Real Madrid, Aston Villa and Real Betis have each won all three of their Champions League league-phase games after Matchday 3 on 20 and 21 October, while Manchester United were beaten 4-1 by Como and LASK won 3-2 at Sporting CP for their first victory in the competition. Madrid beat Leipzig 4-1, Villa beat Viking 3-1 and Betis beat Feyenoord 1-0, according to UEFA’s match reports. The question is whether the early results show the established powers pulling away or whether upsets are becoming the rule.
The case for the powers starts with the perfect records. Real Madrid scored four against Leipzig, with Kylian Mbappé’s goal in the 83rd minute, and Villa made it three wins from three, with John McGinn named Player of the Match. Manchester City beat AEK Athens 5-1, Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona 4-2, Liverpool beat Villarreal 4-3 and Roma beat Slovan Bratislava 4-0 on Tuesday. Harry Kane scored a penalty in Bayern Munich’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal to score in his tenth consecutive Champions League game, reaching 58 goals in the competition. On Tuesday, Borussia Dortmund won 2-1 against Sabah and PSV Eindhoven won 1-0 against Porto, while Stuttgart and Atlético Madrid drew 1-1. Inter, down to ten men after Alessandro Bastoni’s sending-off, held on to beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 with Carlos Augusto’s 77th-minute goal, their first win of the campaign, and Betis’s Isco became the first player to score in consecutive Champions League matches for the club.
The case for unpredictability starts with the same matchday. Como beat Manchester United 4-1, with Nicolás Paz scoring twice, the first a curled effort two minutes in, and LASK won at Sporting CP after Sporting had taken the lead, with Luis Suárez scoring twice for the home side in a match LASK still won. Galatasaray won 4-2 at Lille for their first points, with Yunus Akgün scoring after 66 seconds, with Victor Osimhen scoring against his former club, and Napoli beat Bodø/Glimt 4-3. Bayern led Arsenal before Declan Rice equalised with about eight minutes left, and Club Brugge, who had now won back-to-back games, beat Lens 3-0 with Hans Vanaken scoring on the stroke of half-time, and Lille’s Soriba Diaoune, 19, scored in the defeat by Galatasaray. Goals were plentiful as well as surprising: Liverpool’s win over Villarreal and Napoli’s win over Bodø/Glimt each produced seven goals, and Fenerbahçe and Slavia Praha drew 2-2.
The results matter because the league phase leaves little room for error. United’s heavy defeat by Como shows how a single poor night can change a club’s position, and the unbeaten records of Madrid, Villa and Betis will be tested as the fixtures continue. For smaller clubs such as LASK, whose first Champions League win came at Sporting, and for Galatasaray, who opened their account in Lille, the results are a statement that the new format gives them a chance to compete with the best.
The established sides still hold the best records, and the upsets show that the table has not yet settled. The next matchday will say which of these results were exceptions.
