Only three teams in the Champions League era have ever won a match by eight goals, and the newest member of that club is a side playing its very first season in the competition. Como travelled to northern France on Wednesday and came home with a 9-1 victory over Lens, a result that put Cesc Fàbregas and his squad alongside Liverpool, who beat Beşiktaş 8-0 in 2007, and Real Madrid, who did the same to Malmö in 2015.
Greek striker Anastasios Douvikas took the match ball home after scoring three, while Nico Paz added a goal and set up two more. Six other players got on the scoresheet as well. Bayern Munich are the only other club to reach nine in a single game of the modern tournament, against Dinamo Zagreb two years ago, and nobody had managed nine on the road in the European Cup since Feyenoord did it in 1971. The Italians now have three wins from four outings.
Real Madrid needed far more sweat in Athens. AEK went ahead twice, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé replied each time, and Federico Valverde settled it deep into stoppage time with a thumping long-range strike. José Mourinho’s team remain perfect after four matchdays.
Liverpool’s own perfect run did not survive Istanbul. They led twice at Fenerbahçe and still lost 3-2, with Vedat Muriqi grabbing the decisive goal late on. Manchester City edged RB Leipzig by the same margin after letting two leads slip, and it was Erling Haaland who finally put the game away. Elsewhere, a teenage Konstantinos Karetsas earned Borussia Dortmund a 2-1 win over Real Betis, Porto routed Napoli 4-1 and Arsenal won 2-1 in Prague against Slavia.
