Goals Rain Across Europe: PSG, Aston Villa and Liverpool Dominate
Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Manchester City 4-2 in a chaotic Champions League tie on Wednesday. The two sides dominated the first 45 minutes. City suffered a harsh defeat in their first home outing since a tribunal found them guilty of 114 financial fair play breaches. At Etihad Stadium, you saw pure defiance. The home support packed the South Stand, with placards everywhere reading "CTID" (City Till I Die). Pep Guardiola was there with the club's executives — Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Ferran Soriano and Hugo Viana — to watch the reaction in the stands. City are of course still innocent and have appealed the decision. The off-pitch tension was clearly affecting the team on the pitch. PSG were absolutely in control. Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele scored less than two minutes apart early on. Warren Zaire-Emery found the gap in the 32nd minute with a very nice touch, allowing Vitinha to make it 3-0 past Donnarumma. City were completely transformed after the break. In the 53rd minute, Erling Haaland met a cross with a powerful header. That goal put the Norwegian in the record books as the quickest player to reach 60 Champions League goals. He did it in exactly 60 games. He had broken Lionel Messi's previous record of 80 matches.  Maghnes Akliouche immediately ended the home side's momentum with a long-range effort that just slipped past Donnarumma's fingertips to put PSG back in front. Haaland responded in the 75th minute with a sharp finish from a cross, bringing the deficit back to one. City pushed hard and had a late penalty. Ferran Torres took the spot kick, and Donnarumma saved it to secure the win and right the previous error. This Etihad tie was the highlight of a huge European matchday which saw 46 goals in total. Aston Villa secured their biggest ever win in Europe with a 6-0 demolition of Fenerbahce at Villa Park. Johan Manzambi opened the scoring, and both Nicolas Jackson and Ross Barkley found the net twice. Tammy Abraham completed the scoring in stoppage time. In Austria, Barcola scored his first goal for Liverpool, and his side thrashed LASK 6-3. Ronald Araujo, Jeremie Frimpong and Lewis Koumas all found the net for Iraola's side. It's a strong response to the sting of their 3-0 home defeat to City a few days earlier. Florian Flecker had two for the Austrian side. In Italy, Real Madrid got the better of AS Roma in the final minutes, winning 4-3. Roma took the lead early through Donyell Malen, after goals from Marten de Roon and Kylian Mbappe, but Carlos Espi and Endrick levelled. Antonio Ruediger headed in an Arda Guler corner in the 90th minute to give Real Madrid the win.
