The Champions League’s third matchday concluded on Wednesday with eight games, tons of goals, a shocking scoreline and a wild late goal in Paris. With 24 goals in total, two Americans in action and more, here’s the run down of what you need to see and takeaways from the action:
Scores
- Club Brugge 1, Monaco 1
- PSV Eindhoven 2 Tottenham 2
- Borussia Dortmund 4, Atletico Madrid 0
- Barcelona 2, Inter Milan 0
- PSG 2, Napoli 2
- Liverpool 4, Red Star Belgrade 0
- Porto 3, Lokomotiv Moscow 1
- Galatasaray 0, Schalke 0
Barcelona passes first Messi-less test
With Lionel Messi out for a few weeks with an arm fracture, it was only logical to think Barca would perhaps drop off a bit while not having the world’s best player. On Wednesday, the team did not lose a step. It was a convincing 2-0 win over Inter Milan that saw Barca create 21 chances and 11 on frame, holding Inter to just two shots on goal.
The win puts Barca alone in first place in Group B with nine points, but this is a result that won’t hurt Inter. Tottenham’s failure to beat PSV sees the Italian club in second place with a five-point cushion.
Dortmund did what?
Atletico Madrid is known for having one of the stingiest defensive units in Europe. Week in and week out, teams can’t seem to solve Diego Simeone’s bunch. On Wednesday, in an impressive but wild turn of events, Christian Pulisic’s squad put four past Atletico for a comfortable victory.
To put it into perspective, no team outside of Barcelona or Real Madrid has ever scored four on an Atleti team coached by Simeone.
And it wasn’t even close. Dortmund took advantage of Atleti going forward for goals and now controls Group A with a three-point lead.
Dortmund had five shots on goal, meaning the team scored 80 percent of its on-frame shots on the day.
Di Maria saved PSG more than you know
PSG was just a couple minutes away from being three points out of second place and needing a point in Naples, Italy to feel good about its chances of moving on. But Angel Di Maria, in the 93rd minute, produced a moment of brilliance to earn his team a draw with a rugged, tough Napoli side. Take a look:
That was incredibly clutch. While the slow start could mean PSG doesn’t finish first in the group, a result like this could give this team the confidence it needs moving forward to ensure it moves on to the next round. All of a sudden, November’s PSG-Napoli clash becomes probably the most anticipated Matchday 4 fixture.
Is Liverpool’s scoring touch back?
The Reds have scored four goals in a game for the first time in over two months. That’s the attack we all expected to explode at some point. Last season, Liverpool had a stretch of eight games where it scored four goals four times, so regaining this confidence is huge. Doing it against Red Star Belgrade is no impressive feat, but this is still a confidence builder for a team that has gone through a rough patch.
Getting four goals and two from Mohamed Salah is like music to the club’s ears.
Relive Wednesday’s commentary
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