Dirk Kuyt got the better of his former club Liverpool as Fenerbahce twice came from behind for a famous 3-2 win in Istanbul that breathed new life into their Champions League campaign.
Meanwhile, Cesc Fabregas’ Como continued their remarkable maiden UCL tournament with a record-breaking thrashing, as Manchester City scraped to an unconvincing victory via an Erling Haaland winner.
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CULT HERO STUNS FORMER CLUB IN LIVERPOOL UPSET
Liverpool had won their opening three European games under Andoni Iraola, but were punished for sloppy defending in a surprise defeat.
Trey Nyoni and substitute Alexander Isak twice put the visitors in front. But Liverpool, who lost twice away to Galatasaray last season, were beaten again in Istanbul as Englishmen Mason Greenwood and Archie Brown levelled before Vedat Muriqi’s winner.
Fenerbahce’s interim boss Kuyt, who spent six years at Anfield as a player, was taking charge for just the second time after Ismail Kartal quit last week.
The Turkish giants had taken just two points from their opening three Champions League games but made the most of Liverpool’s generosity at the back.
Liverpool’s perfect Champions League start allowed Iraola the luxury of leaving out Isak and Florian Wirtz among five changes from Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Arsenal.
Nyoni retained his place and capped another fine performance with his first Liverpool goal from the edge of the box.
Cunha sent off after special brace | 00:30
Just four minutes later, though, Alisson Becker was deceived by Greenwood’s deflected free-kick to equalise.
Iraola unleashed Isak, Wirtz and Cody Gakpo from the bench just after the hour mark and got an almost immediate reward.
Isak was afforded far too much space to head in Gakpo’s cross. But again Liverpool quickly handed back their advantage.
Gakpo’s touch inadvertently deflected a cross beyond Alisson to give Brown an easy tap-in at the back post.
Liverpool then conceded for the 10th time in four Champions League games when Muriqi outmuscled Jeremy Jacquet to a looping cross and steered a header into the bottom corner.
Defeat cost Liverpool the chance to move level with Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the Champions League table as they sit.
Victory moves Fenerbahce move up to 19th in the 36-team table.
LEGEND’S TEAM EQUAL RECORD WITH UTTER THRASHING
Italian outfit Como equalled the record for the biggest winning margin in the modern Champions League with a stunning 9-1 victory away to Lens in France on Wednesday.
Greek international striker Anastasios Douvikas led the way with a hat-trick as the Serie A side, coached by former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea great Cesc Fabregas, claimed a third win in four games in this season’s league phase, having stunned Manchester United 4-1 in their most recent match.
Only two teams had previously won a game by a margin of eight goals since the launch of the modern UEFA Champions League in 1992.
Liverpool thumped Besiktas 8-0 in the group stage in 2007 and Real Madrid won by the same scoreline against Malmo in 2015.
Como are just the second team to score nine times in a game in the competition, after Bayern Munich beat Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 in the league phase in 2024.
According to statisticians Opta, the last club to score nine away from home was Feyenoord against Olympiacos in the old European Cup 1971.
Douvikas opened the scoring from close range in the seventh minute and finished again at the end of a superb team move just after the half-hour mark.
Argentine star Nico Paz rifled in to make it 3-0 at half-time, but Como really ran away with the game after the interval at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in northern France.
Paz set up French international midfielder Lucas Da Cunha for 4-0, and Marc-Oliver Kempf headed in his team’s fifth before Douvikas completed his hat-trick.
Mattia Liberali came off the bench and shortly after ran away to score the seventh, before Ruben Aguilar pulled one back for Lens with a fine volley.
However, Martin Baturina got Como’s eighth in the 69th minute and Lens were lucky to concede only one more after that, as Matteo Papaccioli capped an incredible night for the visitors.
“There’s nothing but positives for us to take this evening. Everything went right for us,” said an understated Fabregas, as reported by UEFA.com.
“I told them to slow down at 4-0.”
Como, who finished fourth in Serie A last season to qualify for the Champions League for the first time, had already beaten both RB Leipzig and Manchester United 4-1 at home in this campaign.
They are fourth in the overall Champions League standings after four games with nine points, three points behind Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, and one point behind Arsenal.
It is a third straight Champions League defeat for Lens and a record Champions League loss for a French club.
“It is hard to explain in the heat of the moment but the overriding feeling is one of humiliation,” said their coach, Yannick Cahuzac.
VALVERDE BLAST SNATCHES REAL MADRID LATE WIN AT AEK ATHENS
Federico Valverde lashed home a stunning effort from distance to snatch Real Madrid a late 3-2 victory at AEK Athens on Wednesday in the Champions League and preserve their 100 percent start.
