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.
