13 mins of mayhem as statement sent; ‘unstoppable’ force stuns in 43-goal chaos — CL Wrap

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Arsenal produced a stunning four-goal second half blitz to demolish Atletico Madrid at the Emirates, while Manchester City and Newcastle United also picked up wins as there were goals galore in the Champions League.

Forty-three goals were scored across the nine games on Wednesday morning AEST with reigning champions PSG banging in seven goals, while Spanish giants Barcelona and Dutch powerhouse PSV hit their opponents for six.

The biggest statement of match week three was made by Arsenal as they maintained their perfect start to the campaign, sitting alongside PSG and Inter Milan on nine points after their 4-0 victory.

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A clash between two of the best defensive sides in Europe was unsurprisingly goalless at half time, but the dam wall burst in the second half with the Gunners banging in four goals in the space of just 13 minutes.

The deadlock was broken by Gabriel, who headed home a Declan Rice free kick in the 57th minute to score Arsenal ninth set piece goal of the season across all competitions.

Gabriel Martinelli then added a second off the back of an excellent run from Myles Lewis-Skelly.

Martinelli has found the back of the net in all three Champions League matches so far, and Viktor Gyokeres also got in on the action with a rapid double.

The Swede ended his drought of seven games without a goal by pouncing on some scrappy play in the box.

He then secured a brace just three minutes later, turning the ball in after Gabriel again got his head on a Rice corner to take Arsenal’s set piece goal tally to double digits.

In Spain, Erling Haaland’s heroics once again powered Manchester City, this time to a 2-0 win against Villarreal.

Haaland opened the scoring in the 17th minute, to get his name on the score sheet for the 12th consecutive game for club and country, matching Cristiano Ronaldo’s career best.

The Norwegian has scored a whopping 21 goals in those dozen outings.

Bernardo Silva then doubled City’s advantage in the 40th minute, lifting them to fourth place on the league phase table with seven points.

Elsewhere, Newcastle made it back-to-back European victories with the Magpies blowing away Benfica 3-0 at St James’ Park.

Anthony Gordon opened the scoring in the first half before a Harvey Barnes second half brace hammered home Newcastle’s dominance.

In the early kick-off, Barcelona obliterated Olympiacos 6-1 with Fermin Lopez scoring a hat-trick and Marcus Rashford nabbing a brace.

PSG bagged seven goals in a 7-2 thumping of Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

The Parisian giants shared the goals around with six names on the score sheet as the goals flowed after both sides had a player sent off in the first half.

Eight of the goals scored for the match came with both sides having ten men on the pitch.

The goals were also flowing in the Netherlands as PSV won 6-2 at home to Italian champions Napoli.

In comparison to those score lines, Borussia Dortmund’s 4-2 win in Copenhagen and Inter Milan’s 4-0 victory at Union Saint-Gilloise looked like tame affairs.

GUNNERS FIRE WITH 13-MINUTE BLITZ

Viktor Gyokeres scored twice in Arsenal’s second half demolition of Atletico Madrid to extend their perfect start to the Champions League with 4-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli opened the floodgates before Gyokeres ended his nine-game goal drought in a 13-minute spell either side of the hour mark.

The Premier League leaders are also sitting pretty alongside last season’s finalists Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the top of the Champions League table as the only sides so far with nine points from their opening three games.

Gyokeres’ lack of goals had been one of very few concerns for Mikel Arteta in a stunning start to the campaign for the Gunners.

The Swede, signed from Sporting Lisbon to end Arsenal’s lack of a clinical number nine, had previously scored just three times, in home games against Leeds and Nottingham Forest, in 11 previous appearances.

Atletico remain without a win away from home all season and the manner of the Spanish side’s collapse after a competitive opening hour will concern Diego Simeone.

Another clean sheet means Arsenal have still only conceded three times 12 games in all competitions this season.

Julian Alvarez twice could have put the visitors ahead as he failed to make the most of a poor David Raya clearance in the first half and then hit the bar from outside the box early in the second period.

Eberechi Eze’s deflected effort also came off the woodwork in Arsenal’s best attempt of the first 45 minutes.

But as so often in recent times, Arteta’s men were able to rely on their strength from set pieces to make the breakthrough.

