The UEFA Champions League delivered a Matchday 3 full of goals, with 74 across 18 games, a 4.1 per game average. Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona, Real Madrid beat RB Leipzig, Liverpool beat Villarreal, Real Betis beat Feyenoord and Aston Villa beat Viking FK, so all five teams remain a perfect 3-0-0. Como also thumped Manchester United and put Michael Carrick’s future in doubt. Bayern Munich and Arsenal played an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena, where Bukayo Saka limped off early with an injury.
Gab Marcotti, Sam Tighe, Mark Ogden and Beth Lindop break down the action.
Will PSG regret going so hard against Barcelona?
PSG won the battle with a 4-2 home win in the league phase, but they paid a price. Ousmane Dembélé hobbled off after 20 minutes, and Marquinhos and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia both exited with injuries on the hour mark. Kvaratskhelia has since been ruled out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
Ogden refuses to blame Luis Enrique. “Players can be injured at any time and Kvaratskhelia, Dembele or Marquinhos could have suffered the same fate in Sunday’s Ligue 1 game at Lyon,” he says. He points out that Luis Enrique has rested and rotated his big stars all season, and he argues the manager was right to unleash them because the game was a rare chance to face a team capable of challenging them. In his view, PSG’s top players gain far more from facing Barcelona and Manchester City than from facing Le Havre or Auxerre.
Lindop agrees. She notes that PSG regularly rest players in domestic competition so they are at their best in the Champions League, an approach that has paid dividends over the past couple of seasons. She still calls Kvaratskhelia’s injury a real shame. “When he’s on form, he’s one of the most enjoyable players to watch in Europe and he gives PSG another dimension,” she says. She adds that Luis Enrique’s side remain favorites to retain the trophy, but losing a player of his talent is a huge blow.
Marcotti says you can get hurt at any time, and what you want to avoid is injury through overplaying and fatigue, which is not an issue for PSG. He reminds readers that they won Ligue 1 by six points and did not move into first place until mid-January. If they lose to Lyon on Sunday night, they could slip into sixth place. He believes PSG have a wealth of attacking options beyond Kvaratskhelia, including Maghnes Akliouche, Ferran Torres and Mika Godts. He considers center back Willian Pacho and midfielder Vitinha harder to replace.
Tighe pushes back, arguing that Kvaratskhelia may be the best left winger in the world, assuming Kylian Mbappé is officially classed as a reluctant striker these days, and one of the top 10 players overall. He acknowledges that Désiré Doué continues to grow and that summer recruitment replenished the wide areas. But he says Luis Enrique’s intense style requires depth, and PSG have lost their best wide man. “It’s terrible luck for Les Parisiens, and sad for the game as he’s a joy to watch at top speed,” he says.
Is Liverpool’s start under Andoni Iraola real?
Liverpool fell into a 2-0 hole against Villarreal before scoring four straight goals in a 4-3 win. They are perfect in the Champions League and have lost only once in all competitions this season, to Manchester City. Yet Bradley Barcola, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak have not shown their best, Dominik Szoboszlai is carrying an injury, and right-back remains unsettled, although Ronald Araújo has played well on an “emergency loan.”
Lindop says nobody at Liverpool is under any illusions that Iraola’s side is a work in progress. She says they look a level below Europe’s top sides and were particularly poor in the first half-hour against Villarreal. She thinks they are too flawed to win the Premier League this season, and probably the Champions League too, though she says you can never count them out in Europe. She calls for patience, especially given the recent injury woes. She sees real cause for optimism in Rio Ngumoha, whose Tuesday display was his most complete in a Liverpool shirt. “He’s still only 18, meaning we shouldn’t expect him to produce those kinds of performances every week, but he has a very bright future at Anfield,” she says.
Tighe calls Ngumoha’s performance Liverpool’s biggest positive outside the three points. He says the teenager looked great on the right flank and appears capable of solving a real conundrum for Iraola. Liverpool entered the season with four wingers who all prefer the left side, and Iraola has already tried Cody Gakpo, Víctor Muñoz and Ngumoha there. Tighe feels Ngumoha can make it stick.
Marcotti calls it a false dawn in the sense that Iraola is not a manager who delivers immediate results. He notes that Bournemouth took only three points from Iraola’s first nine games in charge, then improved from 11th to ninth to sixth. He says Iraola inherited a poorly assembled squad, that defensive leader Virgil van Dijk is likely to leave, and that first-choice center forward Hugo Ekitike is out until the new year. Iraola lost three of his back four in a single summer at Bournemouth and came back stronger. Marcotti sees glimmers: Ryan Gravenberch is learning, Jérémy Jacquet is growing in confidence and Muñoz looks serviceable. He does not expect a “real” Iraola team for a year at the earliest.
Ogden thinks Liverpool are going along just fine. He accepts they are in transition and will not challenge Arsenal and Manchester City for the title, but he says Ngumoha is their brightest attacking talent, which does not reflect well on Wirtz and Barcola. He expects Liverpool to score more than they concede in most games and says patience is required at Anfield. “It could be worse — just look at Manchester United,” he adds.
Should Manchester United sack Carrick?
United lost 4-1 at Como, and captain Bruno Fernandes openly questioned Carrick’s tactics after the game.
Tighe says it cannot all be down to Carrick, but he believes Lisandro Martínez’s interview bailed the manager out massively. He says United finished the summer short of a left back and a striker, but recruited good midfielders who are performing horribly. He highlights Youri Tielemans, who has suddenly gone from one of the best midfielders in the Premier League to someone who looks way off it. Tighe asks whether that is Tielemans’ fault or the team’s setup, and says Andrey Santos should get more of a pass. He insists Carrick still holds a lot of responsibility, just not all of it.
