Manchester City overcame an early scare to get their Champions League defense off to a solid start on Tuesday but nine-man Celtic endured a rough night in Rotterdam, while Barcelona flexed their muscle as the new UEFA Champion League season kicked off.
Xavi’s side smashed Royal Antwerp 5-0 at home as a new signing continued to shined for the Spanish giants.
Joao Felix, on loan from Atletico Madrid, scored the first and last goals of the match, while also setting up Robert Lewandowski for their second.
The 23-year-old scored in LALIGA over the weekend and looks poised to resurrect his career at Barca after a difficult few years for the Portugal prodigy.
Felix was withdrawn in the 68th minute against Antwerp and replaced by 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, who became the competition’s second youngest player.
Celtic’s Champions League struggles continue
The Scottish giants returned to the competition last season but failed to win a game under former manager Ange Postecoglou.
The Hoops have been drawn in another tricky group and have started in horror fashion going down 2-0 to reigning Eredivisie champions Feyenoord.
Brendan Rodgers’ side had two players sent off within five minutes of each other as both Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Holm were given their marching orders.
The duo were making their respective Champions League debuts with Celtic now just the second side in the competition to have two debutants sent off in the same match.
Lazio goalkeeper scores late equalizer
There’s nothing quite like a goalkeeper scoring at the death and Ivan Provedel did just that for Lazio against Atletico Madrid.
Down 1-0 in the 95th minute, the 29-year-old scored just the second goal of his professional career with a clutch header.
Atletico seemingly switched off after an initial corner and Provedel, who made key saves to keep his side in it, took full advantage of a follow-up cross into the box.
The Italian is now just the fourth goalkeeper to score a Champions League goal and only the second to score one from open play.
PSG down Dortmund as ref told to improve
PSG proved too strong for Borussia Dortmund in Paris as they claimed a 2-0 win courtesy of a Kylian Mbappe penalty and a Achraf Hakimi goal.
It was a deserved win with Dortmund defender Mats Hummels admitting as much on X (formerly Twitter) post-match, while also taking a parting shot at the referee.
“Bad performance from us with a deserved win for PSG. Still the ref didn’t help today, a lot of bad decisions like the penalty call. So them and us have to improve for the second game,” Hummels posted.
Alvarez key as Man City pepper Crvena Zvezda
Reigning champions Manchester City came from behind to beat Crvena Zvezda 3-1.
Julian Alvarez scored twice to lead the comeback before Rodri rounded out a one-sided contest.
Man City ended the match with 37 shots, the most by a team in the Champions League since 2016.
