The unstoppable Erling Haaland was at it again in the UEFA Champions League overnight.
Haaland took his goal tally to a remarkable 19 in all competitions this season with another double as Manchester City destroyed FC Copenhagen 5-0 in Group G on Wednesday.
The result leaves City alongside title holders Real Madrid – who beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 – Bayern Munich, Napoli and Club Brugge on maximum points in this year’s competition.
The completion of matchday three also saw Lionel Messi in the spotlight, finishing off a team wondergoal in Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-1 draw at Benfica – making the Portuguese the 40th different club against whom the Argentine icon has scored in Europe’s elite competition.
Chelsea, European champions in 2021, got a first win in this year’s tournament under new manager Graham Potter, beating AC Milan 3-0 with goals from Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Reece James.
Haaland had scored a hat-trick in each of City’s last three Premier League home games but was denied another against Copenhagen when substituted at halftime.
He smashed the opener off Joao Cancelo’s cross in the seventh minute and made it 2-0 in the 32nd tucking away the rebound from a Sergio Gomez effort.
A David Khocholava own goal, a penalty from Riyad Mahrez and a 76th-minute strike from Julian Alvarez completed the rout.
Mat Ryan did not feature in the match, with Poland’s Kamil Grabara chosen in goal for Copenhagen ahead of the Socceroos captain.
“I am really impressed with the way we attacked. We played really good,” City coach Pep Guardiola said.
“Haaland has played a lot of minutes and we were 3-0 up so he came off, it was a rest. He is not injured.”
City sit top of Group G three points above Dortmund who won 4-1 at ailing Sevilla with goals from Raphael Guerreiro, Jude Bellingham, Karim Adeyemi and Julian Brandt.
Sevilla made official the departure of coach Julen Lopetegui after the match. He is expected to be replaced by Jorge Sampaoli.
Real Madrid looked on course to a comfortable Group F win when Rodrygo fired into the bottom right corner in the 13th minute and Vinicius Junior made it two 15 minutes later.
Shakhtar responded from a volley from Oleksandr Zubkov before halftime but the champions held on for a narrow win.
Benfica and PSG entered their Group G clash with two wins each and it was the French champions who drew first blood when Messi curled into the top left corner in the 22nd following a slick move which also involved Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.
The Portuguese side levelled through an own goal by Danilo off Enzo Fernandez’s cross before Neymar hit the bar with an overhead kick after the break but the game finished 1-1.
Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic lost 3-1 at RB Leipzig, Juventus beat Maccabi Haifa by the same score and Salzburg edged Dinamo Zagreb 1-0.
The Celtic manager felt his team paid the price for going into “survival mode” after equalising during the defeat.
Jota cancelled out Christopher Nkunku’s first-half breakaway goal two minutes after the interval but Celtic could not build on their equaliser.
The home side hit the post and had a second goal disallowed for offside following a VAR intervention before Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart gifted Leipzig possession and promptly conceded the first of two goals from Andre Silva.
The Bhoys never recovered as the German side dominated to leave Celtic bottom of Group F with one point from three matches.
“For the most part we matched them, we were aggressive and created some good opportunities,” Postecoglou said, adding that a knee injury that forced Callum McGregor off “doesn’t look good”.
“We had some really good chances in the first half, were well in the game, scored a good goal to get level and just got a bit negative in our mindset after that, especially with the ball, and sort of invited pressure.
“You can’t give away goals like that at this level and we paid the price. Momentum went their way after that.”
Hart passed the ball straight to an opponent while looking to find Greg Taylor but Postecoglou felt the former England goalkeeper was put into too many difficult positions by his teammates.
“It’s not about the mistake,” he said. “Before then we had a lot of the ball and we were just passing it back to him for no reason.
“You are doing what you think is safe but it’s not really who we are.
“I just felt that it was creeping in before that. After we scored and got level we almost wanted to settle for that and kept passing the ball back to him.
“I could see it coming. If it wasn’t Joe making the mistake it would have been someone else because when you get into survival mode, the best you will ever do is survive.
“When you come away from home in a game like this and have fought so hard to claw your way back into it, you don’t want to survive, you want to actually stay in that positive mindset where you can hurt the opposition and make them uncomfortable.”
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