the opening period, with Robert Andrich seeing red for Leverkusen and Illia Zabarnyi walking for the visitors.
Nuno Mendes got the French side’s fifth goal shortly after the break and Garcia pulled it back to 5-2. Ousmane Dembele, on his return from injury and first appearance since winning the Ballon d’Or, got PSG’s sixth and Vitinha completed the scoring at the death.
“I am not yet at 100 percent. I wanted to play at the weekend, and the coach told me to wait a bit, but I felt great,” Dembele told broadcaster Canal Plus.
It is the first time PSG have scored seven goals away from home in a Champions League game, and they are top of the standings after three outings in the league phase, with a maximum nine points and the best goal difference.
Inter and Arsenal are the other teams with a 100 percent record after three outings, with the Italians easing to a 4-0 victory at Union Saint-Gilloise in Brussels.
Denzel Dumfries and Lautaro Martinez both netted late in the first half before Hakan Calhanoglu added a penalty soon after the restart and Pio Esposito completed the scoring.
Meanwhile, English Premier League leaders Arsenal hammered Atletico at the Emirates Stadium in London, as Mikel Arteta’s side made it three straight wins all with clean sheets in Europe this season.
All the goals came in the second half, with Gabriel putting them ahead and Gabriel Martinelli getting the second before Viktor Gyokeres struck twice to end a run of seven club appearances without finding the net.
“Hopefully it’s the start of some beautiful sequence now,” Arteta said of the Sweden striker.
Haaland put City ahead against Villarreal in Spain and Bernardo Silva got their second goal before halftime as Pep Guardiola’s team moved on to seven points from three outings.
Norway superstar Haaland kept up his remarkable record in front of goal this season, and he has found the net 15 times in 11 appearances for City in all competitions.
“I see that things are looking good, we are playing a little bit better day after day, and that’s a good sign,” Guardiola told broadcaster Movistar.
Felix Nmecha hit a brace as Borussia Dortmund won 4-2 away to FC Copenhagen, with Ramy Bensebaini converting a penalty and Fabio Silva also scoring.
Waldemar Anton’s own goal had brought the Danes back level at one point in the first half, while Viktor Dadason got their other goal late on. They are yet to win in the league phase.
Beaten at home by PSG last time out, Barcelona bounced back to thump Olympiacos 6-1 as Fermin Lopez starred with a hat trick.
Lamine Yamal got his name on the scoresheet with a penalty and Marcus Rashford scored twice, with Ayoub el-Kaabi’s spot-kick scant consolation for the Greeks.
Newcastle United got their second straight win in the competition by easing to a 3-0 victory against Benfica at St James’ Park.
Anthony Gordon got the opener and Harvey Barnes emerged from the bench to score twice in the second half, leaving Jose Mourinho’s Benfica as the only team to have no points having played three games.
PSV claimed a stunning 6-2 home win against Italian champions SSC Napoli, despite Scott McTominay giving the visitors the lead in the first half.
An Alessandro Buongiorno own goal restored parity and Ismael Saibari put PSV ahead before Dennis Man scored twice, and Ricardo Pepi and Couhaib Driouech also found the net.
McTominay pulled another one back for Napoli, who had Lorenzo Lucca sent off.
The night’s other game ended in a 0-0 draw between rank outsiders Kairat Almaty and Pafos of Cyprus in Kazakhstan.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
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