(Left to right) Giovanni Simeone celebrates his goal vs Liverpool, Robert Lewandowski after one of his three goals at the Nou Camp and Antoine Griezmann holds the Atletico crest after his winner against Porto, (Photos: UCL on Twitter & AP)Napoli scored four goals inside 42 minutes to stun the 2018/19 European Champions in Naples with a 4-1 win. Piotr Zielinski scored twice at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona while Andro-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone also put one in for the Serie A side.
🍻 𝔏𝔢𝔱’𝔰 𝔠𝔢𝔩𝔢𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔢
— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) September 7, 2022
Liverpool, who sit seventh on the Premier League table a defeat and three draws, have been under the radar this season owing to their problems in midfield. Problems Napoli took clear advantage of in their quick attacking system under Luciano Spalletti, who had said that ‘this group of players can garner even more affection from the Maradona this campaign’.
“It is an important result because the measures are always taken based on who the opponent is, and they are called Liverpool so the result will cause a bit of a stir,” the manager told Amazon Prime Video after the game.
Lewandowski scores hattrick as Barca score five
FC Barcelona began their 2022/23 season with a 5-1 thumping of Viktoria Plzen in the Group C fixture at the Nou Camp. The star signing of the season, Robert Lewandowski graced the scoresheet thrice, bringing in his fine form from the Spanish La Liga.
Xavi urges the team to stay humble pic.twitter.com/zAfkLgl5zp
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 8, 2022
Frank Kessie opened the scoring for the home side in the 13th minute while Lewandowski, who made his move from Bayern Munich to the Catalan side in the summer gave a 3-1 lead to the hosts just after Jan Sykora had put one back for the Czech club.
The 34-year-old completed his hattrick 22 minutes into the second half and Ferran Torres almost immediately made it 5-1. Even though Barca ended the night with three points, there next two outings are going to be tough to replicate their matchday one performances at as they face Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Group C.
Atletico win stoppage time thriller
Three goals were scored in the Atletico Madrid-Porto matchday one Champions League Group B match. All three of them coming in the stoppage time as Diego Simeone & co. one upped their opponents.
Creer. pic.twitter.com/7P8jlhai9S
— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) September 7, 2022
With Mehdi Teremi sent off in the 81st minute of the match, Porto were always susceptible to conceding. And concede they did in the first of the one dozen off minutes of added time as Mario Hermoso put Atletico in advantage.
Five minutes later though Mateus Uribe equalised for the visitors. And with the clock looking to have run out of time Antoine Griezmann came to the rescue of his side.
“This is soccer, it’s always changing,” Atlético coach Diego Simeone said. “We didn’t play a great match and it looked like it was going to be a draw, but in the end we picked up three very important points.”