Nico Paz Sinks United, Real Madrid Keeps Scoring at a 10-Goal Clip, and Barcelona Suffers Its Worst Defensive Night in 20 Years

Matchday 3 of the Champions League had a bit of everything: a debutant club delivering a tactical lesson, a comeback for the ages, and a Barcelona side that found itself with no defensive safety net. If you thought the league phase was going to be a formality, this round proved you wrong.

Let's start with the loudest statement. Como, in its European debut, thrashed Manchester United 4-1, and the scoreline barely tells the story of what happened on the field. The star of the night was Nico Paz, who at 22 years and 43 days became the youngest Argentine player to register three goal contributions (two goals and an assist) in a Champions League match since Lionel Messi did it at 21 against Bayern Munich in April 2009. His brace also makes him the youngest player ever to score two goals against United in the competition's history, surpassing the mark Raul Gonzalez set for Real Madrid in the 1999-2000 quarterfinals.

For United, things look grim. This marks the first time an English club has conceded within the first two minutes in consecutive matches of a major European competition, and it's only the third time in the club's history that it has lost back-to-back Champions League matches by more than a one-goal margin, following stretches in November 1994 against Barcelona and Goteborg, and in 2003 against Deportivo La Coruna and Real Madrid. United have now gone seven matches without a win across all competitions, a drought not seen since an eight-game stretch between November and December 2015. The contrast with the bench is stark too: Michael Carrick began 2026 with 7 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in his first 11 matches in charge. In his last 11, that record has collapsed to 2 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses.

Real Madrid, Mbappe and a 19-year-old

Real Madrid, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down: the club routed RB Leipzig 4-1 and has now scored 10 goals through its first three matches of this Champions League campaign, its best start since the 2014-15 season under Carlo Ancelotti. Kylian Mbappe scored and assisted in the same match for the first time in his Champions League career with Real Madrid, something that hadn't happened to him since November 2022 with PSG against Juventus. The Frenchman has now been involved in 99 goals in just 101 Champions League appearances (73 goals and 26 assists). There was another name to note too: Yan Diomande, at 19 years and 341 days, came off the bench and left with a goal and an assist, a feat previously achieved only by Erling Haaland, Desire Doue and Kingsley Coman. He's the youngest Real Madrid player to do it, breaking a record Guti had held since September 1999.

Kane keeps rolling, Liverpool bounces back, and Eze shines off the bench

In the 2-2 draw between Arsenal and Bayern Munich, Harry Kane once again left his mark: he scored in his tenth consecutive Champions League match, a feat previously managed only by Robert Lewandowski and Ruud van Nistelrooy, and he now sits just one behind Cristiano Ronaldo. So far this season with Bayern he has racked up 17 goal contributions in 11 matches (10 goals and 7 assists), trailing only Lamine Yamal (20) among players from Europe's top five leagues. His goal against Arsenal was also his 17th penalty scored in the competition, leaving him two shy of the record shared by Lewandowski and Cristiano (19) and one behind Messi (18). On the other side, Eberechi Eze came off the bench and scored in the 25th minute, the fastest goal by an Arsenal substitute since Thierry Henry did it in the 21st minute against Sparta Prague in October 2005. Liverpool, for its part, pulled off another one of its trademark comebacks. The Reds trailed Villarreal 0-2 before the half-hour mark (29th minute) and ended up winning 4-3. The stat stands out because every time Liverpool has fallen behind 0-2 before the 30th minute in a major European match at home, the club has gone on to win: it happened in April 1976 against Club Brugge, in October 1996 against Sion, and in April 2016 against Borussia Dortmund. Rio Ngumoha, just 18 years and 52 days old, was at the heart of the turnaround, becoming the third-youngest player to record two assists in a Champions League match, behind only Warren Zaire-Emery and Theo Walcott.

Barcelona, a night to forget on defense

The most eye-popping match statistically was PSG 4, Barcelona 2. The Catalan side faced 10 shots on target in the first half alone, the most it has conceded in a single half of La Liga or Champions League play since the 2010-11 season. In total, Barcelona gave up 15 shots on target, the highest number in any match for the club in the last 20 seasons, topping the previous high of 14 set during the 2-8 thrashing by Bayern Munich in 2020. The loss ended Barcelona's best unbeaten start to a season in club history, a run that had stretched to 11 matches, and the man who ended it was none other than its former manager, Luis Enrique.

There was, at least, a silver lining amid all those shots on target: Xavi Espart became the 15th different teenager to score for Barcelona in the Champions League, pushing the club past Ajax (14) for the most different teenage scorers in the competition's history. And Lamine Yamal remains in a league of his own: he has scored or assisted in 10 straight matches for Barcelona across all competitions, totaling 20 goal contributions in that span, the longest such streak by a Barcelona player since Messi's 12-match run in 2018. In fact, he's the only player in Europe's top five leagues with 10 or more goals and 10 or more assists this season across all competitions.

Finally, on the historical front, Aston Villa became the second-fastest club to reach 20 wins in the history of the European Cup/Champions League, needing just 30 matches, behind only Real Madrid (29). And in goal for Bayern, Manuel Neuer made his 163rd appearance in the competition, tying Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller for third on the all-time appearances list, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo (183) and Iker Casillas (177).