Champions League, Matchday 3: Big teams wobble, but Barca are back

The supersized Champions League resumed this week, with all 36 teams back in action over 48 frenetic hours. Below, theScore’s soccer editors reflect on Matchday 3 in Europe’s premier club competition.

Key takeaway from Matchday 3 📝

Anthony Lopopolo: What happened to Red Bull’s swashbuckling sides? RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg are each without a point after three matches. Salzburg haven’t even scored yet. Leipzig at least have an excuse, opening their campaign against Atletico Madrid, Juventus, and Liverpool. And while they dropped all of them, Leipzig played well enough in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds, controlling the tempo for large chunks of the game. Leipzig also had two goals disallowed for offside. But the project is over a decade old now. Leipzig have lost steam in Europe since reaching the semifinals in 2020. Salzburg have never made it past the round of 16. This is an inflection point for Red Bull. Jurgen Klopp, its new head of soccer operations, may have a real job on his hands.

Gianluca Nesci: The proverbial “big” teams actually have to work for this. Concern that more matches in the new group league phase would give the bigger, richer contenders more leeway to coast through to the next round was a fair critique, but it’s clear through three games that many of those sides can’t put things into cruise control. Paris Saint-Germain are 19th in the table after three forgettable performances. Bayern Munich have lost two straight and sit 23rd. After a bright start, Juventus was trucked at home by Stuttgart and tumbled down the standings. Atletico Madrid are in one of the elimination places. Teams will need roughly 11 points to get into the knockout playoffs, while 15 or 16 points could secure an automatic berth in the round of 16. Some of Europe’s most decorated clubs need to turn things around quickly to reach those benchmarks.

Which fairy-tale team do you most believe in? 🦄

Lopopolo: Sporting CP. They’re unbeaten after 12 matches to start the season and have one of Europe’s most reliable scorers in Viktor Gyokeres, who already has 13 goals across the Primeira Liga and Champions League. While Manchester City and Arsenal will surely test the Portuguese side in its next two Champions League fixtures, the rest of its schedule is winnable, with matches against Club Brugge, Leipzig, and Bologna. This team has scored in all but one of its last 21 matches in European competition, and with seven points in tow, Sporting can even afford a couple of slip-ups on the path to qualifying.

Nesci: Aston Villa. Despite this being their first appearance in Europe’s top-tier competition since 1983, nobody thought Villa would be a pushover going into the Champions League. But let’s be real: not even the most ardent supporters could have expected this level of success. Unai Emery, who arrived in Birmingham with the club mired in relegation trouble, has Villa sitting atop the 36-team Champions League table with a 100% record after beating Bologna on Tuesday. They haven’t conceded a goal in the tournament thus far and have a relatively friendly schedule the rest of the way. Their league form – Villa sit fourth in the Premier League – crystalizes what everyone on the continent is quickly learning: Aston Villa are for real.

This week’s crisis club 😬

Lopopolo: Paris Saint-Germain. Luis Enrique’s side could only convert one of its 26 attempts on goal in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven, leaving the club with just four points from three matches ahead of a challenging slate of games. PSG face Atletico, Bayern, and Manchester City and may have no choice but to accept a play-off spot when it’s all said and done. The problem is that they don’t have composure in front of goal. They have two goals for the 62 shots they’ve fired thus far. That’s the third-most any team has attempted in the Champions League and a conversion rate of a little over 3%.

Nesci: Atletico Madrid. Diego Simeone’s team, synonymous with solidity for so many years, is having an identity crisis. Atletico dropped their second straight Champions League match Wednesday, throwing away a lead and crumbling late in a 3-1 loss to Lille. That comes on the back of a 4-0 shellacking against Benfica. Once Europe’s most miserly defensive unit, playing against Atleti was like running headfirst into a brick wall. But that wall and the aura that came with it have crumbled as the club has tried to evolve and play a more ambitious attacking game. Atleti, without a clean sheet in nearly a month, occupy one of the automatic elimination places near the bottom of the Champions League table. It’s time to stick or twist.

Player of the week 🌟

Lopopolo: Vinicius Junior. Once Real Madrid got their comeback effort underway, the Brazilian took over, flying past defenders as he completed a hat-trick in the second half of their 5-2 win over Borussia Dortmund. His second goal was breathtaking. Vinicius collected the ball in Madrid’s half of the field before galloping up the pitch and bending a perfect shot past the goalkeeper. It was the kind of goal only a match-winner would score. And Vinicius has been exactly that. Like Karim Benzema before him, the 24-year-old always comes up clutch when Madrid are desperate for a reaction. But he didn’t just provide the breakthrough. He recovered the ball five times in the second half, showing the hunger to make something happen, even when he was dozens of yards away from the opposition third. Vinicius’ energy clearly rubbed off on his teammates.

Nesci: Raphinha. What a turnaround. Many Barcelona fans were longing for the club to sign Nico Williams this summer to relegate Raphinha to the bench – or have him shipped out entirely. Not anymore. The Brazilian is quickly becoming the poster child of Hansi Flick’s revitalized and reinvented team. He scored a sublime hat-trick in Wednesday’s 4-1 demolition of Bayern Munich, wearing the armband and leading his club to a cathartic win over an old foe. With four Champions League goals on the campaign, Raphinha has already surpassed his total from last season’s tournament. In all, he has nine tallies on the season, thriving in a nominal left-wing role that gives him more freedom to drift inside and attack the heart of the opposition backline.

Should Vini win Ballon d’Or on Monday? 🏆

Lopopolo: Absolutely. You could find players who scored more last season, but Vinicius excelled in virtually every attacking category, producing in big moments and electrifying fans with a season-high 37 successful take-ons in the Champions League last term. His two goals in last year’s quarterfinals against Bayern Munich helped propel Madrid to the final, where he also scored. Also, Los Blancos never lost a game in which Vinicius found the net last season. All told, he was the most valuable player on the team that won the Champions League and La Liga. Why shouldn’t he win the Ballon d’Or? That’s the more interesting question.

Nesci: He’s going to, and he’s fully deserving. But it’s a little disconcerting how much of a foregone conclusion this seems considering the body of work by his closest challenger. Rodri, inarguably the most important player on a Manchester City team that made history by winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title in 2023-24, followed up that continued success at club level by earning Player of the Tournament honors during Spain’s run to the Euro 2024 crown. Fair or not, Ballon d’Or voters have always placed outsize importance on international competitions when deciding who takes home the sport’s most coveted individual trophy. Vinicius’ Brazil flopped badly at the Copa America, while Rodri was critical to Spain’s Euro triumph. Are we sure this is so cut-and-dried?

Where we stand 👀

Here’s the complete league phase table after Matchday 3. Remember: The top eight teams advance directly to the last 16, and the sides that finish ninth to 24th head to the new knockout phase playoffs, two-legged ties that determine who joins the eight automatic qualifiers in the round of 16. The bottom 12 clubs are eliminated from the Champions League.