PSG score seven and Barcelona hit six on a goal-filled night in the Champions League
MANCHESTER, England: Paris Saint-Germain scored seven, Barcelona hit six and Erling Haaland struck his 24th goal of the season on an action-packed night in the Champions League on Tuesday.
In all, there were 43 goals in nine games, with six teams scoring four or more.
PSV Eindhoven routed Italian champion Napoli 6-2, while Arsenal and Inter Milan also had big wins to maintain their perfect starts in Europe.
But it is defending champion PSG that lead the way at the top of the standings after a wild 7-2 win against Bayer Leverkusen in a match that saw both teams reduced to 10 men in the first half.
Barcelona’s 6-1 win against Olympiakos saw them bounce back from a loss to PSG at the start of the month.
Premier League leader Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 4-0, with Viktor Gyokeres scoring twice, and last season’s Champions League runner-up Inter beat Union Saint-Gilloise by the same score.
Haaland’s goal helped Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Villarreal.
PSG run wild in Leverkusen
By halftime at the BayArena PSG was 4-1 up — but that didn’t come close to telling the full story of a chaotic first period, which included a red card for each team and two penalties for Leverkusen.
Two goals for Desire Doue put the French champion well in control and the action continued after the break with Nuno Mendes extending the lead within five minutes of the restart. Ousmane Dembele also came off the bench to make a scoring return after injury.
“That’s three games, three wins, and crucially we’re at the top of the UEFA Champions League table,” Dembele said. “We’ve started this campaign really well, especially considering how difficult it was last season.”
Spare a thought for Aleix Garcia, though. As well as his first half