Jose Mourinho’s side twice came from behind against the Greek champions before Valverde claimed all three points for his side, level with holders Paris Saint-Germain on four wins from four league phase games.
Aboubakary Koita sent AEK ahead after 12 minutes and Jude Bellingham equalised with a sublime flick for the record 15-time winners.
Stavros Pilios sent the Greek champions ahead with 15 minutes to go but Kylian Mbappe swiftly pulled Madrid level once again, setting the stage for Valverde’s late winner.
“Fede has that capability… (but) I didn’t ask him to shoot,” Mourinho told Movistar about his match-winner, who came on in the second half.
“I told him was that the game was wide open, it was being played at great speed… a fresh player like Fede, with his ability to cover a lot of ground, I told him to attack the space and arrive in the dangerous areas.” Madrid have now won seven straight games across all competitions. “We fought for (the victory), and with the score at 2-2 we didn’t settle,” added Mourinho.
“It would always be an acceptable result, we’d be on 10 points, but we wanted more.” Mourinho started with Vinicius Junior on the left flank, after he missed the team’s previous two matches through suspension, in La Liga.
The hosts started with huge energy at the Agia Sophia stadium and it was not overly surprising when they took an early lead.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved well from former Los Blancos striker Luka Jovic before Koita sent AEK ahead.
The Mauritanian winger shifted cleverly inside Marc Cucurella and thumped home at the near post, catching out Courtois.
The Belgian goalkeeper saved again from Jovic as AEK tried to make their strong start count.
However they inevitably began to tire and Madrid began to take the reins in the Greek capital.
Kylian Mbappe fired over and Bellingham netted from close range but was shown to be offside. Moments later the England international scored again and nobody could deny him this one.
Cucurella fired in a low cross and Bellingham produced a brilliant flicked finish to beat goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli.
Former Chelsea defender Cucurella tested Brignoli and Bernardo Silva nodded off-target before the interval as Mourinho’s team controlled the game.
Brignoli pushed away Eder Militao’s long-range effort early in the second half and Lazaros Rota blocked superbly to deny the heavily-involved Cucurella.
Mbappe bent a shot narrowly wide of the top corner with Italian stopper Brignoli at full stretch.
The France forward was frustrated by the AEK defence when Vinicius turned sharply and found him with a high pass, but the striker’s shot was blocked.
AEK reclaimed the lead in the 75th minute when the impressive Koita gently nudged the ball into Pilios’s path and the Albania international finished through Courtois’s legs from close range.
Madrid immediately responded with Bellingham playing Denzel Dumfries in down the right. The Netherlands defender rolled a low ball across the six-yard box and this time Mbappe was able to finish.
It was Mbappe’s fourth goal in four Champions League games this season, netting once in each, and his 16th across all competitions.
Madrid substitute Endrick sent Mbappe through on goal with five minutes remaining but Brignoli produced a sensational save to tip his strike against the crossbar.
Valverde refused to give up on the three points and in the 92nd minute he lashed home across Brignoli to keep Madrid perfect.
Koita, who had been substituted, was sent off after the game for apparent dissent.
Valverde thanked his team-mates for backing him when he gets the chance to shoot.
“Sometimes I overthink it, and well, as I always say, I’m grateful to the players, to my teammates, because they’re the ones who give me the confidence so that, in those moments, I can make that decision and have the courage to hit it,” he said.
‘FAR FROM OUR STANDARDS’: ARTETA UNHAPPY DESPITE EXTENDING STREAK
Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres scored in the first half to hand Arsenal a 2-1 win at Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Arsenal got back to winning ways in Europe after a 2-2 draw at Bayern last month, reaching 10 points from four Champions League games so far, while Slavia have a single point in the standings.
The result takes their Champions League unbeaten streak to 19 matches – the equal third-longest in tournament history.
“We have to value the fact that it’s very difficult to win away from home. We’ve done it against a really tough opponent, as we expected,” said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
“Two very different halves. The first one where we played at a really high level in terms of tempo, intensity, quality and clarity in what we had to do.”
The Premier League champions were quick to take control of the game in chilly conditions in the Czech capital.
Madueke reaped the rewards on nine minutes.
Gyokeres controlled David Raya’s long clearance with his chest and passed the ball instinctively to Madueke sprinting behind him down the right flank.
Madueke left the Slavia back four behind him with ease and beat diving Ukrainian teenager Nazar Domchak in the Slavia goal with a low shot.