Ogden agrees but says United’s players do not look fit. Their running stats are some of the worst in the Premier League, and he says that is down to the manager and his coaching staff. He says the squad is full of misfits, some, like Luke Shaw, dating back to Louis van Gaal’s time (2014-16), and too many players are not good enough, too old or both. He argues Carrick has to go because he is not qualified for a job of United’s stature, and says it never works when an interim manager gets the job permanently. He wants a coach who will get the players fit, organized and disciplined, and he names Antonio Conte.
Lindop feels a little sorry for Carrick. She says Martínez’s comments point to a club in disarray behind the scenes and calls Carrick the latest in a long line of managers to struggle at Old Trafford. She agrees his days look numbered. He did an excellent job steadying the ship last season but never had the pedigree to take on the role long term, she says. She believes Conte would spice things up but that the union would end in disaster at some point. “Although it would make great content for the club’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary,” she adds.
Marcotti answers Ogden’s challenge with examples of interim bosses who succeeded:
Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League. Zinedine Zidane won three. Hansi Flick won the Treble. Tony Barton won the European Cup at Aston Villa. Edin Terzic won the German Cup and reached the Champions League final. Garry Monk replaced Michael Laudrup at relegation-threatened Swansea City and led them to eighth the following season. Chris Coleman took relegation-threatened Fulham to ninth the following year.
Marcotti says all of those managers had exceptional players or a very solid club, or both, and United are neither. He believes Carrick probably cannot get United where they want to be, so he should go. The jump was too big, midweek football is hard to adjust to, and the players looked like they were running at half-speed. He notes that the only senior outfield players on the bench were Joshua Zirkzee, Amad Diallo and Carlos Baleba. He also says Martínez was right about the club’s wider problems. “There are serious issue of communication and drift,” he says, adding that it is about accountability and vision, not just the transfer window and Jason Wilcox’s choices.
Ogden concedes Zidane and Flick but says Di Matteo was gone within months of signing a new contract, which is the fate awaiting Carrick. Marcotti replies that most United fans would be happy with Carrick winning a Champions League and then getting sacked.
What does Bayern 2-2 Arsenal tell us?
Arsenal were virtually at full strength, minus William Saliba. Bayern were missing Joshua Kimmich, the suspended Michael Olise and Jamal Musiala, while Luis Díaz entered as a sub and then came off injured.
Lindop calls it a high-quality game with three brilliant goals. She thinks Arsenal will be happier, not just because they equalized late but because it was another mature away performance. Eberechi Eze did well replacing Saka, and she says Arsenal’s squad is best equipped to handle injuries. She finds Bayern hard to assess with so many absentees. Vincent Kompany will be disappointed with how they managed the game at 2-1 up, but she expects a different proposition once the big guns return.
Marcotti says the game would have been the round’s best had Barcelona vs. PSG not happened. He says losing Saka after 10 minutes did Arsenal no favors, but they showed a ton of character. He saw the Arsenal of last season, one that hunkers down, stays compact and plays in transition, which he calls the right approach away from home. He backs the choice of Viktor Gyökeres and doubts Kai Havertz could have laid the ball off as he did for Declan Rice’s goal. On Bayern, he says you notice Kimmich more when he is absent: Tom Bischof is great but has a long way to go to match his leadership. Alphonso Davies showed he can still cut it as a winger, and Olise’s absence leaves a gaping hole. Both opening goals came from outstanding transition passes by Martin Ødegaard and especially Harry Kane. “There’s no answer to it,” he says of Kane dropping deep and picking out streaking wingers.
Ogden says Bayern have the better squad, more talented individuals, more tactical flexibility and a goalscorer in Kane who is exactly what Arsenal need. He notes that Bayern would have reached last season’s final had they not met PSG in the semifinal. He puts PSG, Bayern and Barcelona head and shoulders above the rest, with Arsenal in the next group, and says Mikel Arteta needs to add variety and adventure to the team’s tactics.
Tighe says the result suits everyone. A draw is palatable for Bayern given the absences, and Arsenal did what they needed to do. The fact that Saka’s injury did not rock them is a major positive. He says the extent of the injury will concern Arteta most, not any dropped points.
What else stood out on Matchday 3?
Tighe highlights Manchester City’s 5-1 demolition of AEK Athens, driven by academy graduates. Phil Foden scored a hat trick and showed manager Enzo Maresca he has fire in his belly. Rico Lewis assisted two of the goals, 17-year-old Floyd Samba won the free kick that started it all, and 18-year-olds Ryan McAidoo and Kaden Braithwaite came on and made an impact, McAidoo teeing up Foden’s third.
Ogden counters that the sparse attendance at the Etihad was a concern. The official attendance against AEK was 40,042, while 73,685 fans paid to watch United play Sabah FK at Old Trafford last month. He argues the empty seats point to City’s relatively small fanbase, which does not tally with commercial earnings on a par with Real Madrid’s and bigger than United’s. He says a club claiming to be a global superpower needs fans to prove it by filling the stadium, as at Real, United, Liverpool and Bayern.
Lindop points to Kane, with Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony approaching. He was not at his sparkling best against Arsenal, yet he still scored from the penalty spot and set up Davies, and could have had a hat trick of assists on another night. She says she is rooting for him to win at next week’s ceremony in London.
Marcotti says he has had enough City hate and does not care about the Ballon d’Or, so he focuses on Como. He says Nico Paz could walk into just about any team in the world. Como were missing three starters, Trevoh Chalobah, Assane Diao and Moise Kean, and United had not conceded four in a game since May 2025, away to Brentford. “Cesc Fabregas is the real deal,” he says. He adds that Como have spent beyond their means and will likely pay a hefty Financial Fair Play price, but the players on the field are mostly youngsters or middling players reborn under Fabregas.