Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
Barcelona and Manchester Metropolis notched lopsided victories as the primary spherical of this season’s UEFA Champions League continued on Wednesday with 9 matches to shut out Matchday 3.
Raphinha scored a hat trick in Barça’s 4-1 win, with 17-year-old Lamine Yamal serving to arrange the Brazilian’s third with a spectacular long-range move:
Liverpool, Inter Milan, Lille, Dinamo Zagreb and Feyenoord additionally gained, whereas Atlético Madrid, Benfica and FC Salzburg and Younger Boys all misplaced at house.
Listed here are the most important takeaways from Wednesday’s video games.
Can Barcelona compete for the title this season ?
Three years after Lionel Messi left Barcelona, are the five-time European title winners lastly legit contenders for the Champions League crown as soon as once more?
The Blaugrana positive seemed prefer it on Wednesday, rocking Bayern Munich to place the exclamation level on this spherical’s outcomes on the earth’s marquee membership competitors.
Reality be instructed, Barça weren’t actually within the operating throughout Messi’s last few years on the membership. Who can neglect the 8-2 drubbing Bayern held on the GOAT & Co. within the 2020 quarterfinals that signaled the start of the tip of Barcelona most profitable period?
Bayern went on to win the Champions League that season. Their coach? Hansi Flick, who has been a revelation throughout his first season on the helm in Catalonia. Barça is at present main Spain’s La Liga with a 9-1 document.
Flick’s group has the whole lot left to show. Final month’s 2-1 loss in Monaco was a crimson flag even when it was marred by an early crimson card. Similar for the league defeat at Osasuna lower than two weeks later. At their scintillating finest, although, Barcelona ought to concern no person. Wednesday’s rout left little doubt about that.
Liverpool stays excellent with win in Germany
Talking of trophy contenders, the Reds went into Wednesday’s contest in Leipzig figuring out that they wanted a win to remain excellent and match Champions League chief and English rival Aston Villa’s 3-0 begin to the European marketing campaign.
It wasn’t all the time fairly, however three factors are what Liverpool acquired. Arne Slot’s group acquired a primary half aim from Darwin Núñez — who made positive that what seemed like a goal-bound header from Mohamed Salah acquired throughout the road within the twenty seventh minute — and shut down the hosts the remainder of the way in which.
The defensive efficiency was significantly spectacular from the Reds, who are actually 8-0 throughout all competitions since that stunning 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield on Sept. 14. It stays the one recreation they have not gained all season.
A reminder from Manchester Metropolis
If Metropolis’s September Champions League house opener towards Inter Milan — a rematch of the 2023 last that introduced membership soccer’s most coveted piece of silverware to the blue half of Manchester for the primary time — left some doubting whether or not Pep Guardiola’s group was actually ready to take one other run at glory this time period, think about the final two video games the Residents’ retort.
Certain, crushing Sparta Prague 5-0 on Wednesday on the heels of a 4-0 demolition of Slovan Bratislava on Oct. 1 is much less eye-catching than related scorelines can be towards higher high quality opponents. Metropolis’s last 5 first spherical matches, together with journeys to Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, will inform us the place Guardiola’s facet stands heading into the knockout stage early subsequent 12 months.
Till then, the Sky Blues stay the bookies’ favourite. For good cause, too, as they nonetheless boast soccer’s most deadly striker in Erling Haaland, who bagged a brace on Wednesday. His first strike was downright superhuman:
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports activities. A former employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities, he has lined U.S. males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Comply with him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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