Barcelona’s Fermín López had the spotlight all to himself at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys when he put on an incredible display of scoring three times as the Catalan giants defeated Olympiacos 6-1 and made their record of wins at home against Greek teams up to eight games in a row.
After Daniel Podence’s early challenge, Barça reacted immediately and Fermín López was the man of the match as he assisted and finished with Lamine Yamal opening the scoring and then adding a second before half-time. Olympiacos did manage a goal on the penalty spot by Ayoub El Kaabi to make a fight of it but then they only had a red card of Santiago Hezze to look forward. Rashford and Yamal each scored once while López finished it off with his third goal of the night to complete his brilliant individual performance.
At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal celebrated their centennial victory in the Champions League in a very loud manner by defeating Atlético Madrid 4-0. Mikel Arteta’s team went on to keep their record without defeat against the Spanish teams at seven matches after goals from Gabriel, Martinelli, and a Gyökeres brace, while Atlético’s run of six games without a loss came to a sudden stop.
Meanwhile, in Germany, PSG were on fire as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 7-2 in a high-scoring game that involved a number of red cards. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué, and Vitinha were the main contributors to the French champions’ fifth consecutive UCL victory.
In Spain, Manchester City got back to their best with a well-controlled 2-0 win over Villarreal, thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva, thereby putting an end to a five-match losing streak away from home in Europe.
Newcastle United, on the other hand, were very comfortable in their 3-0 win against Benfica with Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes lighting up the game at St. James’ Park.
Furthermore, PSV Eindhoven made an appearance to the top tier of football by stunning Napoli 6-2.
Inter Milan, with Cristian Chivu at the helm, were able to keep up their perfect defensive record on the continent with a solid 4-0 victory over Union Saint-Gilloise, thus securing their third clean sheet in a row.
