PARIS: Title-holders Paris St Germain sent out a Champions League statement as they swept aside Bayer Leverkusen 7-2 and both Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven hit six in big victories on a prolific night of action on Tuesday.
Luis Enrique’s PSG are one of three teams to boast a 100 percent record and are joined at the top of the standings by last year’s finalists Inter Milan and Arsenal who each claimed big 4-0 victories.
PSV routed Italian champions Napoli 6-2, while Barca’s 6-1 win against Olympiakos — with Fermin Lopez scoring a hat-trick — saw them bounce back from a loss to PSG at the start of the month.
Erling Haaland struck his 24th goal of the season in Manchester City’s 2-0 win at Villarreal as a total of 43 goals rained down across nine games.
However, it was PSG who stole the show with their win in Germany.
PSG paved the way to victory when they broke a 1-1 deadlock with three goals between the 41st minute and the half-time whistle thanks to a brace from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Both teams were down to 10 men in the first half when hosts Leverkusen had captain Robert Andrich dismissed in the 32nd for elbowing Doue away from the ball, and PSG’s Illya Zabarnyi followed five minutes later for a foul on Christian Kofane.
“That’s three games, three wins, and crucially we’re at the top of the UEFA Champions League table,” PSG’s Ousmane Dembele, on his return from injury and first appearance since winning the Ballon d’Or, said. “We’ve started this campaign really well, especially considering how difficult it was last season.
“We got off to a good start by opening the scoring. After that, we had a bit of a rough patch, with lots of yellow cards and a red card that we could have avoided, but that’s how it goes. We stayed in the game with two goals from ‘Des’ [Doue] before half-time, and all we had to do was coast through in the second half.”
Leverkusen entered the duel with PSG unbeaten in seven matches since Kasper Hjulmand became their coach but trailed quickly from Willian Pacho’s header at the far post.
The hosts had a glorious chance to equalise but the normally reliable Alejandro Grimaldo hit the post with a 25th minute penalty. It got worse when Andrich got his marching orders seven minutes later but they still levelled from Aleix Garcia’s penalty in the 38th which came over Zabarnyi’s red card.
But the joy was very shortlived as Doue made it 2-1 in the 41st after a one-two with Kvaratskhelia, who got the third with the help of both inside posts before Doue fired a fourth into the far corner.
Nuno Mendes got the fifth five minutes after the restart and Dembele then came on from injury to complete the half dozen, with Garcia on target for Leverkusen with a swerving long range effort in-between before Vitinha ended the nine-goal affair with PSG’s seventh at the death.
“We lost the game in seven minutes just when we were back in it. We wanted too much and made too many mistakes,” Hjulmand said.
GYOKERES ENDS DROUGHT
Top of the Premier League and perfect in Europe, Arsenal are flying high.
A powerful second half at the Emirates saw Mikel Arteta’s team brush aside Atletico Madrid with summer signing Viktor Gyokeres sealing the victory with two goals in three minutes. Those goals ended the striker’s seven-game scoring drought for Arsenal.
“I am delighted as he fully deserves it. The workrate he brings to the team is outstanding. We value a lot of things that he does for the team and it was the biggest smile on his face today,” Arteta said of the Sweden striker. “Hopefully it’s the start of some beautiful sequence now.”
Arsenal had a first half-goal from Gabriel Martinelli ruled out for offside and were lucky when Atletico’s Julian Alvarez rattled the crossbar but the floodgates opened in the 57th when Gabriel Magalhaes headed in a free-kick from Declan Rice.
Martinelli got the second in the 64th before Gyokeres got his brace with a deflected effort in a scramble in the 67th and a tap-in three minutes later.
“It was a tough match. After the goal they opened up a bit and it was a little easier for us to find the spaces. At this level in the Champions League you really need to step up and we certainly did that in every phase of the play,” a ‘very happy’ Arteta said.
Arsenal are third in the standings — behind PSG and Inter on goal difference, with the Italians easing to victory at Union Saint-Gilloise in Brussels.
Inter had to weather an early storm before Denzel Dumfries broke the deadlock for the Italins in the 41st. Lautaro Martinez missed a sitter shortly after but smashed the second before half-time into the far corner. Hakan Calhanoglu added a penalty soon after the restart and Pio Esposito completed the scoring.
BARCA FIT FOR CLASICO
Barca thumped Olympiacos at Montjuic to boost confidence for the first Clasico of the season on the weekend against Real Madrid.
Lopez netted in the seventh minute and also grabbed the second in the 39th after being set up by 17-year-old Dro Fernandez who had his first start in the elite event.
Olympiakos were back in the game with Ayoub El Kaabi’s spot-kick shortly after the break.
But it all unravelled for the Greek visitors when Santiago Hezze was sent off in the 57th, and Barca struck four times between the 68th and 79th.
Lamine Yamal converted down the middle from the spot after goalkeeper Kostas Tzolakis brought down Marcus Rashford, who got the fourth himself into the near corner.
Lopez completed his hat-trick with a low drive and Rashford also netted again
“We are able to go and win in Madrid now, we have a good team. Maybe we get two players back for the weekend but importantly we have this huge victory now which brings us confidence,” Barca coach Hansi Flick said.
The biggest shock of the night was Napoli’s defeat at PSV.
That’s back-to-back losses for Antonio Conte’s team, following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Torino. And such a heavy loss in Europe will be particularly humbling for the Italian champions.
Scott McTominay gave Napoli, who have just one win from three games in Europe so far, the lead in the first half. But an Alessandro Buongiorno own goal restored parity and Ismael Saibari put PSV ahead before Dennis Man scored twice and both Ricardo Pepi and Couhaib Driouech also found the net.
McTominay pulled another one back for Napoli, who had Lorenzo Lucca sent off.
HAALAND SCORES AGAIN
Haaland just can’t stop scoring right now.
The Norway international put City ahead against Villarreal in Spain and Bernardo Silva got their second goal before half-time as Pep Guardiola’s team moved up to fifth on to seven points from three outings.
Haaland kept up his remarkable record in front of goal this season and he has now found the net 24 times in 14 games this season, extending his current scoring streak to 12 games in a row. He now has 53 goals in the Champions League in just 51 appearances.
The only game he didn’t score in this term was City’s 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in August.
“I see that things are looking good, we are playing a little bit better day after day and that’s a good sign,” Guardiola told broadcaster Movistar.
DORTMUND AND NEWCASTLE WIN
Felix Nmecha hit a brace as Borussia Dortmund won 4-2 away to FC Copenhagen, with Ramy Bensebaini converting a penalty and Fabio Silva also scoring.
Waldemar Anton’s own goal had brought the Danes back level at one point in the first half, while Viktor Dadason got their other goal late on. Newcastle United got their second straight win in the competition by easing to a 3-0 victory against Benfica at St James’ Park.
Anthony Gordon got the opener and Harvey Barnes emerged from the bench to score twice in the second half, leaving Jose Mourinho’s Benfica as the only team to have no points having played three games.
The night’s other game ended in a 0-0 draw between rank outsiders Kairat Almaty and Pafos of Cyprus in Kazakhstan.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2025