Five goals, three of them from Phil Foden. Manchester City swept aside AEK Athens 5-1 at the Etihad on Tuesday, 20 October, in the third round of the Champions League league phase, and they did it with Erling Haaland watching from the bench after an injury scare.
Elliot Anderson opened the scoring after 12 minutes with his first goal for the club, and Foden doubled the lead on 34 minutes. Stavros Pilios gave the Greek champions hope seven minutes into the second half, but Rayan Cherki restored City's two-goal cushion on 57 minutes. Foden then struck twice more, on 65 and 76 minutes, to complete his hat-trick. The win lifts City to six points after a defeat in the previous round.
At Anfield, it took seven goals for Liverpool to get past Villarreal 4-3. The visitors were two up inside half an hour through Georges Mikautadze (4) and Sergi Cardona (29). Alexis Mac Allister pulled one back on 36 minutes, and Ronald Araujo, on loan from Barcelona, levelled in first-half stoppage time. Mac Allister scored again on 65 minutes and Florian Wirtz added a fourth three minutes later, so Tani Oluwaseyi's 87th-minute strike came too late. Liverpool have a perfect nine points from three games.
Napoli edged Bodo/Glimt by the same 4-3 score in Naples. Matteo Politano scored in the first minute, Jens Petter Hauge replied for the Norwegians, and Scott McTominay struck on 41 and 75 minutes. An own goal by Odin Bjortuft on 88 minutes gave Napoli their fourth, with Helmersen and Sondre Brunstad Fet also scoring for the visitors.
Roma had the easiest evening, beating Slovan Bratislava 4-0 with goals from Mario Hermoso, Nahuel Molina, Niccolo Pisilli and a Donyell Malen penalty. PSV won 1-0 away at Porto thanks to Guus Til on 57 minutes, and Borussia Dortmund won 2-1 at Sabah in Azerbaijan, Serhou Guirassy scoring both goals.
Two games ended level. Fenerbahce let a two-goal lead slip against Slavia Prague, with Pavel Kacor equalising for 2-2 in the 90th minute, while Stuttgart drew 1-1 with Atletico Madrid: Jamie Leweling scored for the hosts on 36 minutes and Julian Alvarez equalised on 47.
