Champions League: Raphinha’s hat-trick, Barcelona beats Bayern; Liverpool, City won

Barcelona’s Raphinha celebrates after scoring the third goal for his team during the Champions League opening leg football match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at Luis Co Olympic Stadium on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 in Barcelona, ​​Spain. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenati) | Photo Credit: AP

It was a great night for the English clubs and Barcelona captain Raphinha.

Premier League leaders Liverpool moved level on points with Aston Villa at the top of the Champions League standings on Wednesday by extending their perfect record to three wins, and Manchester City set a new record of remaining unbeaten in the most consecutive games in the competition’s history. Made a record.

Liverpool beat Leipzig 1–0 with a goal from Darwin Nunez. With the help of two goals from Erling Haaland, City defeated Sparta Prague 5–0.

Raphinha scored a hat-trick as Barcelona finally beat Bayern Munich, ending a streak of six consecutive wins in head-to-head meetings for the German team, which also included a humiliating 8-2 defeat to Barca in the quarter-finals in 2020 Was.

This time, Barcelona came out on top in an entertaining contest with a 4–1 aggregate win.

After three rounds in the revamped tournament, Liverpool and Aston Villa have a two-point lead over seven clubs, including Man City and another Premier League team Arsenal. The four English teams have conceded only one goal combined so far in the competition.

At Barcelona, ​​the hosts opened the scoring within a minute, as Raphinha got a through ball from Fermín López, then easily fired past Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Bayern equalized the score with Harry Kane’s volley, but Barcelona responded with a goal from former Bayern great Robert Lewandowski and two more goals from Raphinha, who was later replaced with a standing ovation.

It was Barcelona’s first win over Bayern since the 2015 Champions League semi-finals. Barcelona came into the game without scoring in their four matches against Bayern since an 8-2 defeat in 2020. Barcelona coach Hansi Flick was Bayern’s coach in that game.

“It could have been a Champions League final. Winning like this in front of our fans is the best,” Raphinha said. “What we are doing on the pitch shows what Barça can do in this Champions League.”

Arne Slott led Liverpool to first place in the Premier League at the start of his tenure as Jurgen Klopp’s replacement and the team now have a maximum of nine points in the Champions League.

The latest win in Europe came at Leipzig, one of the clubs that Klopp will oversee in his new role as head of global football at Red Bull.

Núñez scored the only goal in the 27th minute with a header from Mohamed Salah and could have earned a penalty in the 38th when he appeared to be brought down by Willy Orban.

“If we had left this place with a draw, I would have really felt like we lost something,” Slott told TNT Sports. “The last 70 minutes – except maybe the first 10 – we dominated.”

Leipzig is the only team among the Big 5 to lose its three opening matches.

Manchester City’s new record will not please the red half of the English city.

By defeating Sparta Prague, the English champions set a record for being undefeated in consecutive games in the competition’s history – even dating back to the European Cup era before 1992. City are now unbeaten for 26 matches. From 2007-09, Alex Ferguson’s Man United team managed to remain unbeaten for 25 matches.

Phil Foden put the hosts ahead in less than three minutes. Haaland then scored a wonderful back-of-heel goal. John Stones made it 3-0, Haaland added his second and Matthias Nunes added more sparkle to an emphatic win.

After beating Real Madrid 1–0 in the previous round, Lille won 3–1 over Atlético, which was unbeaten in its previous 11 home matches in the Champions League.

The French side had only three shots on target, including one penalty kick.

Julian Alvarez put the hosts ahead with the early opener, before Aidan Zhegrova scored an equalizer near the hour mark. After this, Jonathan David scored from the spot in the 74th minute and completed two goals in the 89th minute.

“Maybe we didn’t play a very good, great game, but we played the game we needed tonight,” Lille midfielder Benjamin Andre said.

A brilliant goal from Pierre Liège-Mello helped Minnow Brest draw 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen as both teams remained unbeaten.

The French team played with full enthusiasm in the second half but failed to score the second goal.

Playing in Europe’s top competition for the first time, the newcomers faced their toughest test yet against the German champions, who had also won their first two matches in the revamped tournament.

Florian Wirtz’s low shot gave Leverkusen the lead in the 24th minute. It was his seventh goal in all competitions this season. Lees-Mellou, who has recently returned from a broken leg, equalized with a right-footed volley from outside the box. This was his first goal since March.

Elsewhere, Celtic struggled but disappointed Atalanta with a 0–0 draw. Mario Pasalic played woodwork for the Italian team.

Looking for a third consecutive win, Benfica lost 3–1 to Feyenoord, while substitute Marcus Thuram scored in stoppage time to give Inter Milan a 1–0 win over Young Boys.