Holders Paris Saint-Germain made a comfortable start to their Champions League championship defence as Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 demolition of Slovan Bratislava yesterday. Liverpool fought back to overcome Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona opened their campaign with a five-goal demolition of Feyenoord while Arsenal impressed with a 1-0 win against Napoli, AFP reported.
PSG are trying to be only the fourth team to win three successive European Cups.
Slovan, the team of Yaya Toure, were dismantled at the Parc des Princes with little delay.
Ousmane Dembele smashed in a rebound and then nodded in a deflected cross to put Luis Enrique’s team two goals up inside 22 minutes.
Dembele’s cross was knocked in by Torres shortly after the half-hour mark and he drove home his second less than two minutes into the second half.
The World Cup final hero for Spain completed his hat-trick in the 57th minute, shanking a shot with his knee that looped into the bottom corner.
Suleiman Camara grabbed a consolation for Slovan but Fabian Ruiz had the final say for PSG when he latched on to a miscued clearance.
Liverpool made it back-to-back victories after last week’s Premier League win over Ipswich by beating Atletico 2-1 at Anfield.
Julian Alvarez, starting for the first time this season after being unable to force a move away from the club, sent in Marcos Llorente to dink the ball over Alisson in the Liverpool goal to give Atletico a 17th-minute lead.
Llorente has now scored five times in three visits to Anfield having hit a brace against Liverpool last season and in Atletico’s thrilling last-16 victory in 2020.
Five minutes before half-time, Liverpool came back as Dominik Szoboszlai finished off a lovely backheeled pass from Ronald Araujo.
Atletico could not respond and Alexis Mac Allister put the hosts ahead five minutes into the second half with a left-footed shot from outside the area.
Odegaard sinks Napoli
Arsenal squandered a number of chances in the first half at the Stadio Armando Diego Maradona with Napoli custodian Alex Meret producing a fine save to deny Mikel Merino’s header.
The English champions pushed after the break and Piero Hincapie blazed over a glorious chance from only three yards out but last season’s runners-up took the lead with 15 minutes to go.
•Arsenal English player Declan Rice gives thumbs up as he celebrates after victory against Napoli, yesterday Martin Odegaard, who scored the winner against Chelsea at the weekend, executed a beautiful one-two with Christos Tzolis on the edge of the box and slammed a shot in off the far post.
Barcelona got the perfect start in their current effort to end a 12-year wait to claim the title as Raphinha maintained his fine form by scoring twice in a 5-1 demolition of Feyenoord.
Hansi Flick’s men, who lost out to Atletico in the quarter-finals last season, have won all five of their games in all competitions so far this season, scoring five goals in four of them.
‘We controlled the game, we are dominant and this is great to watch. That is our style, how we want to play,” Flick said.
Barca took the lead in the third minute through Raphinha, but summer acquisition Karim Adeyemi netted a spectacular long-range goal.
Brazilian Raphinha, playing up front this season following the exits of Robert Lewandowski and Torres, made it eight goals already for the campaign in the second half.
Lamine Yamal scored a free-kick that went under the wall and although Sem Steijn pulled one back for Feyenoord, Gabriel Jesus came off the bench to head in his first Barca goal.
Ermedin Demirovic grabbed a first-half hat-trick as Stuttgart cruised to a 3-1 home win over Norwegian champions Viking, who were participating in the competition for the first time in 34 years.
Sporting, who reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 1983 last season, rallied back to beat Galatasaray 3-1 in Lisbon.
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