Big guns make positive start PSG, Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool win in Champions League

Six goals for Paris Saint-Germain, five for Barcelona and classically just one for Arsenal as the serious contenders for the Champions League started with wins on Wednesday.

There was a hat-trick for Ferran Torres, the World Cup-winning goalscorer, on his PSG debut in the competition, and two goals for his new teammate Ousmane Dembélé in a 6-1 beating of Slovan Bratislava by the two-time title holders.

At Barcelona, Raphinha scored two more in his rapid-fire start to the season, and Lamine Yamal fired a free kick through Feyenoord’s defensive wall in an easy 5-1 win.

Raphinha now has eight goals in just five games this season, as if sending a reminder to those who left his name off the Ballon d’Or nominations on Tuesday.

It was a typical Arsenal result, a 1-0 win at Napoli with the only goal scored by the English champion’s suddenly prolific captain Martin Ødegaard. It’s his fourth goal so far after just one in the whole of last season.

All four English clubs won their opening games after Liverpool rallied to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 with goals by midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister. However, Liverpool saw their record signing Bradley Barcola limp off with an apparent calf injury in the second half.

Unheralded Stuttgart forward Ermedin Demirovic got a hat-trick inside 12 first-half minutes in a 3-1 win over Norwegian debutants Viking.

Sporting Lisbon beat Galatasaray 3-1 having also trailed early in the game. The third was a powerful curling free kick by Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Zalazar.

The high rate of goals — 45 through the first 12 games in this Champions League campaign at a rate of 3.75 per game — is well above the average of 3.47 last season. That was itself the highest rate since the 1960s in the old European Cup format.

PSG ends unusual run

After beating Aston Villa 2-1 in the UEFA Super Cup four weeks ago, PSG failed to win any of their next four games in France, including three in defence of their Ligue 1 title.

A routine demolition of Slovakian champions Slovan was more like business as usual.

“Confidence isn‘t easy to get, especially if you’re not getting the results you want,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “For me, our first three games were acceptable.”