Paris Shines.. Real Madrid Snatches a Hard-Fought Victory

French champions Paris Saint-Germain returned from the English stronghold of Manchester City with a convincing 4-2 victory, while Spain’s Real Madrid turned the tables on their hosts, Roma, with a hard-fought 4-3 win in a highly thrilling match that saw Real quickly come back to secure a valuable victory. French winger Bradley Barcola restored pride to English club Liverpool by scoring a hat-trick in their 6-3 away win against Austrian side LASK Linz in the second round of the new-look Champions League group stage.

The European evening saw 46 goals scored across nine matches, including Aston Villa’s dominant 6-0 victory over Turkish club Fenerbahçe, and Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk’s 3-1 win against Greek club AEK Athens in London, where Shakhtar plays its home fixtures.

Paris Saint-Germain’s goals were scored by Desire Doue (13th minute), Ousmane Dembele (15th), Portuguese midfielder Vitinha (32nd), and Magnin Akliouche (63rd). Manchester City’s goals came through Norwegian striker Erling Haaland (53rd and 75th minutes). Parisian player Ferran Torres missed a penalty in the 90th minute.

Meanwhile, the excitement was no less intense in Rome, where Real Madrid overturned their deficit to secure a dramatic 4-3 victory in the final minutes. Real Madrid’s goals were scored by Kylian Mbappe (25th), Carlos Escribano (82nd), Endrick (85th), and Antonio Rudiger (90th). Roma’s goals were netted by Martin Dúbravka (20th) and Donyell Malen (51st and 57th).

Winger Barcola silenced his critics by ending his goal drought with a hat-trick, leading Liverpool to a comprehensive 6-3 victory over hosts LASK Linz. Barcola scored two goals (24th and 37th minutes) before halftime at the Raiffeisen Arena, after Uruguayan international defender Ronald Araujo had given Liverpool the lead in the 22nd minute with his first goal for the club since his transfer from Spanish side Barcelona. Dutch winger Jeremy Frimpong added the fourth goal (51st minute) against the Austrian champions, before Barcola completed his hat-trick (66th minute). Welsh forward Lewis Comas also found the net to score his first Champions League goal (72nd minute), maintaining Liverpool’s perfect record in this season’s competition after their opening win against Atletico Madrid.

LASK Linz’s goals were scored by Croatian Robert Ljubičić (63rd) and Florian Flecker (74th and 78th minutes).

In other matches, Dutch club Feyenoord defeated Italian side Como 3-2, Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt beat German club Borussia Dortmund 1-0, Spanish club Real Betis won against Portuguese club Porto 3-2, and German club Stuttgart defeated Slovak side Slovan Bratislava 3-0.