Gyokeres, one of six changes in Mikel Arteta’s starting line-up from Sunday’s 1-0 win at Liverpool, made it 2-0 on 38 minutes.
He beat Domchak with a neat shot off the far post after a one-two with Mikel Merino on the edge of the Slavia box.
Czech champions Slavia were sluggish throughout the first half, producing a single chance when skipper Tomas Holes fired wide from inside the box.
But they stepped up their pace considerably in the second half to stave off a repeat of a 3-0 home loss to the Gunners in the competition exactly a year ago.
Slavia’s Polish midfielder Oskar Kubiak forced a diving save from Raya seconds into the second half.
Gabriel Magalhaes and Raya cleared two headers off the goalline in quick succession with 15 minutes to go, while David Zima fired over the bar.
Raya then forced a Kubiak header onto the post.
Slavia scored a consolation goal in the 90th minute when David Jurasek’s cross bounced through the Arsenal defence and Wiktor Nowak blasted the ball into the net from close range.
“(We) scored two goals. It should have been three, four or five. We didn’t make that gap,” said Arteta.
“Right from the beginning, we were extremely far from our standards and everything that we have to do… in everything that we discussed to avoid the game that we played in the second half.”
It was the 23rd straight game without a win for the hosts in the Champions League, taking them within one of equalling AEK Athens’ all-time record from 1992-2006.
HAALAND THE HERO AS CITY BOUNCE BACK
Erling Haaland’s 78th-minute strike helped Manchester City shake off a mini-slump with a 3-2 Champions League win at RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
After an excellent start to the season, City had lost two Premier League games in a row either side of beating Brighton on penalties in the League Cup.
The visitors twice went ahead — through a Castello Lukeba own goal and an Enzo Fernandez header — only to be pegged back by goals from Ridle Baku and Antonio Nusa.
Despite having scored more against Leipzig than any other opponents in his career, Haaland had few chances but was right on the spot to turn in an Elliot Anderson cross for the winner.
“For me I think it’s easy. It’s around 100 minutes a game to just stay fully focused,” Haaland told reporters.
“In this period it was about trying to wait for the right moment and attack it in the right way and put it in the back of the net and that’s exactly what I did.” Haaland has now scored 13 times in nine matches against Leipzig, including a memorable five-goal performance in a 7-0 rout in March 2023.
Despite the victory, City were well below their usual best against a Leipzig side in a rebuilding process under new coach Martin Demichelis.
City coach Enzo Maresca, who arrived in the summer, conceded his side were still a “work in progress” but praised Haaland.
“It’s important that he’s on his game. We know that at any moment he can help us, he can score goals,” Maresca said.
Maresca backed under-fire goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was out of position for Baku’s equaliser.
“It’s not a concern… We are talking about a mistake. A few minutes before he made a save that no keeper in the world could make.”
Nusa’s performance was a highlight for the hosts, with Haaland’s Norway teammate now on six goals and seven assists in 14 matches this season as Leipzig look to replace Yan Diomande, who left for Real Madrid in the summer.
“It’s a pity, to be honest,” Nusa told TNT Sports.
“I feel like we deserved more today and you end up with zero points. It’s not a good feeling.”
City travelled to Germany having lost two Premier League games in a row for the first time since August 2025.
Leipzig had won just one from three in the Champions League before Wednesday but had been excellent at home, winning five from five while scoring 19 goals without conceding once.
Haaland was handed the captain’s armband for the first time this season but it was another Norwegian, Leipzig’s Nusa, who impressed early.
Nusa forced Donnarumma to tip a shot over the crossbar with 14 minutes gone. Leipzig looked more comfortable but then conceded in embarrassing fashion with 37 minutes gone when Lukeba bungled a Nico O’Reilly cut-back into his own goal.
Christoph Baumgartner forced an excellent save from Donnarumma just after the break but Leipzig were soon level when Baku threaded a low shot in from an acute angle with the Italian out of position off his line.
Haaland’s first dangerous moment came shortly after Baku’s equaliser, when he forced a close-range save from Maarten Vandevoordt.
Fernandez had City back in front just before the hour mark when he headed in a lovely Iliman Ndiaye cross, but Leipzig restored parity just three minutes later.
Christopher Nkunku linked up with Nusa just four minutes after coming off the bench, allowing the Norwegian to cut a low shot across the face of goal and in.
When Anderson broke down the right flank with 12 minutes left, Haaland immediately adjusted his run towards the far post, where he waited to tap in the England midfielder’s pinpoint cross.
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