PSG score seven and Barcelona hit six on a goal-filled night in the Champions League

PSG’s Desire Doue scores his side’s fourth goal during a Champions League opening phase football match between Bayer Leverkusen and Paris Saint-Germain in Leverkusen Tuesday. (AP)
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Updated 22 October 2025
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PSG score seven and Barcelona hit six on a goal-filled night in the Champions League

  • 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
  • Haaland’s goal helped Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Villarreal

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 penalty, he scored the goal of the game in the second half with a swerving long range effort that was nothing more than a footnote.

Lopez treble

Fermin Lopez scored a hat trick and Marcus Rashford hit two goals as Barcelona blew away 10-man Olympiakos.

Barca took full advantage when Santiago Hezze was shown a contentious red card in the second half — scoring four goals to complete the rout.

It was Lopez’s first hat trick of his career, with Lamine Yamal also on the scoresheet from the penalty spot.

Olympiakos had no answer when Hezze was shown a second yellow card in the 57th minute, despite replays appearing to show he did not make contact with Marc Casado, who was trying to pull him back.

Just three minutes earlier, the visitors had got back into the game at 2-1 after Ayoub El Kaabi’s penalty.

Then with the extra man Barcelona overwhelmed Olympiakos with four goals in 11 minutes.

Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, now has four goals in three games in the Champions League this season.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to break opponents down, but we have so many goalscoring players in different areas that getting goals is the least of our worries,” he said.

Arsenal power past Atletico

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 with summer signing 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.

Goals from Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli had given Arsenal a 2-0 lead before Gyokeres struck.

Arsenal are third in the standings — behind PSG and Inter on goal difference.

Red-hot Haaland

Haaland just can’t stop scoring right now.

The Norway international’s opener at Villarreal was his 24th in 14 games this season and extended 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 in August.

Bernardo Silva was also on target as City moved up to fifth.

Napoli stunned in Eindhoven

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 champion, with three goals conceded in the last 10 minutes after going down to 10 men when Lorenzo Lucca was sent off in the 76th.

Napoli have just one win from three games in Europe so far.

It’s going better for Inter, who have a 100 percent record after three games and comfortably overcame Union Saint-Gilloise, with Lautaro Martinez scoring for the third time in the Champions League this season.

Newcastle and Dortmund win

Harvey Barnes scored twice in Newcastle’s 3-0 win against Benfica and Borussia Dortmund won 4-2 in Copenhagen.

Kazakhstani team Kairat picked up their first point in European soccer’s elite club competition with a 0-0 draw against Pafos.


Alcaraz powers into Indian Wells quarter-finals

Updated 12 March 2026
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Alcaraz powers into Indian Wells quarter-finals

  • Alcaraz will next face 2021 champion Cameron Norrie, who earlier beat Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-4 ⁠6-2

World number one Carlos Alcaraz ‌continued his dominant run at Indian Wells, beating Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-1 7-6(2) on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals in the California desert.
The Spaniard relied on ​a near-flawless service game to seize control of the match, racing through the opening set in just 37 minutes after breaking Ruud’s serve three times.
Thirteenth-seeded Ruud raised his level in the second set and forced a tiebreak, hoping to push the match to a decider, but Alcaraz kept his foot on the gas to seal his 15th consecutive victory of the season to reach the quarter-finals ‌for a fifth ‌straight year.
“The conditions were difficult to be ​honest. ‌Today ⁠the ​ball was ⁠tough to control but we both played great,” two-time champion Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.
“My first set was incredible I’m really happy of playing that kind of level, really happy to get through and hopefully I’ll play this level on the next round.”
Alcaraz will next face 2021 champion Cameron Norrie, who earlier beat Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-4 ⁠6-2, with the Spaniard looking to avenge a defeat ‌to the Briton at last year’s ‌Paris Masters.

SWIATEK, PEGULA THROUGH
World number two Iga ​Swiatek delivered a dominant 6-2 6-0 ‌victory over Czech 13th seed Karolina Muchova, reeling off 10 consecutive ‌games to secure her fifth win over the Czech, whom she also beat at the same stage of the tournament last year.
“I felt I was playing better and better, just great,” Swiatek said.
“I love playing here ... It’s ‌a great place to play tennis, hopefully I can keep doing that until the end.”
Swiatek, chasing a ⁠third Indian Wells ⁠title, will face ninth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals after the Ukrainian advanced when Katerina Siniakova retired injured.
American fifth seed Jessica Pegula overcame Belinda Bencic 6-3 7-6(5) to secure her first victory in five meetings between the pair.
Pegula, coming off a dramatic comeback win over Jelena Ostapenko, took control as she clinched the opening set — her first ever against the Swiss — before edging a tightly contested tiebreak to close out the match.
Russian 11th seed Daniil Medvedev beat Alex Michelsen 6-2 6-4 in a commanding performance, needing just one ​hour and 27 minutes to ​dismantle the American and maintain his strong form after winning last month’s Dubai Open.