Declan Rice’s in-swinging free-kick was perfectly weighted for the stooping Gabriel to power a header into the bottom corner.

Myles Lewis Skelly’s recall at left-back was one of only two changes made by Arteta from Saturday’s 1-0 win at Fulham.

The England international has played second fiddle to Riccardo Calafiori for most of the season but highlighted the wealth of options available to Arteta with a driving run to set up the second goal.

Lewis Skelly picked out Martinelli, who curled into the far corner for his third goal in as many Champions League games.

Gyokeres then got the bit of fortune he needed to end his barren spell in front of goal when his shot from close range deflected off David Hancko to leave Jan Oblak helpless.

Three minutes later, Gyokeres converted from even closer to the goal after Gabriel again won the first header to Rice’s corner.

Arteta could afford the luxury of withdrawing Gabriel, Gyokeres, Eze, Jurrien Timber and Martin Zubimendi in the closing stages with one eye on Crystal Palace’s Premier League visit on Sunday.

Arsenal reached the semi-finals last season for the first time since 2009 before losing to eventual winners PSG.

The Gunners appear even stronger after another summer of major investment in the transfer market as they aim to conquer Europe for the first time in the club’s history.

Atletico, who were also beaten in their previous trip to England at Liverpool last month, have just three points from their opening three games

HAALAND CITY’S HERO AGAIN

Erling Haaland continued his superb goalscoring streak as Manchester City claimed a comfortable 2-0 win at Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Pep Guardiola’s side stayed unbeaten in the league phase with their victory at Estadio de la Ceramica, secured by first half goals from Haaland and then Bernardo Silva.

Norwegian target man Haaland has now found the net in each of his last 12 games for club and country, racking up 22 goals in those fixtures.

Guardiola rested Phil Foden among four changes to his starting line-up from the win against Everton at the weekend, as City ended a year-long winless run on the road in Europe.

Haaland headed a Silva cross wide early on as City took control of the game and began to find gaps in Villarreal’s defence, with Savinho looking bright.

Rico Lewis helped create the opener for Haaland after 17 minutes, cutting the ball back at the end of a neat move for the striker to blast home from six yards out.

Spanish side Villarreal, third in La Liga, began to etch a foothold in the game but City managed to grab their second before half-time to kill their momentum.

Savinho crossed for the unmarked Silva to nod past Brazilian stopper Luiz Junior to effectively seal the game.

City lost midfielder Nico Gonzalez to an injury before the hour mark in one of the few negatives of the night for the visitors, particularly with key midfielder Rodri Hernandez also sidelined.

The English side cruised through the second half until the final 20 minutes when Villarreal began to threaten.

City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made a good save from Nicola Pepe’s drive, and then the Ivorian forward headed wide.

Pepe also volleyed over as City were able to shut out the hosts. At the other end, Haaland’s fierce strike was well fielded by Luiz Junior. The goalkeeper made another superb save to frustrate the 25-year-old Norwegian and restrict him to just the one goal, which of late is no mean feat.

With five minutes remaining, Guardiola brought on Omar Marmoush for his first appearance for the club since August after a knee injury.

Villarreal came closest to scoring in the final stages when Renato Veiga’s header left Donnarumma rooted to the spot but hit the post and bounced out.

Marcelino Garcia Toral’s side are without a win in Europe this season, with just one point from their first three matches.

NEWCASTLE TOO GOOD FOR MOURINHO

Harvey Barnes scored twice after coming off the bench to help Newcastle inflict more Champions League pain on Jose Mourinho’s Benfica with a 3-0 win at St. James’ Park.

Anthony Gordon fired the Magpies in front as Benfica remain without a point in Europe’s elite competition this season.

Attacker Barnes was introduced just after the hour mark and made a massive impact with two composed right-footed finishes to put Newcastle well on course to qualify from the league phase.

Eddie Howe’s men have bounced back from defeat to Barcelona in their opening game with two victories, including a 4-0 thrashing of Union Saint-Gilloise three weeks ago.

Newcastle climb above Real Madrid and Barcelona to seventh in the Champions League standings.

Mourinho described himself as a “little Magpie” to Portuguese press last month due to his respect for his mentor and former Newcastle boss Bobby Robson, who is immortalised by a statue at St. James’ Park.

Robson gave Mourinho his break by employing him on his coaching staff as a translator at Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona.

