Liverpool and Aston Villa are now the only teams with a perfect record while defending champions Real Madrid, Manchester City and Barcelona were in red hot form as matchday three of the UEFA Champions League brought goals, excitements and thrilling moments.
In a repeat of last season’s final, Vinicius Junior strengthened claims for a maiden Ballon d’Or with an outstanding performance with a brilliant hat-trick against Borussia Dortmund.
Los Blancos staged another miracle European comeback on Tuesday night, going down by two in the first half against the German outfit following goals from Jamie Gittens and Donyell Malen.
Antonio Rudiger started the comeback for the 15-time winners on the hourmark and Vinicius equalised with his first of the contest three minutes later — with his assured collection of the match ball coming after netting his remaining two following the goal from captain Lucas Vazquez which turned the game on its head in the 83rd minute.
Hansi Flick faced his former team as his Barcelona side came up against the team he won this competition with in 2020, Bayern Munich.
Brazilian forward Raphinha stole all the headlines, netting a hat-trick with Robert Lewandowski also scoring against his former side by restoring the Blaugrana’s lead after his opposite number, Harry Kane had equalised for the Bavarians.
It’s an all English top three as Manchester City moved up to third in the standings following a five-star performance against Sparta Praha.
Erling Haaland netted a brace and goals from John Stones, Phil Foden and Matheus Nunes saw Pep Guardiola’s team record a 5-0 win against their Czech opposition on Wednesday.
Aston Villa and Liverpool occupy first and second place respectively.
Unai Emery’s side secured maximum points at Villa Park with as goals from John McGinn and Jhon Duran aided a 2-0 win against Bologna while Darwin Nunez netted the only goal in Germany as Arne Slot continued his impressive start as Liverpool manager with a win against RB Leipzig.
An own goal from Dmytro Ryznk was the decider as Arsenal continued their unbeaten start as they are yet to concede a goal in the campaign, with a 1-0 win against Shaktar Donetsk in North London on Tuesday night.
The shock results of the round were recorded, in Italy and Spain, specifically at the Juventus Stadium on Tuesday, and Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday.
Juventus suffered their first loss as El Bilal Toure’s 92nd minute winner handed VfB Stuttgart a famous Champions League win.Meanwhile, a brace from Jonathan David helped Lille defeat yet another Madrid side as Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid side’s below-par start continued with a 3-1 home defeat.
Italian champions Inter Milan needed a late winner to see off Young Boys as Marcus Thuram scored in the 93rd minute to spare their blushes, after Marko Arnautovic had missed a penalty earlier in the contest.
In the clash of champions, French heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain were held to a 1-1 draw as Noa Lang’s opener for PSV Eindhoven was cancelled out by Achraf Hakimi’s second half goal.
Comprehensive results of matchday three
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
AS Monaco 5-1 Crvena Zvezda
Milan 3-1 Club Brugge
Girona 2-0 Slovan Bratislava
Sturm Graz 0-2 Sporting
Aston Villa 2-0 Bologna
Juventus 0-1 VfB Stuttgart
PSG 1-1 PSV
Arsenal 1-0 Shaktar Donetsk
Real Madrid 5-2 Borussia Dortmund
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Atalanta 0-0 Celtic
Brest 1-1 Leverkusen
RB Salzburg 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb
Benfica 1-3 Feyenoord
Atletico Madrid 1-3 Lille
Young Boys 0-1 Inter
RB Leipzig 0-1 Liverpool
Man City 5-0 Sparta Praha
Barcelona 4-1 Bayern Munich
