Holders Paris Saint-Germain made a flying start to their bid for a third consecutive Champions League title on Wednesday, with Ferran Torres scoring a hat-trick in a 6-1 rout of Slovan Bratislava, while Liverpool came from behind to beat Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona also opened their campaign in style, scoring five times against Feyenoord, while Arsenal impressed with a 1-0 victory away to Napoli.
PSG are aiming to become only the fourth club to win three European Cups in succession, and they wasted little time dismantling Yaya Toure’s Slovan side at the Parc des Princes.
Ousmane Dembele fired in a rebound before heading home a deflected cross to put Luis Enrique’s side 2-0 up inside 22 minutes.
Torres tapped in Dembele’s cross just after the half-hour mark before drilling home his second less than two minutes into the second half.
The Spain World Cup final hero completed his hat-trick in the 57th minute, getting a fortunate touch off his knee that sent the ball spinning into the bottom corner.
Suleiman Camara pulled one back for Slovan, but Fabian Ruiz restored PSG’s four-goal advantage after pouncing on a mishit clearance.
Liverpool fight back against Atletico
Liverpool made it two wins from two this season by following last week’s Premier League victory at Ipswich with a 2-1 comeback win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield.
Atletico took the lead in the 17th minute when Julian Alvarez, making his first start of the season after failing to secure a move away from the club, played in Marcos Llorente, who calmly dinked the ball over Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.
Llorente has now scored five times in three appearances at Anfield, having netted twice there last season and once in Atletico’s dramatic last-16 victory in 2020.
Liverpool levelled five minutes before half-time through Dominik Szoboszlai, who finished after a clever backheeled pass from Ronald Araujo.
Alexis Mac Allister then put the hosts ahead five minutes into the second half, firing a left-footed strike from outside the box. Atletico were unable to find a response as Liverpool held on for victory.
Odegaard sinks Napoli
Arsenal missed several chances in the first half at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret producing an excellent save to deny Mikel Merino’s header.
The English champions continued to press after the break, with Piero Hincapie firing over from just three yards out.
But Arsenal finally broke the deadlock with 15 minutes remaining.
Martin Odegaard, who scored the winner against Chelsea at the weekend, exchanged passes with Christos Tzolis on the edge of the area before smashing a shot in off the far post.
Raphinha leads Barcelona rout
Barcelona made an impressive start to their latest attempt to end a 12-year wait for the Champions League trophy, with Raphinha scoring twice in a 5-1 demolition of Feyenoord.
Hansi Flick’s side, who were knocked out by Atletico Madrid in last season’s quarter-finals, have now won all five of their matches in all competitions this season, scoring five goals in four of those games.
“We controlled the game, we are dominant and this is fantastic to see. This is our style and how we want to play,” Flick said.
Raphinha opened the scoring in the third minute before summer signing Karim Adeyemi produced a brilliant long-range strike to level for Feyenoord.
The Brazilian, who has moved into a more central attacking role following the departures of Robert Lewandowski and Torres, restored Barcelona’s lead in the second half to take his tally to eight goals for the campaign.
Lamine Yamal then scored from a free-kick that crept through the wall. Sem Steijn pulled another goal back for Feyenoord, but substitute Gabriel Jesus put the result beyond doubt with his first Barcelona goal, heading home late on.
Elsewhere, Ermedin Demirovic scored a first-half hat-trick as Stuttgart cruised to a 3-1 home victory over Norwegian champions Viking, who were appearing in the competition for the first time in 34 years.
Sporting, quarter-finalists last season for the first time since 1983, also came from behind to beat Galatasaray 3-1 in Lisbon.
AFP
