Six goals for Paris Saint-Germain, five for Barcelona and classically just one for Arsenal as the serious contenders for the Champions League started with wins.
There was a hat trick for Ferran Torres, the World Cup-winning goalscorer, on his PSG debut in the competition, and two goals for his new teammate Ousmane Dembélé in a 6-1 beating of Slovan Bratislava by the two-time title holder. At Barcelona, Raphinha scored two more in his rapid-fire start to the season, and Lamine Yamal fired a free kick through Feyenoord’s defensive wall in an easy 5-1 win. All four English clubs won their opening games after Liverpool rallied to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 with goals by midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister. Unheralded Stuttgart forward Ermedin Demirovic got a hat trick inside 12 first-half minutes in a 3-1 win over Norwegian debutant Viking. The high rate of goals — 45 through the first 12 games in this Champions League campaign at a rate of 3.75 per game — is well above the average of 3.47 last season.
However, Liverpool saw its record signing Bradley Barcola limp off with an apparent calf injury in the second half. That was itself the highest rate since the 1960s in the old European Cup format.
It was a typically Arsenal result, a 1-0 win at Napoli with the only goal scored by the English champion’s suddenly prolific captain Martin Ødegaard. His 17th-minute strike to give Atletico the lead Wednesday ultimately was in vain in a 2-1 loss. He will always have those two extra-time goals in March 2020 for a 3-2 win that eliminated then-defending champion Liverpool in the round of 16. (AP)
It’s his fourth goal so far after just one in the whole of last season.