In 1999, Robson wanted the Portuguese to join him at Newcastle as an assistant manager, but Mourinho declined to begin his own managerial adventure the following year with his first spell at Benfica.

The Portuguese giants were beaten 1-0 on Mourinho’s return to Chelsea last month.

Benfica are the only side so far with three defeats from three Champions League games this season, but were left to rue not making more of their first half chances.

Dodi Lukebakio was a constant menace down the right for the visitors. The Belgium winger forced Nick Pope into a brilliant save at his near post before Lukebakio’s curling effort from long range came crashing off the post.

Instead it was the hosts who made the breakthrough on 32 minutes. Bruno Guimaraes played in Jacob Murphy down the right and his low cross was converted by winger Gordon for his third Champions League goal in as many games this season.

Newcastle should have added to their lead when Lewis Miley headed over when completely unmarked from a corner.

Pope got the assist for the second goal as Antonio Silva failed to intercept his throw and 27-year-old Barnes sped clear before rifling low and hard into the far corner.

Gordon teed up Barnes for another composed finish seven minutes from time as Newcastle put their Premier League goalscoring woes to one side.

Howe’s side have scored just seven times in eight league games to sit 14th in the table.

But they could contend for a top-eight finish in the Champions League to reach the last 16 automatically with games against Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and PSV to come before a challenging final night trip to defending champions Paris Saint-Germain.

BARCA ROUT OLYMPIACOS

Fermin Lopez bagged a hat-trick and Marcus Rashford struck twice for Barcelona in a 6-1 demolition of Olympiacos on Tuesday to get the Catalan giants back on track in the Champions League.

Teenage star Lamine Yamal was also on target for Hansi Flick’s side, who lost against holders Paris Saint-Germain in their previous European outing in the league phase.

After a Lopez double, Ayoub El Kaabi pulled one back from the penalty spot for the Greek champions, but Santiago Hezze’s red card allowed injury-hit Barcelona to rack up a big scoreline and go provisionally third.

Flick was without Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and several other regulars, but his team were able to build some confidence at the Olympic stadium ahead of the Clasico against Real Madrid on Sunday in La Liga.

“I’m very happy, we needed a win like that, we ended it feeling good and now to think about the Clasico,” Lopez told Movistar after his treble.

“I’m grateful to the team and want to continue in this dynamic.”

Barcelona only just scraped a win over Girona on Saturday in a tight Catalan derby, and almost fell behind right at the start against the Greeks.

Alejandro Balde gave the ball away and veteran goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had to get down well to deny Daniel Podence.

Balde quickly made amends in attack as his driving runs helped Barca carve open the visitors.

Rashford volleyed narrowly over after 17-year-old playmaker Dro Fernandez and Balde connected on the left.

Balde was involved again as Barca took an early lead, feeding Lopez, who played in Yamal.

Olympiacos goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis got down well to dispossess the teenage winger, but Lopez was on hand to bundle home the loose ball.

Rashford drilled a free-kick into the side-netting as Barca controlled the game, although they lacked focus in defence, which has been a consistent problem this season.

With Sunday’s Clasico beckoning, their lapses in concentration are a worry.

- Olympiacos lifeline short-lived -

Lopez netted his second after 39 minutes, having been played in by Dro on his Champions League debut.

The midfielder almost scored his hat-trick early in the second half but Tzolakis tipped his header around the post from Yamal’s cross.

Olympiacos pulled their way back into the game through Moroccan striker El Kaabi.

The forward got between Pau Cubarsi and Eric Garcia to head home, and although the goal was disallowed for offside, Olympiacos were then awarded a penalty for handball by Garcia.

El Kaabi slotted past Szczesny to give his team a lifeline, but minutes later their chances faded.

Barca’s Marc Casado slumped to the ground after a seemingly innocuous contact with Hezze, who was harshly shown a second yellow card.

Rashford won a penalty after tumbling under Tzolakis’s challenge, and Yamal sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to extend Barca’s lead after 68 minutes.

In fine form during his loan from Manchester United, Rashford netted two goals in six minutes, either side of Lopez’s third as the Catalans ran amok.

Rashford twice beat Tzolakis with clinical low near-post finishes to reach four goals in the Champions League this season after his brace in their win at Newcastle.

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